Various phases of fiber optic cleaning process

Fiber optic cables require routine inspection and cleaning. This task needs to be performed in order to ensure that they meet the higher standards of performance. While few of the cables only needs basic tools for inspection and cleaning, there are other sorts of cables that require special type of equipment for the same.

There are four phases of the cleaning process:

1st Phase: Cleaning using fiber optic products

There are different types of fiber optic cleaning products that are available for the job, which if used properly, ensure that cables and other connecting devices are free from contaminations like dust particles, oil, spotting and damages like scratches, chips, or anything else for that matter, which frequently deposits on the cable’s surface due to its regular use. Here are few of the popular products used for cleaning:

Wipes: Both dry and wet wipes are used to loosen the dust particles, to remove the oil residuals and evaporative water spotting. There are some precautions (like follow single circular and straight wiping motion instead of back and forth wiping) that must be taken during cleaning with wipes in order to protect the cable surface from scratches, pitting and chips.

Alcohol: Isopropyl alcohol is commonly used to dissolve oil deposits and loosen dirt contaminations. Some amount of this cleaning solvent is applied on wipes through sprays and ultrasonic cleaning.

Air: Air cleaning involves the use of compressed air canes with narrow nozzle extension to blow away the deposited contaminations. Air cleaning method is sometimes used after drying when lint-fibers have any problem.

Ultrasonic: It is the commonly used cleaning method in manufacturing environments. This type of fiber optic cleaning approach uses laser device for removing lint fibers, dirt, and oil contaminations, without touching fibers or connectors.

2nd Phase: Drying

In this phase, open air dry, wipes and pressurized air dry techniques are implemented, as the final operation in the cleaning process, to dry the component surface.

3rd Phase: Inspection

Conducting fiber optic inspection is vital to find and locate the areas of faults on the cable surface. To do this task, various inspection tools such as hand scopes, video scopes, and microscopes are used before and after cleaning.

Before getting started with the cleaning task, it is important to carry out inspection before, so that you can employ appropriate cleaning and troubleshooting procedures.

4th Phase: Re-polishing

Re-polishing is done when chips, scratches, or burns are detected, due to mishandling or inadequate cleaning motions, on the end-face of the fiber connector. Re-polishing is most often required in areas where mating and de-mating of connecting devices is frequent.