Why Dirt is the Enemy
The Three Elements of Cleaning During Fiber Optic Installations
Your choice is simple: you can clean properly when you install a fiber optic system, or you can go back (again and again) and clean the network once the customer complains. There are three elements to this problem:
- You must clean every connector, every time you touch it, even when the connector is brand-new, out of the bag and protected by a protective cap.
- You must inspect after every cleaning. If you can't see the contamination, you won't know if the connector is clean.
- You must use "wet-dry" cleaning. This is the industry's best practice for cleaning connectors.
Clean AND Inspect Every Time You Mate Connectors
Cleaning must be a priority for all personnel who work on an optical network. One major manufacturer reported anecdotally that more than 50% of their OEM warranty repairs were due to nothing more than dirt on the connectors. Clean the connectors and the system worked fine.
What exactly does the contamination due? Well, many problems can arise.
The most common problem is "Insertion Loss" when contamination blocks the optical signal from passing from one connector through the end-face into the next connector. If the light doesn't get past the dirt, the signal is completely lost.
An equally problematic condition is called "Back Reflection." This occurs when the two connectors are separated by a slight gap, perhaps caused by a particle of dust. When this happens, the end-face reflects some portion of the signal back towards the originating laser. Both of these problems can be prevented with proper cleaning.
A more expensive problem occurs when the contamination on a connector is in the path of a high-power laser. Powerful lasers can actually fuse the contamination into the end-face, essentially destroying the connector, which will need to be replaced.
Additionally, contamination during splicing will result in a physically weak splice, which will need to be removed and re-spliced. These inferior splices may also have a higher signal loss, so even if the physical strength is not a problem the performance of the network may be degraded.
Dust Caps Don't Keep End-Faces Clean, Even Straight Out of the Bag
Realistically, "dust caps" should be called "protective caps" for that is the real purpose they serve. They don't do a good job keeping the connectors clean.
Research conducted by the Sticklers™ team suggests that, right out of the bag, at least one connector in every three is sufficiently contaminated to degrade network performance. Therefore, the best practice is to always assume the worst and always clean every connector, every time you mate it, test it or reconfigure it.
Inspection Scopes Need to Be in Everybody's Tool Bag
Cleaning and inspection go together. Nobody should be installing or sustaining a fiber optic network without the proper cleaning tools AND the proper inspection tools. If a tech cannot inspect the condition of the end-faces, he won't be able to predict how well the network will perform.
MicroCare offers a whole family of Sticklers™ cleaners which make it easy and fast to take proper care of your connectors. So do the right thing -- and avoid the customer complaints -- and properly clean when you install, troubleshoot or upgrade any fiber optic system.
"Wet-Dry" Cleaning Is the Industry's Best Practice
Sticklers™ Outdoor CleanWipes™ and the Sticklers™ Benchtop CleanWipes™, when combined with the Sticklers™ Fiber Optic Splice and Connector Cleaner, deliver the simplest, fastest and most user-friendly method to implement "wet-dry" cleaning.
During the development of the IPC-8497-1 fiber optic standard, tests showed that cleaning with a dry wipe builds a triboelectric static charge on the connector end-face. These tiny end-faces can act like a magnet (microscopically speaking, of course) that attracts airborne particulates precisely to the center of the fiber core. These particulates re-contaminate the end-face and can destroy the performance of a network.
This effect can be reduced and even eliminated by wetting the wipe with a static-dissipative cleaning fluid and wiping the end-face from wet to dry area of the wipe. Which is why the Sticklers™ products have been engineered specifically to dissipate static and how they make "wet-dry" cleaning fast and easy.
These tools together offer technicians the most simple and consistent method to eliminate the electrostatic build-up on connector end-faces and deliver fast, reliable, "wet-dry" cleaning of fiber optic end-faces.
Updated 1/12/2010