FUSION MASS-SPLICING OF OPTICAL FIBERS.

A low-loss fusion splicing method for fiber ribbon units has been developed and evaluated. Using an electric discharge, five fibers are heated simultaneously to the same temperature. This paper reports the heating technique, a fiber mass-cutting technique, a fiber aligning technique, and a reinforcement technique for the spliced fibers. Using these new techniques, excellent mass-splices having an average splice loss of 0. 05 dB for graded-index multimode fibers with a 50- mu m core diameter can be made using simple procedures.