Opticle Fiber Stripper

Ribbon Fiber Coating Structure

The individual strands comprising a ribbon fiber are also usually coated with a dual acrylate layer, and the strands are bonded together by an acrylate polymer matrix. These relatively soft polymer materials facilitate the stripping process.

 Why Optical Fiber Stripping?

Fiber stripping is the first step in fiber preparation for fusion splicing.

1. High temperature in fusion splicing process will damage polymer coatings or even the heated portion of glass contacting the coating.
2. Fiber alignment accuracy. Fiber’s glass (core/cladding) part has much higher dimensional tolerance than the polymer coating part. Holding on bare fiber (glass) part when doing fiber alignment in the splicing process is far more accurate.
3. The polymer coating tends to curl which makes holding fiber and fiber alignment more difficult.

Side Effects

However, there is some drawback on stripped bare fiber.

1. The stripping process usually degrades the pristine glass surface which reduces the fiber’s mechanical strength and long term reliability.
2. Stripped bare glass fiber (or silica fiber) may incur more surface flaws which further reduces its strength.
3. The length of fusion splice protection sleeve. The protection sleeve much be as long as the fused stripped fiber. The length ranges from 5mm to 20mm. This presents some fiber management problems in splice trays and other fiber assembly housings.
4. Stripped fiber’s long term mechanical reliability. A fusion splice’s tensile strength is directly determined by the details of the stripping process. The ultimate tensile strength of as-drawn, coated, 125μm diameter fiber is about 57N, which is equivalent to about 5.5GPa or 800 kpsi (kpsi stands for kilopounds force per square inch) of tensile stress. Stripping can reduce this tensile strength by as much as or even more an order of magnitude.
5. Any coating residue left on the glass fiber’s surface can interact with the heated fiber during joint formation leading to significantly lower tensile strength and reduced long term reliability.