Splicers and Splicing Accessories

The production-ready Taper Manufacturing Station (TMS) with optional cleaving package is designed for use in the manufacturing of optical fiber tapers, bundles and couplers.

The TMS features 3SAE's patent pending Thermally Stabilized Plasma™ and is the industry's only dedicated fiber tapering system that provides easy fiber access, unparalleled heating source control, stiction-free pulling results in the highest quality, lowest loss and best repeatability in the industry.

The TMS operates in partial vacuum which is advantageous in producing adiabatic fiber tapers. Operating 3SAE's patent pending Thermally Stabilized Plasma™ in partial vacuum allows the width of the plasma field to expand up to 10x along the axis of the fiber. Heat sources with a wider heat profile are better for tapering and bundling of fibers because the pull distance per unit time is distributed over the molten region in accordance with the profile. Narrow profiles create modulations and stress concentrations that induce losses. Our wider plasma field flattens and reduces the frequency of modulations resulting in losses of less than 1% in tapers.

An additional benefit of operating in partial vacuum is oxidation of the electrodes is minimized during the tapering process, resulting in virtually debris free tapers. Our new blunt electrode design increases life expectancy by > 10x while increasing throughput power capabilities for high power laser systems. High power testing confirms that TMS does not contaminate the glass surface, eliminating the need for etching and reducing the cost of production and rework.

The TMS features three customizable tapering modes, single direction tapering, bi-directional tapering and table based tapering. Single direction tapering automatically calculates linear taper ratio based on the cross sectional diameter over length and is well suited for tapering fibers with small taper ratios (< 50%).

In bi-directional tapering, the left and right stages are pulling outward at the same time while the Ring of Fire® (ROF) sweeps along the length to create an exponential taper. This allows for unlimited taper ratios with very low insertion loss.

Table based tapering method allows the flexibility of a syntax based software program to create a custom taper program while using a simplified Lab VIEW based GUI. Alternately, programs such as "MATLAB" or Microsoft Excel can be utilized to develop the tapering program.

Features

• Utilizes 3SAE's patent pending Thermally Stabilized Plasma™ in partial vacuum, resulting in the highest quality, lowest loss and best repeatability in the industry
• Three customizable tapering modes, single direction tapering, bi-directional tapering and table based tapering
• Ultra low contamination for high power applications
• New blunt electrode design increases life expectancy by > 10x