Difficult Fibre Coatings Removal & Fibre Window Stripping

11 Jan 2022

Standard thermo-mechanical stripping, solvent cleaning and arc fusion splicing technologies are now over 20 years old and were developed for basic acrylic coated 125μm SM fibre splicing.  As fibre technology continues to expand, there are production operations that are difficult or impossible to perform with standard production fibre processing tools.

A wide range of high performance fibre optic stripping tools for optical fibre coating removal are available: high strength thermal mechanical strippers, non-contact high strength fibre optic strippers and diameter adjustable thermal fibre stripper.  Fieer optic stripping technologies such as Burst™ and the Ring of Fire® are state-of-the-art non-contact, chemical free coating removal solutions, ideal for the end stripping and mid-span window stripping of optical fibre coatings such as acrylate, PVC, polyimide, carbon and metal coatings such as gold.  They result in a clean, stripped fibre with substantially higher strength compared to only mechanical stripping method.

In respect of polyimide stripping these tough coatings are difficult to remove without severely degrading the fibre’s mechanical integrity.  Other polyimide stripping technologies use mechanical blades or rapid thermal decomposition, which produces low tensile strength while leaving the fibre dirty.  A more commonly used method using strong acid/alkali chemistry, is hazardous and produces toxic waste.  With new technologies and techniques these can be avoided leaving the fibre integrity and more friendly to the environment.

LASER COMPONENTS has a wide range of fibre optic strippers with different technologies and techniques to match specific coating types removal.     

Further information https://www.lasercomponents.com/uk/fiber-optics/optical-fiber-processing/fiber-stripper/