• Composites Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.26-32
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• 2003

Optical fibers, for splice, are stripped of their plastic coatings with a plastic stripper and cut off at the end. Therefore, stripped fibers often receive accidental damages and sustain small flaws or cracks. As a result, the breaking strength of a fiber splice made under normal conditions is reduced to about 0.4∼1 ㎏ on the average, nearly one-tenth of the fiber's strength. This makes it necessary to reinforce the splice. One of the most practical and reliable methods for optical fiber splicing is fusion splicing, comprising the steps of tripping the plastic coatings from the two fiber ends to be splice, placing the two bare fiber ends in an end-to-end position, and of fusion splicing, such as are fusion. Generally, steel bar (SB) sleeve is used to reinforce this fusion-splicing region. However, this type of sleeve has a critical defect to keep optical lose after bent by a sudden load. New type of composite spring (CS) sleeve is developed to make up for the weak points in the SB sleeve. This sleeve has an effect on restoration to the original state after eliminating the bending load. The optical spectrum analyzes results show the availability of reinforcement for the fusion splicing optical fiber using small diameter composite springs under the various loading conditions.