Laser Cleaver - Comet SSP/Comet MT

Product Description:
Comet™-SSP: for single-fiber connector production. After laser cleaving, only one polishing step is needed, eliminating the conventional 15 mm SiC (or 30 mm) epoxy removal and the 9 (or 6), 3, 1 mm diamond polishing steps. This greatly saves time and polishing consumables, and saves on polisher investment and maintenance.

Comet™-MT is for multi-fiber connector production. It makes the fiber height and epoxy height more consistent, reduces the polishing process, and increases first-pass yield.

The Comet™ series laser cleavers are true commercial laser cleavers for fiber optic connector production, making them genuinely practical production equipment. This technology surpasses all the latest advances in fiber optic connector production and is set to bring about a revolution in the field, greatly improving production efficiency, lowering consumable and labor costs, and improving product consistency.

Sagitta is the manufacturer of fully automatic fiber optic connector polishers. Whether for singlemode or multimode connectors, or single-fiber or multi-fiber connectors, its Gemini™ series fully automatic polishers combine automatic polishing, cleaning and inspection on a single production platform. They are the fully automatic production equipment adopted by major connector manufacturers and have made major contributions to lowering labor and consumable costs and improving quality in fiber optic connector production. Based on its R&D and manufacturing capability in fully automatic polishers, Sagitta's strengths in machine vision, optics and laser processing, and adaptive process control for the Comet™ series laser cleavers are unrivaled.

Applications: The Comet™ is widely used because it can handle all of the following connector and fiber types:
● Connector types (1.25 mm, 2.50 mm, MT, etc.)
● Fiber types - singlemode and multimode

Design: The Comet™ design takes the following aspects fully into account:
● Process flow
● Laser safety
● Ergonomics

Cost Benefits
● The production process becomes simple: while cleaving the fiber protruding beyond the ceramic ferrule end face, the epoxy is removed, so the following conventional steps are no longer needed: manually scribing the fiber with a fiber scribe pen; grinding the fiber with SiC sandpaper; removing epoxy with SiC sandpaper; and 9 (or 6), 3, 1 mm diamond polishing.
● Lower consumable costs: no more epoxy-removal sandpaper; no more diamond polishing film; no more fiber scribe pens.
● Reduced investment in polishing equipment: no need to buy precision polishers or pay for their maintenance.
● Higher yield: the laser cleaving process does not degrade the ferrule's original 3D parameters as current polishing processes can, so product consistency is better. It reduces dependence on the dimensional tolerances of ferrules and connector components.
● Reduced dependence on operator skill. In polishing, the operator's skill plays a decisive role in quality and yield, such as how to adjust polishing pressure and time, when to replace the polishing film, and how to clean the connector end face. With a laser cleaver these processes are no longer needed, and the advantages are self-evident.
● Less labor: using a laser cleaver makes the connector production process simpler.
● Higher throughput, eliminating the bottleneck caused by the polishing process

Quality Benefits
● Eliminates dependence on operator skill
● Simplifies the polishing process and eliminates dependence on polisher quality
● Eliminates "core bursts" caused by manual cleaving of multimode fiber

More benefits:
● Suitable for cleaving fibers that cannot be cleaved by manual mechanical cleaving
● Suitable for cleaving large-core and specialty fibers
● Suitable for MTP production

Results:
Performance - Single-fiber connectors

The Comet™ SSP builds on the original Comet™ Si laser cleaver. While cleaving the fiber protruding beyond the ceramic ferrule end face, it removes the epoxy; after laser cleaving, the fiber height is controlled within 40 μm and the epoxy height within 10 μm. After Comet™ SSP laser cleaving, only one polishing step is needed, eliminating the conventional 15 mm SiC (or 30 mm) epoxy removal and the 9 (or 6), 3, 1 mm diamond polishing steps. This greatly saves time and polishing consumables, and saves on polisher investment and maintenance.

Performance - MTP

For multi-fiber connectors, the Comet™-MT provides:
● Fiber height variation < 20 μm
● Epoxy bead removal capability: proven to remove a 20 mm³ (5×2×2 mm) epoxy bead
● Cleaving fiber height adjustable, starting from 50 μm
● The limitation is the required ferrule molding tolerance (specified at +/-50 μm)

Field observations and comments:
● Laser cleaving reduces dependence on operator skill - repeatability is excellent regardless of the operator or shift, reducing training
● Laser cleaving removes process variation caused by uneven epoxy bead size from upstream steps - reducing the number of polishing steps.
● Laser cleaving lowers production cost - doubles throughput and improves first-pass yield

Advantages of laser cleaving
● Faster - fewer polishing process steps
● Cheaper - lowers production cost and reduces rework
● Better quality and higher first-pass yield
● Reliable - smooth process with no hitches
● Single-step polishing - only one polishing step needed