Keiji Osaka

Consideration on the handling of flexible, brittle and continuous member in fusion splicing robot for optical fiber ribbons

This paper presents the configuration and performance of the fusion splicing robot which splices optical fiber ribbons (flexible, brittle and continuous member) automatically. The handling strategy and structure for the optical fiber ribbons were proposed. It provided significant improvement of productivity and splicing quality. Splicing time was 3 minutes which was one third of the conventional way. The failure strength of the spliced points was 30% stronger than that of the conventional way.

Low-loss mass-fusion splicing technique for twelve-fiber ribbon

An economical splicing technique is very important when considering the installation of an optical fiber subscriber loop. The mass-fusion splicing technique is one of the most suitable solutions to this problem. However, a mechanical splicing technique has been adopted for mass splicing.1 Some results of mass-fusion splicing have been reported earlier.2

High-strength splicing with fabrication of a thin film

Arc fusion splicing with high strength is important not only for manufacturing ultralong cables but also for field splicing with high reliability, such as for submarine cables. The main causes of loss of fiber strength during the splicing process are believed to be mechanical removal of the fiber coating layer and direct contact with the fiber chucking mechanism of the splicer. Some results of attempts to maintain high-strength splicing have already been reported. However, these methods and equipment were not easy to use because of a special splicer1 or fiber etching with fluoride acid.2