Laser light splicing of optical fibers with laser light outside of the peak absorption band of the optical fibers, for example splicing of silica optical fibers at wavelengths smaller than about 9 μm. In some variants, the product of the absorption coefficient at ambient temperature of the optical fibers at the wavelength of the laser light with the power of the laser light is smaller than the product of the peak absorption coefficient at ambient temperature in the absorption band by the power required to splice the optical fibers with light at the peak absorption.

A jig for a fusion splicer mountable on a heater of the fusion splicer includes: a plate part configured to face a heating part of the heater; a first retainer, configured to face a first clamp of the fusion splicer that is disposed outside of the heating part along a longitudinal direction of an object to be heated, and further configured to retain a first member extending from a first end of the object along the longitudinal direction; and a second retainer, configured to face a second clamp disposed on a side of the heating part opposite to the first clamp along the longitudinal direction, and further configured to retain a second member extending from a second end of the object along the longitudinal direction.

A housing case for a fusion splicer is a housing case for housing the fusion splicer for an optical fiber. The housing case for a fusion splicer includes a case main body including a first side wall, and a lid body attached to the case main body to be openable and closable. The lid body includes a second side wall configured to match the first side wall when closed. At least one of the first side wall and the second side wall includes an insertion portion configured for a cable extending from the inside of the housing case to the outside thereof to be inserted through the insertion portion in a state where the lid body is closed with respect to the case main body.

An example single-station splicing unit is provided that includes a housing, an alignment element, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The housing includes an interior space and at least one cover configured to be interlocked with the housing to enclose the interior space. The alignment element is disposed within the interior space of the housing. The first electrode is disposed on one side of the housing, and the second electrode is disposed in the housing on an opposing side from the first electrode and in a facing relationship with the first electrode. The housing is configured to receive fibers in an opposing and abutting relationship to splice the fibers, and the housing remains secured to the fibers after splicing.

The present disclosure relates generally to a method for processing an optical fiber. The coating is stripped from the cladding of the optical fiber using a stripping process. Direct heat is applied to the first side of the optical fiber and is not applied to the second side of the optical fiber. Then, the optical fiber is inserted into a fiber alignment structure with the second side of the optical fiber engaging a fiber alignment feature of the alignment structure. The first side of the optical fiber does not engage the fiber alignment feature.

A fusion splicing device includes a fusion splicing unit, a fusion splicing control unit, an imaging unit, and a notification unit. The fusion splicing unit fusion-splices optical fibers by discharge between a pair of electrode rods. The fusion splicing control unit controls an operation of the fusion splicing unit and has an operation mode for performing a discharge test. The imaging unit generates image data of a fusion spliced portion of the optical fibers. The notification unit notifies various kinds of information. The discharge test is to fusion-splice the optical fibers, to check a fusion-spliced state of the optical fibers on the basis of the image data, and to adjust a fusion splicing condition to be close to an optimum condition. When a predetermined start condition is satisfied, the fusion splicing control unit causes the notification unit to notify information for requesting execution of the discharge test.

An optical-fiber ribbon includes optical fibers (e.g., reduced-diameter optical fibers) arranged in parallel within optical-fiber units, wherein at least one adjacent pair of optical-fiber units is separated by a longitudinal adhesive-free spacing for a portion of the optical-fiber ribbon's length. Typically, each adjacent pair of optical-fiber units is separated by an adhesive-free spacing for a respective portion of the optical-fiber assembly's longitudinal length. In an exemplary embodiment, longitudinal adhesive-free spacings effectively increase the width of an optical-fiber ribbon formed of reduced-diameter optical fibers so that the optical-fiber ribbon achieves a more conventional optical-fiber ribbon width, thereby facilitating mass-fusion splicing using standard splicing equipment.

A method of forming a splice to join two optical fibres comprises: providing two optical fibres, at least one of which is a hollow core optical fibre; aligning an end of one of the optical fibres with an end of the other optical fibre such that longitudinal axes of the two optical fibres are substantially along a same line and the ends of the optical fibres are spaced apart; performing a prefusion stage (S1) comprising: applying an electric arc proximate the ends of the optical fibres in order to soften the material of the ends; moving the ends of the optical fibres together to make contact and then exceed the contact by an overlap distance to form a fused portion in which the ends are fused together; and performing at least one pushing stage (S2), each pushing stage comprising: implementing a cooling period during which no electrical arc is applied; at the end of the cooling period, applying an electrical arc to the fused portion to soften the material of the fused ends; and pushing the fused ends of the optical fibres further together.

A reinforcement device for an optical fiber fusion-spliced portion, which reinforces a fusion-spliced portion of optical fibers by heating and shrinking a reinforcement sleeve covering the fusion spliced portion, includes a heater configured to heat the reinforcement sleeve. The heater includes a sleeve housing portion capable of housing the reinforcement sleeve. The sleeve housing portion includes a first wall portion extending in a longitudinal direction of the sleeve housing portion and a second wall portion facing the first wall portion. The first wall portion and the second wall portion are configured such that a distance therebetween increases from a bottom portion side of the sleeve housing portion toward a top portion side of the sleeve housing portion in a cross-section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. At least one bent portion is formed to at least one of the first wall portion and the second wall portion in the cross-section.

A device for realizing the splicing of an array fiber and a large-size quartz end cap comprises a carbon dioxide laser, a light splitter, a light beam shaper, a high reflectivity mirror, an image detection module, an array fiber and a carrier thereof, a large-size quartz end cap and a carrier thereof, a stepping motor, a thermodetector, and a computer; a laser beam emitted by the carbon dioxide laser is divided into two light beams through a light splitter, after the two light beams respectively pass through the beam shaper and the high reflectivity mirror, two strip-shaped light spots with uniform power density are integrally formed to heat a splicing face of the large-size quartz end cap, a uniform temperature field of a target splicing area is achieved through indirect heating and heat conduction.