Inline mechanical splice for fibre optic system repair in harsh environments

TT Electronics has released its new interconnect solution for the aerospace and defence, rail, and industrial markets. The FibreFix inline mechanical splice is designed to repair, reinstate, or extend fibre optic systems in harsh environment applications.

The simple to install quality of the solution offers notable savings in repair time and complexity by eradicating the necessity to remove and replace the damaged fibre optic cable or harness from a running land defence, aerospace, or rail vehicle. Through its lightweight design and the small amount of constituent parts employed in each splice, reassembly is quick and simple. Reinstating the original installation's full mechanical integrity and high optical performance can be performed in situ in under 20 minutes.

This latest development in the company's interconnect portfolio uses existing standard tooling and training, which allows a single trained operator to perform a full repair and provides the possibility to expedite the repair curing speed through the usage of a FibreFix oven. It can also be utilised as a micro-connector and supports both multi-mode and single-mode applications. This unique time and cost-saving solution is intended to satisfy the growing urgent demands meeting the global transport industry.

Leigh Chapman, business development manager at TT Electronics, notes: “The extensive time and cost typically associated with removing and replacing damaged cables and harnessing was becoming a mounting challenge for our customers. Together with our development partners AVOptics Ltd, we identified an opportunity to help with the reduction of down-time for the transport sector and have developed unique solution capable of quickly reinstating peak system performance. A significant accomplishment by our design team, FibreFix is the first-to-market harsh environment fibre splice – a comparatively simple, reliable, easy to install and effective solution ideal for applications such as commercial aircraft, military land vehicles or trainlines.”