How to terminate a POF fiber optic cable in 25 seconds
Or you can say how to do a POF plastic optical fiber cable assembly? An order to terminate a glass optical fiber cable, great skills and specific and expensive tools are required. What do you need to terminate plastic optical fiber?
It's easy...
a cutting tool (such as scissors)
a 16 ~ 14 AWG or 1,29 ~ 1,63mm stripping tool
a 3mm hexagonal crimping tool
1.000 grit sandpaper
an optional stand (puck) to remove imperfections
How is plastic optical fiber terminated?
1st step: cut the cable Any cutting tool can be used (scissors...)
2nd step: strip the jacket
Remove the 2.2mm-diameter jacket from the 1mm-diameter optical fiber over a lenght of about 15mm. The strip can be made with any commercial tool. Just make sure you are using the proper gauge stripping diameter (16 ~ 14 AWG or 1,29 ~ 1,63mm)
3rd step: crimp the connector
Insert the plastic boot on the cable. Place the F-SMA fiber optic connector over the end of the stripped cable; the fiber should protrude about 2.5mm out of the connector's end. Crimp the connector on the cable's jacket.
4th step: polish the fiber end
Insert the connector into the polishing fixture (puck), ensuring that the stripped fiber protrudes from its bottom. Polish the termination using a 1000 grit sandpaper sheet until the connector is flush with the bottom surface of the puck.
5th step: visual test
Termination is finished. To check if it works you have just to check if there is a light coming out of the cable.