Inspection and cleaning methods for fiber optic connectors

This paper summarizes the typical on-site cleaning and inspection of fiber optic connectors. The cleaning and inspection of the fiber optic connectors are carried out together. In essence, fiber optic connectors should be fitted before: 1. Check the two tips, and if you're good, go to 5. 2. Clean as needed. 3. Check the nib. If It's good, go to 54. Back to 2. 5. Fits the connector. There are many details that vary within this cycle. Usually, dry cleaning is the default method. If dirt persists, use a wet (wet rather than soaked) solvent cleaner, then dry clean to remove the residue.

It's normal to try a few times. All employees who use fiber-optic connectors need time, training and access to proper cleaning and inspection equipment. Inadequate cleaning and inspection are major causes of problems that can easily be avoided. Why clean and check often? • Transmission performance may be affected by very small dust particles or contamination. • wear particles appear each time a pair of connectors is separated. • The mere touch of a finger on an optical fibre head can cause serious pollution. • Chemical contamination can occur even on new, covered suckers. • Your Organization may need a visual inspection record. • Your Client may need a visual inspection record. • Dirty or damaged connectors may damage other connectors. • Dirt or pollutants can spread from the dirty tip to other tips, causing more problems. • once employees use a good microscope, they discover all this on their own. The quality of the end face of the connector and the performance of the system are dirty, and the damaged or abnormal end face of the connector will seriously affect the performance of the optical fiber transmission. Common effects are: • Increased Link loss, which can lead to immediate data failure, or loss of optical margin, which can lead to later failure. • Optical Reflection (ORL/return loss) becomes worse, resulting in immediate or intermittent transmission errors, or loss of optical allowance. For example, dirt specs in PC polished connectors can actually increase unwanted light reflection by about 1,000 times, even if the loss factor is only a fraction of a decibel more than expected. • In very high-power systems (for example, above + 18 DBM) , dust or other poor optical connector performance may cause local heating, this results in the complete failure of the optical fiber at the end of the connector after a period of time. • Dirt may be chemically active and therefore further degraded over time. • If there is dirt in a paired connection, it will move over time, later causing a system failure. • Especially for plastic MPO connectors, if the dust is harder than the connector core (the plastic/MPO core is likely to be dust) , the dust may be embedded in the mating ends, deforming the end faces of both connectors, the result is a permanent misalignment of the two fiber cores. Then both connectors need to be replaced. There are a variety of common types of on-site cleaning equipment: wet and dry cleaners. The argument can be pulled back and forth for each advantage, so here are a few factors: • Wet systems can cause problems in the air with carry-on luggage, and they can be contaminated with air pollution, and may dry out. It is usually recommended to use them when dry cleaning does not remove dirt. Enthusiasts claim that wet cleaning reduces the build-up of static electricity and thus avoids attracting dust particles. • Dry systems have been the default cleaning method and have been popular since the introduction of fibre optics.