The ends of optical fibers must
frequently be prepared in fiber optics to achieve good mechanical and optical
quality. When fibers need to be spliced together or supplied with fiber
connectors. Although side polishing with Fiber Polishing Machine is
briefly covered in the final part, the polishing of fiber ends is the main
emphasis of this essay.
When is it necessary to polish
fibers?
In many real-world situations,
cleaving offers a high enough quality and is comparatively simple and rapid to
implement. However, there are some situations in which cleaving is
inappropriate. Here are some examples:
Getting a fiber surface that is
exactly perpendicular to the fiber axis may be crucial. Fibre cleaving results
aren't always accurate enough.
Preparing a fiber surface so that
the normal direction is exactly at a specific angle to the fiber axis is much
more challenging. Angle cleaving techniques do exist, although they often show
significant diversity in the cleave angle that is obtained.
Cleaving frequently results in
significant uneven structures close to the outside border, which can
occasionally be unsettling, even if it typically offers adequate surface
flatness within a fiber core region of restricted size. Specifically,
protrusions may prevent fibers from making proper contact in a fiber
connection, fusion splice, or mechanical splice. The Fiber Polisher is
of great use.
Additionally, some non-standard
fiber glasses and fibers with comparatively high cladding widths often do not
respond well to cleaving.
In this regard, polishing techniques used on fiber ends can yield superior outcomes. In certain situations, polishing could also be necessary. When preparing a fiber bundle such that every fiber end precisely matches a specific plane.
Unfortunately, basic cleaving generally takes less time than polishing with a Fiber Polishing Machine. To avoid potentially much more time-consuming defect searches later on, the time spent carefully polishing and inspecting the findings may be well worth the investment. It is best to reduce the possibility that certain fiber connections will have an excessively high insertion loss or a low return loss if the functionality of an optical fiber communications system depends on several components. This also holds for intricate fiber laser or amplifier configurations.
Next: Understanding Fiber Amplifier: The Key to Enhancing Optical Communication Systems