Contaminated connector end-faces (dust, oil, or scratches). Improper splicing techniques (e. Excessive bend radius violations (>10mm for standard SMF)., UPC. One begins with making a tiny scratch on the side of the fiber, e. with a sharp diamond, carbide or ceramic blade, before or while some defined tension or bending is applied to the fiber. This causes the fiber to break, starting at the mentioned fracture point. Those are problems anyone can identify with visual inspection and learn from the inspection how to do it correctly in the future. Consequently, these imperfections can lead to significant signal loss (attenuation), back reflections, and catastrophic failure. What happens if you damage the fiber during this production step? A tiny scratch or nick in the optical fiber is like a time bomb.
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