News Release from: Fibreoptic Industry Association
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 19 January 2004
New measures for fusion splice performance
The FIA has started to develop a new technical support document to address the increasing problem of overspecification of splice losses.
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The FIA, committed to raising standards throughout the fibre optic industry, has started to develop a new technical support document to address the increasing problem of overspecification of splice losses. To be launched at a seminar in May 2004, the TSD will establish, in a commercially neutral manner, the most appropriate way in which to specify and verify the performance of optical fibre fusion splices; it will also define reasonable and commercially acceptable limits for the splices under specific conditions. Fusion splicing is a long-established and well proven approach for the provision of low loss, low return loss and environmentally stable connections both internal and external to buildings.
Over the years, the capability of fusion splicing equipment has improved substantially, as has the control over the tolerances of optical fibres themselves, resulting in a steady reduction in achievable splice loss to the point where further significant performance improvements can no longer be made without direct influence over the optical fibres.
Unfortunately, unrealistic demands for splice loss performance, flawed in terms of what is specified and/or how it is specified, are often included in specifications.
The impact of specifying overly ambitious or incorrectly defined splice loss requirements must concern both the client and the installer.
The installer may be faced with a considerable degree of rework that can have dramatic commercial consequences, while the client may be faced with considerable project delays, the resolution of which will add further costs.
Overspecification can arise from a number of causes.
Clients may be influenced by the claims of fusion splicing equipment manufacturers, who rightly provide favourable, best case specifications for their machines; no account may be taken of the tolerances of the optical fibres that are seen in the field or clients fail to recognise the range of, and differences between, optical fibres that may be encountered and their influence on the performance of splices made between them.
IEC60793-2-50 specifies five different single-mode optical fibres between which fusion splicing will result in modified performance when compared with splicing between single-mode optical fibres of the same type.
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