Introducing Liquid Clamp Technology
3SAE Technologies introduced the Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF, a tension based LDF cleaving technology specifically designed for cleaving fibers from 125 to 1000um in diameter. The Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF utilizes a novel, patent pending, liquid metal to secure the scrap portion of the cleaved fiber. Liquid clamp cleaving technology revolutionizes LD fiber cleaving by ensuring that fibers are clamped in a purely torque free manner, thereby minimizing fiber cleave angles. As a result the Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF produces low angle cleaves with industry leading consistency.
The Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF design also ensures hassle free transition between fiber diameters and external cladding shapes without the need for exchanging fiber clamps. The universal clamping approach eliminates the necessity of purchasing additional fiber holding block sets to handle multiple discreet ranges of fiber diameters within the complete operating range of the cleaver. The LCD user interface provides continuous status updates as well as quick access to up to ten customizable cleave programs.
Background
Nufern supplied 3SAE Technologies with fiber samples of five LMA, PLMA and MM Large Diameter, LD fibers measuring 400um and up. The following LD fibers were supplied for evaluation on 3SAE Technologies Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF:
| Fiber | Description |
| LMA-GDF-20/400 | Large Mode Area (LMA), Passive- Round Cladding |
| LMA-YDF-20/400 | Large Mode Area (LMA), Active – Octagonal Cladding |
| PLMA-GDF-20/400 | Polarization Maintaining (PM), Large Mode Area (LMA), Passive- Round Cladding |
| PLMA-YDF-20/400 | Polarization Maintaining (PM), Large Mode Area Round (LMA), Active- Round Cladding |
| MM-GDF-400/480 | Multimode (MM), Passive- Round Cladding |
Of the above samples, four LD fibers have a round cladding structure and the remaining LD fiber has an octagonal cladding structure. The information in this document is a summary of cleave angle results obtained on the supplied fibers
Performance Data
The following chart displays the Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF results for, 400um and up round and octagonal fibers. Twenty consecutive cleaves were performed on each of the five fiber samples. The cleave angles were measured and recorded for each cleave using a Nyfors CleaveMeter LDF interferometer.
The following table summarizes the cleave results of the above chart.
Cleaving Results Summary
| Fiber: |
LMA-GDF-20/400 |
LMA-YDF-20/400 |
PLMA-GDF-20/400 |
PLMA-YDF-20/400 |
MM-S400/480-22FA |
| Average: |
0.18 |
0.18 |
0.19 |
0.18 |
0.16 |
| StDev: |
0.05 |
0.05 |
0.05 |
0.06 |
0.04 |
Fiber Cleave Images
There are three cleaves from each LD Fiber type which were recorded during the Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF evaluation and are representative of the recorded data.
Conclusion
The 3SAE Technologies Liquid Clamp Cleaver LDF, provides low angle, LD fiber cleave angles with industry leading consistency. The performance of the LCC is consistent across large diameter fibers of various internal structures including Large Mode Area, Polarization Maintaining, Multimode and even octagonal shaped LD fibers.
