1. What is fiber pigtail?
An optical fiber connector is a cable with a connector at one end and no connector at the other end. The end without a connector can be connected to the core of other cables by welding. Fiber pigtails are also often found in fiber optic terminal boxes to connect fiber optic cables to fiber optic transceivers. Fiber pigtails are divided into multi-mode fiber pigtails and single-mode fiber pigtails.
Single-mode fiber pigtails are yellow, with wavelengths of 1310nm and 1550nm, and transmission distances of 10km and 40km, respectively; multimode fiber pigtails are orange, with a wavelength of 850nm and transmission distance of 500m, which are used for short-distance interconnection.
2. What kinds of connectors are available for fiber pigtails?
There are five types of fiber pigtail connectors: LC, SC, FC, ST, and MTRJ. The following lists the applications, models, appearances and descriptions of these five types of connectors.
LC UPC Pigtails:Generally used in optical transmission modules;
SC UPC Pigtails: Most used on routers and switches;
FC UPC Pigtails：Most used on patch panels；
ST/UPC Pigtails: Generally used on fiber optic transceivers;
MTRJ Pgtails:Especially suitable for FTTD application.
3. What are the types of fiber pigtails?
There are many types of fiber pigtails, such as single fiber pigtails, multi-fiber pigtails, single-core pigtails, and multi-core pigtails. In addition to the above-mentioned common types of fiber pigtails, there are bundle fiber pigtails, ribbon fiber pigtails, armored fiber pigtails and waterproof fiber pigtails. The first two are branchable fiber pigtails. Two are special fiber pigtails. In addition, we can divide the fiber pigtail into a pigtail with a sheath, a pigtail without a sheath, a pigtail with a splitter, and a customized pigtail according to the sheath and splitter.
Bundle fiber pigtail: This kind of fiber pigtail is also called pigtail bundle. It is composed of Corning tight-buffered fiber, aramid fiber reinforced element and flame-retardant PVC outer sheath. Compared with other types of tail fiber For fiber, the heat is higher and the application is also very extensive.
Ribbon fiber pigtail: The ribbon fiber pigtail is the same as the bundle fiber pigtail. Both are multi-core pigtails. The ribbon fiber pigtail contains 12-core fiber. One end is used for fusion splicing and the other end is equipped with a connector.
Armored fiber pigtail: The outermost layer of this fiber pigtail has an extra layer of metal protection than the ordinary pigtail, so its durability will be higher.
Waterproof fiber pigtail: low insertion loss, high return loss, good interchangeability and repeated push-pull performance, very convenient to use. The waterproof pigtail has a sturdy sheath and a waterproof sealed head connector, which can be used in harsh environments.
4. What are the materials of optical fiber pigtails?
The optical fiber pigtail is also the same as the conventional patch cord. There are three choices of PVC, LSZH and OFNP due to the different materials, and the optical fiber pigtail can also be made into an armor type like the conventional optical fiber patch cord.
The main cable of the bundled optical fiber pigtail is a round cable, and the branch nodes usually use black heat-shrinkable tubes instead of splitters, which can save costs. The main cable of the ribbon fiber pigtail is a flat cable, and the branch node usually uses a black splitter, because the ribbon flat cable is not easy to fix, and the heat shrink tube cannot be used.
The concept and meaning of a splitter: usually connected in the middle of a branch line or trunk line, composed of a main input terminal, a main output terminal and several branch output terminals, where the branch output terminal only gets a small part of the main input signal , Most of the signals are still output along the main road and continue to be transmitted backwards.
5. Where are fiber pigtails used?
Optical fiber pigtails provide interconnection and cross-interconnection applications in the network connection of access equipment, and are widely used in optical fiber communication systems, optical fiber access networks, optical fiber data transmission, optical fiber CATV, local area networks (LAN), test equipment, optical fibers Sensor, serial server, FTTH/FTTX, telecommunications network, pre-termination installation.
6. Fiber pigtail and fiber fusion splicing
Optical fiber fusion splicing technology mainly uses a fiber fusion machine to connect optical fibers and optical fibers or optical fibers and optical fiber pigtails, fusing the bare fibers and optical fiber pigtails in the optical cable into a whole, while the optical fiber pigtails have one Separate fiber optic head. Connect the optical fiber and twisted pair by connecting with the optical fiber transceiver, and then connect to the information socket.
The main tools used in the fiber fusion splicing process are: optical end boxes, fiber transceivers, fiber pigtails, couplers, special wire strippers, fiber cleavers, etc.
1. Mechanical splicing: strip the Pushe optical fiber and pigtail, after cutting and cleaning, into the splicing matching disk, align, tangent and lock.
2. Splicing: Use auxiliary tools to strip the laid optical fiber and pigtail, cut, clean, and then use the optical fiber fusion splicer to "melt" them together under the protection of the splicing tray.