Stripping and splicing polyimide-coated fibers

Douglas Duke; Yoshiharu Kanda; Kenyo Tobita; Ryozo Yamauchi

doi:10.1117/12.884940

17 May 2011 Stripping and splicing polyimide-coated fibers

Douglas Duke, Yoshiharu Kanda, Kenyo Tobita, Ryozo Yamauchi

Proceedings Volume 7753, 21st International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors; 77535V (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884940
Event: 21st International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS21), 2011, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract

Polyimide is often used as a coating material for optical fibers used in high temperature environments such as aerospace or oil and gas sensor applications. Unfortunately, polyimide coating is very difficult to strip by conventional mechanical stripping methods. The glass fiber is easily damaged if the stripping process is not extremely well controlled. Stripping the polyimide coating by heating with a flame or arc typically results in a significant reduction in fiber strength. Strength may be maintained by using hot acid stripping, however the use of the strong hot acid presents safety hazards and also requires controlled and safe waste disposal. Another issue with polyimide coating is variability of the coating diameter from various manufacturers or due to different polyimide coating processes. This not only complicates the polyimide stripping issue, but also presents problems with precise clamping and alignment during splicing, especially when it is necessary to splice with a short cleave length. In this paper, we present new polyimide coating stripping technology. The significant feature of this stripping technology is achievement of good strength while avoiding the use of hot acid or heating. We also developed a new specialty fiber fusion splicer that enables precise alignment and splicing regardless of the variability of polyimide coating diameter, even when clamping on the coating.

Citation Download Citation

Douglas Duke, Yoshiharu Kanda, Kenyo Tobita, and Ryozo Yamauchi "Stripping and splicing polyimide-coated fibers", Proc. SPIE 7753, 21st International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, 77535V (17 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884940

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KEYWORDS

Coating

Optical fibers

Fusion splicing

Specialty optical fibers

Electrodes

Cladding

Optical alignment

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