RELIABLE STRIPPING FOR HIGH QUALITY OPTICAL FIBER LINKS When assembling optical cables to connectors, the cable surface must remain clean at each stage of the process. During connector assembly, the glue must adhere to the entire surface to assure an effective retention of the connector-cable couple. Stripping plays a key role in the assembly process of connectors. This is particularly true for manual and automatic stripping of buffer and jacket, which must be reliable. As far as the buffer is concerned, stripping low- density extruded PTFE is a delicate operation because it can lead to the formation of filaments. Stripping silicone is also a key issue because the operation can bring dust particles to the cable surface. To avoid this problem, choose extruded ETFE as the buffer material to provide very clean cut and cable surfaces. ETFE material is chosen for the external jacket for the same reason.
fiber must be fully fixed to the connector to absorb severe constraints such as temperature changes and vibrations. To secure the area of connection, the process method begins by choosing a cable with very low shrinkage. The minimum shrinkage or elongation value defined in the ARINC 802 standard is 15 mm. But for harsh environments, some studies have shown that having a value down to 0.5 mm for a sample of 3.5 m length will be much more efficient. Limiting shrinkage/elongation also avoids the cost and the time-consuming process of thermal pre-conditioning, which benefits industrial manufacturing.
Example of 4-way fiber optic cable made by Axon’. Axon’ optical cables can be used without any pre-processing, whereas some competitor optical fiber cables need a thermal cycling of a few days before using.
Axon’ optical fiber cables terminated with Axon’ micro-D based optical connectors.
MECHANICAL RESISTANCE During the integration and routing phases in the equipment, the cables can be subjected to numerous constraints such as crushing, bending, torsion, shock, or kink. Beyond the installation recommendations, it is therefore very important to preserve not only the mechanical integrity (resistance of the structure) but also the optical
WHY A CABLE WITH LOW SHRINKAGE IS IMPORTANT The connection area between the connector and the fiber optic cable is a sensitive area, which if not made reliable, can cause degradation of the optical attenuation and breakage of the fiber. The optical
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