Monday 6 May 2013

Why it is important to clean fiber cables?

As we know fiber cables are the thin strings of glass or plastic that use light signals to transfer data from one location to another. In actual, light travels faster than electrical current. That is why fiber cables are the high used guided media used in communication networks. Fiber cables are easy susceptible to dirt, oil frequently from human hands, and other contaminations. These deposits have large effect on the rate of transferring light signals, the optical fibers are known for.

If there some hindrances materials (discussed above) present in the fiber optics connectors, light beams could not carry data signals smoothly. Therefore the path from where the light signals will pass through should be clean for better performance.

Now one may ask which part of the connectors needs cleaning. The answer is: connectors’’ ferrule. A ferrule is a ceramic, plastic or stainless steel part which gives fiber cable durability, mechanical strength and prevents it from contamination. These cylindrical shaped parts (ferrule) get contaminated from stain, dust, and debris due to continuous plugging and unplugging. As we discussed before, deposits on the ferrule will block the light track and therefore, seriously reduce the fiber cable performance.

So, it is important to clean every fiber connector prior to mating. Cleaning of fiber optic connectors involves the use of various components discussed below:

Dry cleaning method of cleaning fiber cables involves the use of cartridge, dry wipes and pocket style cleaners. Tools: Cartridge Cleaning Tools: OPTIPOP and CLETOP Pocket Style Cleaning Tools: CARDCLEANER

Reel based fiber optic cleaners are easy to use and reliable. To clean optical fiber connectors, they use 2 micrometer weaved soft cloth known as polyester cloth. On the other hand, CLETOP stick are specially designed cleaning devices come in come in 2.5mm and 1.25mm versions and are used to clean connectors joining bulkhead adapters, sleeves, and receptacles.

To carry out the task of cleaning these sticks are inserted into receptacles or bulkheads in order to make the stick contact the connector end face. Then rotate the stick and pull it back. But you cannot use the stick again for next cleaning. Another method of fiber optic cleaning involves the use of canned air duster. These air dusters are an ideal way to blow the lost dust particles from the end-face of the fiber cable connector.

Apart from variety of cleaning devices, there are numerous fiber optic testing kits available that make the task of fiber cable inspection and testing simple. For Further details just Contact Us .

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