3SAE Photon Kinetics FK11

The most revolutionary aspect of the Photon Kinetics FK11 ultrasonic fiber cleaver is the ultrasonic cleaving action.  The FK11 features a precision diamond blade attached to a resonant acoustic-stepped horn. An electronic circuit starts and maintains the ultrasonic horn resonance for the duration of the cleave. It is then automatically terminated to preserve battery life.

The ultrasonically vibrating blade moves slowly towards the tensioned fiber on stictionless damped bearings. Cleaving takes place without the compressive stresses and blade intrusion into the fiber that is typical of conventional cleavers. This revolutionary cleaving technique produces superb planar ends of mirror quality with no hackle.

Place the fiber holder with a stripped and cleaned fiber in the fiber holder adapter.  The FK11 holds the fiber using a specially designed low-torsion clamp. Apply a constant tension to the fiber by lowering the tension lever. Next, initiate cleaving by pushing the blade release lever downwards. The open design allows cleaving to take place as close to the coating as may be required.

The FK11 fiber cleaver provides trouble-free cleaving over many thousands of cleaves. This design does not require constant adjustment to stay “in tune”. When the used blade is worn, the operator easily adjusts the blade to bring a new part of the cutting edge into use.