Vytran to Exhibit LFS-4000 Optical Fiber Splicer Prototype at San Jose Expo

Vytran announced that it will demonstrate the prototype of its optical fiber splicer LFS-4000 at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, California. The company will showcase the product from May 18 to 20 at the expo. The new process tool has been designed especially for splicing large-diameter, specialty and standard fibers.

The LFS-4000 is suitable for mass production of optical fiber assemblies that are used in applications such as sensing, fiber optic gyroscope, fiber laser, fiber-based instrumentation and medical device. The splicer utilizes the filament fusion technology of Vytran to make splices with lower loss on fibers with diameters in the range of 125–900 µm.

The optical fiber splicer can be used for splicing different fibers including polarization maintaining fibers, highly stressed fibers, doped fibers, photonic crystal fiber and D shapes. The LFS-4000 incorporates computer-based software that includes two interfaces. One of the interfaces is custom-made for product development, while the other is a simplified interface. The tailored interface allows all the functionalities of the unit and the simplified interface permits only the basic operation.

The company has planned to offer the LFS-4000 in market at the start of the third quarter. Jean-Michel Pelaprat, president and CEO of Vytran, said that the product has been developed for manufacturers who want the performance of the company’s glass processing and filament fusion splicing products in one single tool. The new splicer has been targeted at various applications such as manufacturing of fiber laser, which requires technicians to make many precision splices for one fiber assembly in huge volumes, Pelaprat added.

The company’s GPX-3400 glass processor and LFS-4000 splicer are complementary equipment for use in basic research as well as product development and large-scale production of fiber laser assemblies. Both these products are compatible with Vytran’s LDC-400 and LDC-200-G fiber cleavers, Pelaprat noted.