[AusNOG] Why you should clean fibre..

[Rose, Daniel]

Hi All,

From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Sam Silvester
Sent: Thursday, 22 September 2016 6:44 AM
To: ausnog at ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at ausnog.net>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Why you should clean fibre..

Hi Kim & list,

I used to doubt this also, so once I got a scope (highly recommend a USB one so you aren't ever in the position of looking down a fibre with your (remaining) eye btw) I started having a look - and yes, you can't assume they are clean. It varied from manufacturer to manufacturer but nobody had 100% useable out of the bag.

This is why the advice is 'inspect first, then clean'. If you aren't inspecting the fibre, how do you know if it needs cleaning, and how do you know if the cleaning has been successful?

The cotton swabs they are talking about using are design for cleaning fibre. They come in LC and SC sized versions.

I wouldn't be using the ones you get from the supermarket, no :)

Sam


Hi All,
For those who are interested in some clarification on the cleaning processes and why things are not clean out of the bag.

In our factory, every connector is inspected, however the dust caps are made of plastic. These house dust and can leech contaminants onto the fibre optic end face. Even after ultrasonic cleaning, dust caps can still contain contaminants. A pristine connector with a dust cap applied can be contaminated again. Always clean and connect, do not recap. If you have to recap, re-clean the connector.

For transceivers, the transmitter side (left as you look at the SFP) has a fibre stub. It can be cleaned with a One Click Cleaner. The receiver (right as you look at the SFP) is not a fibre stub, and requires the use of fibre optic cleaning swabs (not regular cotton buds). The exception is QSFP and CFP multi fibre connectors, which can be cleaned using an MTP One Click Cleaner.

The presentation linked below shows the correct way to use cleaning products, and has a good overview of the transceiver cleaning requirement. (Corporate spiel at the start, content starts around slide 8)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/repepm9gzteh4i9/AFL%20Cleaning%20Products.pdf?dl=0

Daniel Rose
State Manager
AFL
daniel.rose at aflglobal.com<mailto:daniel.rose at aflglobal.com>
www.AFLglobal.com/au<http://www.AFLglobal.com/au>




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