Handler gets fibres ready for QA testing

A new automated fibre handler enables optical fibre manufacturers to reduce production costs by automating time-consuming optical fibre stripping, cleaning, cleaving and temporary coupling operations.

NetTest reckons its 1200 automated fibre handler is the first comprehensive fibre preparation solution that enables optical fibre manufacturers to significantly reduce production costs by automating the time-consuming optical fibre stripping, cleaning, cleaving and temporary coupling activities that currently bottleneck critical final QA tests.

"We developed the 1200 automated fibre handler to provide fibre manufacturers with the means to significantly increase the level of automation in their final testing processes.

The 1200 will not only help them to immediately reduce their cost of measurements and compete more effectively in today's highly competitive fibre market, but it will also position them to handle substantially higher demand for their products in the future with their current workforce", said Warren Hill, vice president and general manager, NetTest.

The 1200 automated fibre handler combines factory-proven NetTest fibre preparation and temporary alignment technologies with commercial automation components in a compact, self-contained package.

Automation of technologies, such as the industry standard FK11 ultrasonic cleaver and the 1100 single fibre aligner, in a controlled environment maximises the performance of these components and produces the level of 24/7 reliability that is essential for effective test automation.

When routine maintenance is required, the 1200's modular design at both the component and overall system levels minimises both maintenance expense and the cost of production downtime.

In addition to performance and reliability, the 1200's comprehensive yet modular design provides fibre manufacturers with unparalleled deployment flexibility.

Manufacturers can gradually implement fibre handling automation capability as required, station-by-station, and they are provided with a variety of fibre interfacing options.

These include manual deployment where fibre ends are introduced to the 1200 by hand, semi-automated operation where manually loaded fibre spools are mechanically shuttled into place, and full test automation where fibre spools are delivered to the 1200 without any operator intervention.

The implementation and deployment scalability of the 1200 Automated Fibre Handler gives capital-constrained fibre manufacturers the incremental automation capability they need now to reduce costs and compete effectively, as well as the ability to grow their production more efficiently in the future.

The 1200 automated fibre handler will be showcased at the OFC Conference next week in Anaheim, CA, along with NetTest's 8000 OTDR and its new signature analysis software, the first commercially available OTDR software package to perform mode field diameter prediction and spectral attenuation modelling.

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