Fiber Optic Cable Splicing Guide

Preparation decides the splice

A good splice starts before any joining: strip the cable carefully, clean the fibers, and cleave them to a flat end-face. Contamination and poor cleaves cause most bad splices, and both are preventable with discipline and clean tools. Preparation deserves more time than the joining itself.

Set up the work area for the splice, not around it. Splicing in wind, dust or poor light without shelter produces splices that test badly and age worse.

Joining and protecting the joint

Fibers are joined by fusion, which melts the ends together, or by mechanical means, which aligns them in a fixture. Fusion suits permanent joints in the outside plant; mechanical joining suits quick repairs and temporary work. Either way, the finished joint must be protected immediately: a bare splice is fragile, and protection — a sleeve, a tray, a closure — is part of the splice, not an afterthought.

Place the protected splice in its tray or closure with its bend managed and its label recorded. A splice without a record is a future fault-finding problem.

Testing and recording every splice

• Test each splice as it is made, while rework is still cheap.
• Record the splice location, the fibers joined, and the test result.
• Protect the splice before moving to the next one.
• Label the tray and closure positions to match the record.
• Hand the splice record over with the route documentation.