Mass (Ribbon) Fusion Splicing

Ribbon cables are fusion spliced one ribbon at a time, rather than one fiber at a time. Thus each ribbon is stripped, cleaved and spliced as a unit. Special tools are needed to strip the fiber ribbon, usually heating it first, then cleave all fibers at once. Many tools place the ribbon in a carrier that supports and aligns it through stripping, cleaving and splicing. Consult both cable and splicer manufacturers to ensure you have the proper directions.

Many high fiber count cables today are made from ribbons of fibers, usually 12 fibers per ribbon. Splitting all those fibers out to splice individually would be time consuming, so ribbon fusion splicers, also called mass fusion splicers, can splice entire ribbons at one time, creating a splice that looks like this.

Ribbon splicers look similar to single fiber splicers and work in much the same way, except the ribbons are treated as one assembly, stripped, cleaved and spliced by special tools while held in a special holder.

Below is the special holder used by the Corning ribbon splicer shown.

The holder is inserted in a special stripper that uses heat to make stripping easier.

After stripping, the holder is placed in a special cleaver that will cleave all 12 fibers at once.