# fiber terminations



## green light (Oct 12, 2011)

From time to time we pull fiber optic cable. I always sub out the terminations. Im interested in doing this work. Am I required to have any specific certifications to do this work? I have looked into tool sets and understand the costs involved. Its usualy 6 pair single mode we're working with and sc connectors. Any advice?


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

green light said:


> From time to time we pull fiber optic cable. I always sub out the terminations. Im interested in doing this work. Am I required to have any specific certifications to do this work? I have looked into tool sets and understand the costs involved. Its usualy 6 pair single mode we're working with and sc connectors. Any advice?


Check out this site

http://thefoa.org

It's the Fiber Optic Association


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## Tommy Telephones (Nov 30, 2015)

https://www.belden.com/products/connectivity/fiber/fx-brilliance-universal-installation-kit.cfm

Copy and paste the link above. I just bought this kit from Belden. I have used the Unicam from Corning but it's not supported anymore. The tips are crimp on and it's pretty easy to use. Good luck


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## Dawizman (Mar 10, 2012)

Since when were the unicams unsupported? We install them by the hundreds. Corning still promotes them pretty heavily in their catalog. In my opinion, they are one of the best, most reliable mechanical connectors on the market.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

Dawizman said:


> Since when were the unicams unsupported? We install them by the hundreds. Corning still promotes them pretty heavily in their catalog. In my opinion, they are one of the best, most reliable mechanical connectors on the market.


With my previous employer, we mostly spliced fiber, but when we did use connectors we used Unicam. Prior to splicing, we would use TII Quick Termination connectors for residential (apartment retrofit/new construction) installs, and they had a near 40% fail rate. I personally loved how easy they were to use, but that gets old after having to reterminate a bunch of lines. I would estimate the Unicam connectors gave us ~90% pass rate, with a majority of failures being remedied by cleaning the connector. A Corning rep came and gave us a seminar on splicing and terminating using Unicam around July, so I'm fairly sure they do still support them.


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## Tommy Telephones (Nov 30, 2015)

I was going off of information that I heard from who, my Belden representative....go figure. I couldn't tell you whether or not they are unsupported but Belden definitely has put together a nice kit. One thing I did recently figure out though is that because Belden's product is so new it's hard to find in stock anywhere and therefore causing a 1 week lead time for ordering parts. That will be cut in half very soon.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

Tommy Telephones said:


> I was going off of information that I heard from who, my Belden representative....go figure. I couldn't tell you whether or not they are unsupported but Belden definitely has put together a nice kit. One thing I did recently figure out though is that because Belden's product is so new it's hard to find in stock anywhere and therefore causing a 1 week lead time for ordering parts. That will be cut in half very soon.


The company I worked for used a lot of Belden for copper jobs and mostly Corning for fiber, but by the time I left they had started getting people trained on the Belden fiber systems. The Belden connectors I saw were very easy to use, but hopefully they have a higher success rate than the TII ones. Personally I'd rather splice :thumbup:


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## Tommy Telephones (Nov 30, 2015)

I prefer splicing as well. Although a project I did the other day made me glad that I bought the tipping kit. I had to find 2 open strands that could connect 3 buildings together but once I did find them they were too short to bring out to a table to fusion splice. And with a $20,000 fusion splicer I wasn't about to stack up a bunch of telephone books in order to get the splicer close enough to the box...not to mention the slow rain that was working it's way over me. Had to order the tips after all.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

Tommy Telephones said:


> I prefer splicing as well. Although a project I did the other day made me glad that I bought the tipping kit. I had to find 2 open strands that could connect 3 buildings together but once I did find them they were too short to bring out to a table to fusion splice. And with a $20,000 fusion splicer I wasn't about to stack up a bunch of telephone books in order to get the splicer close enough to the box...not to mention the slow rain that was working it's way over me. Had to order the tips after all.


I guess I was lucky that 95% of my splicing was indoors. Although I've had to come in behind people who left broken fibers and have my junior tech hold the fusion set while I splice and heat shrink the fiber... Yikes


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## Tommy Telephones (Nov 30, 2015)

Yeah most of mine is indoors as well, I just like to bitch as if I have it rough or something lol. How did this thread begin anyway ? Oh yeah, so Belden and Unicam are both good methods of tipping fiber haha !


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## JW Splicer (Mar 15, 2014)

Buy some books and take some courses that teach you how to hand polish terminations and most importantly use all the test equipment, test sets, OTDRs, VFLs, interferometer, etc... Trouble shooting is the money maker, any monkey can splice and connectorize the cable.


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## mpetro (Jan 6, 2016)

JW Splicer said:


> hand polish terminations


This is another thing we weren't taught. We just used a cleaver, and if the blades decided to act up you were SOL. We also weren't taught how to use the microscope to inspect it. Even if we're "beyond" polishing and inspecting, it would really help to have at least a few techs that knew how to do it.


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## mikeh32 (Feb 16, 2009)

dont go anaerobic. unicam is the way that everything is done now. 


most data centers now use pretermintaed as well too


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## danhasenauer (Jun 10, 2009)

We were drilled in polish & fuse in Apprentice school and I've never seen it since then (class of 84). Cleave and crimp systems are all pretty much the same, with minor manufacturer differences, it comes down to attention to detail when you're doing 'em. But I'm just a monkey installer. FOA is a great online resource.


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## JW Splicer (Mar 15, 2014)

DOE in my area requires aenerobic termination on all single and multimode. I've done thousands in the last 6-7 years. Everything else in the real world was pigtailed or unicam and maybe a little hot melt here and there.


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