Page 25 - EngineerIT February 2022 UPDATED

FIBRE TECHNOLOGY

‘PAS’ intelligently recognises the
core of the fibre. The splicer detects the
refraction of light caused at the core-
cladding interface. Images are taken in
two orthogonal planes so that the core
can be located precisely. The unit uses six
high precision stepping motors to align the
fibre on the X-axis and Y-axis. The camera
focus point on the fibre is also adjusted.
PAS information is also used to determine
the fibre type, i.e. SM, MM, DS, NZ or BIF.
When splicing, in just microseconds,
the splicer reads the cleave angle at the
edges of the fibre, checks for foreign
anomalies like dust or moisture and does
a cleaning arc to remove any. The final process is much quicker and more precise nowadays. Fujikura’s latest technology, ‘Smart
splice arc is at DC 8 000 volts across two Management’, includes ‘Active Fusion Control Technology’ (AFC).
electrodes and is carefully controlled by AFC features true core alignment via advanced image processing, which is an advanced
a very sophisticated propriety algorithm AI technology to enhance splice quality under all conditions. AFC adjusts the splice algorithm
which sets the arc frequency, arc power according to environmental variables like the cleave angle, dust, temperature, humidity,
and duration. Stepping motors move the etc. For instance, if two fibres are spliced together without being AFC activated, and one (or
fibre in whilst the unit arcs to achieve a both) has a bad cleave angle, the resultant joint would have a high loss, requiring it to be
perfect joint. re-spliced. This is a major time-waster in the field. Modern Fujikura splicers featuring AFC
Splicing machine technology is technology would, in such a case, effortlessly adjust the splice algorithm to produce a splice
constantly advancing and the splicing with an acceptable splice loss, thus saving much time in the field. n
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