Annular Fusion Splicing

Homogeneous fusion splicing by NYFORS

For the highest splicing demands, NYFORS presents annular fusion splicing with Axicon Splicing™ Technology. The advanced glass processing stations SMARTSPLICER™ utilizes a clean and contamination-free CO2 laser beam shaped into a ring by our proprietary optical system. This enables the optical power to be distributed symmetrically and homogeneously all around the fiber or circular glass component, enabling the production of high-quality components with perfect splice interfaces.

We recommend using our precision AUTOCLEAVER™ tool series and interferometric end face inspection CLEAVEMETER™ series systems to ensure a perfect cleave and splice interface between the glass components. Using an inter-compatible, specifically designed magnetic holder, the optical fiber can be easily transported from the cleaver and inspection system to the SMARTSPLICER™. A highly stable and high-precision fiber translation and alignment system, together with our unique beam delivery capabilities and an intuitive user interface, ensure a repeatable process even for the most challenging applications. The user can create, edit and load recipes in a few clicks, which together with automatic alignment routines ensures that every component is perfectly processed.

The annular beam can be set by the user to two different configurations, optimized for fiber splicing and tapering, or for fiber to end cap splicing. This ensures versatility with an always optimized beam delivery, allowing to heat up the splice interface precisely, homogeneously and locally, while preventing the unwanted heating of the rest of the component. The SMARTSPLICER™ enables splicing of single and multimode fibers as well as gradient index and photonic crystal fiber, fiber to end-cap, tapering and the manufacturing of high-power fiber laser components and sensitive photonics devices such as mode field adapters and pump combiners, with optimal splice strength and optical quality.