17 September 20023SAE Technologies, Inc. and Nyfors Teknologi, AB , Stockholm, Sweden have announced at NFOEC, Dallas, what they describe as "the industry's first automated fibre preparation unit".
The AutoPrep will automatically strip, clean and cleave fibre in nine seconds. At the core of the AutoPrep unit is the patented new burst stripping technology.
Burst stripping is a process for stripping and cleaning polymer coatings from an optical fiber. By directing a single high velocity burst of super heated air directly at the fiber's coating, it is instantly vaporised and stripped while being cleaned without damage.
Burst technology causes no appreciable loss in fiber strength, claim the partners. Testing has shown that thousands of consecutive burst strips yield 99.9% at pristine fibre strength (approximately 750kpsi). The AutoPrep unit comes in a small bench top design and is able to accommodate all different fibre types and diameters (80 to 900µm coatings).