Fiber & cable fusion splicing, end to end
The complete professional workflow from opening the cable to closing the closure, using a six-motor core-alignment splicer. Follow it exactly and your average splice loss stays under 0.05 dB.
- 1
Prepare the workspace
Mount the splice tray and work shelter, power the splicer (TC-600: 300+ cycles per charge), set the splice/heat mode to match the fiber and sleeve.
- 2
Open the cable and fix it in the closure
Follow the closure manual for armor grounding and strength-member clamping. The cable must carry no torsion into the tray.
- 3
Clean and pass the fiber through the heat-shrink sleeve FIRST
The classic beginner mistake: sleeving after cleaving means re-cleaving. Slide the sleeve on before stripping.
- 4
Strip 3–4 cm, wipe with IPA, cleave
Cleave angle under 0.8° (TC-600 measures and rejects bad cleaves automatically). Never touch the cleaved end.
- 5
Splice
Place both fibers, close the wind cover, press START. Six-motor alignment gives ~6 s splice; evaluate the estimated loss on screen and re-splice if it exceeds your project spec.
- 6
Heat-shrink and test
Center the sleeve over the joint, heat 16 s, let it cool before moving. Then full-tray OTDR bidirectional test before the closure is sealed.
Field tips from TEKCN engineers
- Keep spare electrodes (2000–5000 arc life) and replace in matched pairs; arc calibration after replacement, not before the next failure.
- In wind over 15 m/s use a wind shelter — air movement destabilizes the arc and shows as "bubble" splices.