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Work Theory of the Laser Cutting Machine(2)

Cutting methods of laser cutting machine

Vaporization cutting

It means that vaporization is the main way to remove the processed material. In the process of vaporization cutting, workpiece surface is heated to vaporization temperature quickly by focused laser beams, forming High pressure steam and spraying outward at supersonic speeds. In the meantime, a hole is formed in the laser active area and laser beams reflex several times in the hole to increase the absorption of laser pump power combiner by material.

When high-pressure vapors spray outward, the melted materials are blown away in the kerf till the workpiece is finally cut. Vaporization cutting needs very high power density, which is eighth power of ten watt above per square centimeter. It is usually applied in low flash point materials and refractory materials.

Reaction Fusion Cutting

When assistant airflow not only blows the melted materials from the kerf but also has thermal reaction with the workpiece, this is the so-called reaction fusion cutting. Gases that can have reaction with workpiece are oxygen or mixture gases containing oxygen. When the surface temperature of workpiece reach to ignition temperature, strong combustion heat release occurs to improve the laser cutting ability.

Combustion heat release of low carbon steel and stainless steel is 60%. And it is about 90% for reactive metals like titanium.

Compared to vaporization cutting and general fusion cutting, reaction fusion cutting need less laser power density. However, reaction fusion cutting may effect the performance of worpiece since the combustion reaction can lead to chemical reaction on materials.

Fusion Cutting

When adding a assistant airflow system coaxial with laser to blow the melted materials away from kerf, this kind of cutting is fusion cutting. In fusion fiber coupler cutting, workpiece needn’t to be heated to vaporization temperature so the required laser power density is reduced greatly.

Laser Scribing

It is mainly used in semiconductor materials, in which laser of high power density make a shallow groove in the semiconductor materials of the workpiece and then makes it crack through mechanistic or vibratory methods. The quality is valued by the surface fragments and size of heat affect area.

Cold Chipping

It is a new processing method, which is put forward along with ultraviolet band superpower excimer laser appeared in recent years. The basic theory is that energy of ultraviolet photons is similar to binding energy of many organic materials; this high-energy photons are used to impact bond organic materials thus make it crack, achieving purpose of cutting. This new technology has promising application future, especially in electron industry.

Thermal Stress Cutting

Mechanism of thermal stress cutting is that laser beams heat an area of fragile material to produce evident temperature gradient. The high surface temperature makes expansion and inner lower temperature hinders expansion, forming pulling stress in the surface and radial crushing stress inside. When the two stresses exceed fracture limit strength of the workpiece, crackle appears. And then the workpiece is broken along the normal direction of the crack. It is suitable for glasses and ceramics.

Conclusion: laser cutting machine is a cutting technology of melting and gasifying surface material through focused energy generated by the use of laser specialties and focused lens. It features good cutting quality, high speed, various cutting material and high efficiency.

About DK Photonics

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for fiber laser applications such as 1064nm high power isolator, Cladding Power Stripper, Multimode High Power Isolator, pump combiner,1064nm Band-pass Filter,(6+1)X1 Pump and Signal Combiner, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, optical Coupler. More information, please contact us.

Work Theory of the Laser Cutting Machine(1)

Laser has been applied in teaching, military as well as industrial production. Laser cutting machine is one of the applications. It can be used in both metal and non-metal cutting, Melting surface material by laser beam. This article will discuss the work theory of laser cutting machine.

Introduction on the work theory of laser cutting machine.

Laser cutting machine adopts the energy released on the time when laser beam irradiate metal surface. The metal is melt by laser and sinter is blow away by gas. Because laser power is highly focused, only a very little heat effects the other part of metal plate and causes a little or no deformation. Laser can cut any complex shape precisely, which needs no further processing.

Laser source is generally CO2 laser beam high power isolator with operating power of 500～5000W. The power is even lower than that of many household electric heater, and because of lenses and reflectors, laser beams are focused in a very small bit of area. Highly focused energy heat the area quickly and makes the metal plate melted.

Laser cutting machine can cut stainless steal of thickness less than 16mm; when adding oxygen in laser beam, the cutting thickness is 8～10mm but it will generate a thin oxidation film in the cut surface. The maximum thickness is 16mm which leads to larger cutting deviation on the size of components.

Since the advent of laser, numerous laser products have been developed, such as laser printer, laser cosmetic instrument, laser marker, laser cutting machine etc. Due to its late start in China, the laser technology in China is greatly behind the developed countries. Although Chinese manufacturers can produce plenty of laser products, some key parts such as laser tube, driving motor, galvanometer and focus lens are imported products. This leads to an increase on cost thus an increase on consumer’s payment.

In recent years, domestic research and production of laser products become closer to advanced overseas products with the progress of laser technology in China. Some aspects are even superior to products abroad, which has a leading role in market because of the advantages of price. Overseas products have absolute predominance in precision machining for its quality on stability and endurance.

Work theory of laser cutting machine

Laser tube is the core part of laser cutting machine. So, below is an introduction of the most popular laser tube. CO2 laser tube.

Laser tube is composed of hard glasses, so it is fragile. It adopts layer of sleeve construction with discharge tube in the most inside layer. However, the diameter of discharge tube is thicker than laser tube, diffraction between the thickness of discharge tube and the size of flare is in direct ratio; the length of tube is in proportion to output power of discharge tube. Laser tube generates a large quantity of heat in the operation of laser cutting machine, which influences the normal work. So cold water machine is needed to cool laser tube, ensuring constant temperature for successful running.

Cutting features of laser cutting machine

Advantages of laser cutting:

One — high efficiency

Laser cutting machine is always connected to several numerically-controlled rotary tables to achieve numerical controlled cutting. It only needs to change the NC program to adjust to components of different shapes, which can make 2D cutting as well as 3D cutting.

Two — high speed

When cutting low carbon steel sheets of 2mm thickness, the speed of 1200W laser cutting is 600cmmin; when it is 5mm thick polypropylene resin plate, the cutting speed is 1200cmmin. The material needs no clamping fix in laser cutting process.

Three — high quality cutting

Laser cutting features thin kerf. The two sides of kerf are parallel and the kerf is vertical to the surface. The cutting precision can reach to ±0.05mm. The cutting surface is clean and nice, with roughness of tens of microns. The cut components can even come into use directly without further machining. After laser cutting, the heat effected area is very small and material near to kerf has not been affected, making little deformation, high cutting precicion and perfect geometrical shape

Four — non-contact cutting

Laser cutting is non-contact cutting, which means no tool wear problem. When processing different shapes, there is no need to change tools, the only way is to alter the output parameter of laser. The whole laser cutting process features low noise, little vibration and little pollution.

Five — various cutting material

Compared to oxyacetylene cutting and plasma cutting, laser cutting can be applied on more materials, including metal and non-metal, metal matrix and non-metallic matrix composite, leather, wood as well as fibers.

About DK Photonics

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for fiber laser applications such as 1064nm high power isolator, Cladding Power Stripper, Multimode High Power Isolator, pump signal combiner,1064nm Band-pass Filter,(6+1)X1 Pump and Signal Combiner, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, optical Coupler. More information, please contact us.

Pump and signal combiner for bi-directional pumping of all-fiber lasers and amplifiers(9)

6. Demonstration of 440 W pump power handling

After detailed theoretical and experimental characterization of fiber pump combiners with multiple pump ports, a pump power handling performance test was conducted. For these investigations each pump port of a 4 + 1×1 combiner was connected to a fiber coupled pump diode (nLight Pearl) with an output power of ~110 W at a wavelength of 976 nm. The PFF and the delivery fiber of the pump diode had a core diameter of 105 µm with a NA of 0.22. At each fiber output end of the IF, a pump light stripper was applied to avoid the Fresnel reflection of the TP, and therefore the TP was not measured. Up to the maximum total pump diode power of 440 W, a coupling efficiency of 90.2% was experimentally determined (Fig. 13

Fig. 13 Combined pump power for a 4+1×1 high power fiber combiner, * ratio of coupled power to total diode power in percent.

). In the simulations a slightly higher coupling efficiency of 92.8% was obtained. The difference of 2.6% in simulated and measured pump light coupling must be distributed among TP, PAA and PCT, with simulated values of 3.0, 1.4 and 1.7%, respectively. It can be assumed that the PAA-fraction is higher than 1.4%, since the fibers of the combiner are contaminated with dust particles in spite of intensive cleaning. If we assume for each individual loss mechanism an error of 1% related to the total diode power then PCT was 7.5 W ± 4.4 W, i.e. the coating of the TF and the pump power stripper had to handle this fraction of power.

About DK Photonics

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com specializes in designing and manufacturing of high qualityoptical passive components mainly for fiber laser applications such as 1064nm high power isolator,Cladding Power Stripper, High Power Isolator,pump combiner,1064nm Band-pass Filter,(6+1)X1 Pump and Signal Combiner,PM Circulator,PM Isolator,optical Coupler.More information,please contact us.

Optical Filters: Filter stacks transmit wide-angle incident light without shifting wavelength(3)

To avoid the problem of color change versus incidence angle in an optical system, thin-film-coated filter elements can be replaced by a filter consisting of a stack of different filter glasses.

JASON KECK

Rugged, no coating degradation

Advantages of using a filter stack rather than a thin-film-coated optical element include wide-angle performance (see Fig. 2) and high durability. Because the glass itself performs the blocking, there is no concern of coating degradation due to extreme environmental shifts, contamination, or mishandling. Filter stacks are as durable as the glass they are made from, surviving aggressive cleaning methods, severe abrasion, salt/fog testing, humidity, and temperature cycling per durability standards of MIL-PRF-13830B, MIL-C-48497A, and MIL-C-675C.

Because all filter glass types have approximately the same index of refraction, there is no Fresnel loss as light propagates from one internal layer to another. However, as with any glass, the air-to-substrate interfaces will incur an ~8% total Fresnel loss for the component.

The addition of a broadband antireflection (BBAR) coating on each air-to-substrate surface can mostly eliminate this loss. The spectral range of the BBAR is designed to be much wider than the active spectral region of the 100G DWDM filter, so the stability of the transmission band will not be affected by changes in the angle of the filter. Blocking coatings can also be added if it is necessary to create steeper edges for in-band performance; however, doing so can affect the wide-angle performance at the edge wavelengths.

ColorLock filter stacks can be designed for spectral ranges from ultraviolet to near-infrared, with transmission exceeding 60% at the specified design wavelength. This transmission may not be as high as with dielectric filters, but is sufficient for applications with controlled and stable illumination, such as for machine vision, in which the consistency of wavelengths from wider incident angles is more important than transmission.

Having overcome considerable design challenges, we believe that these filter stacks can be used as an innovative solution in applications that demand consistent wavelengths from incident angles that are wide enough that dielectric filters would not be sufficient, and where the higher transmission that is afforded by dielectric filters is less important.

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for fiber laser applications such as 1064nm high power isolator, Cladding Power Stripper, Multimode High Power Isolator, pump combiner,1064nm Band-pass Filter,(6+1)X1 Pump and Signal Combiner, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, optical Coupler. More information, please contact us.

Industrial Fiber Laser Introduction and Global Market Forecast –DK Photonics

The Global Industrial Fiber Laser market to grow at a CAGR of 21.4% over the period 2013-2018

Fiber lasers contain the active gain medium, which is an optical fiber integrated with rare earth elements such as erbium and ytterbium. Unlike conventional gas lasers, a fiber laser uses part of the fiber as the resonating cavity, where the laser action takes place to generate laser beams , Fiber lasers are preferred over other lasers such as CO2 lasers and excimer lasers, primarily because they are more reliable, efficient, robust, and portable, and easier to operate than other lasers.

Fiber lasers used for industrial applications such as cutting, welding, marking, and engraving in the Manufacturing, Semiconductor, and Automotive industries are referred to as industrial fiber lasers. Moreover, due to their superior performance, compact size, high output power, low cost of ownership, durability, and eco-friendly attributes, industrial fiber lasers are being adopted at a significant rate. They also eliminate the mechanical adjustments and high maintenance costs that are necessary with other lasers.

Increased R&D spending by vendors to gain a competitive advantage over other players in the market is one key trend in this market. Vendors are increasingly investing in their R&D division to provide better functionality and to meet the unsatisfied requirements of consumers. R&D investments have enabled vendors to capture a significant market share and gain a competitive edge over other vendors in the Global Industrial Fiber Laser market.

According to the report, one major driver of the market is the increased adoption of fiber lasers because of their superior attributes. These lasers used for industrial applications are gaining more significance because they exhibit excellent light properties.

Further, the report states that one of the key challenges that the market faces is the uncertainty regarding the lifespan of fiber lasers. Despite their existence in the industry for more than 10 years, the lifespan fiber lasers are not definite.

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for fiber laser applications such as 1064nm high power isolator, Cladding Power Stripper, Multimode High Power Isolator, pump combiner,1064nm Band-pass Filter,(6+1)X1 Pump and Signal Combiner, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, optical Coupler. More information, please contact us.

DWDM & CWDM Solutions

In today’s world of intensive communication needs and requirements, “fiber optic cabling” has become a very popular phrase. In the field of telecommunications, data center connectivity and ,video transport, fiber optic cabling is highly desirable for today’s communication needs due to the enormous bandwidth availability, as well as reliability, minimal loss of data packets, low latency and increased security. Since the physical fiber optic cabling is expensive to implement for each individual service, using a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) for expanding the capacity of the fiber to carry multiple client interfaces is a highly advisable. WDM is a technology that combines several streams of data/storage/video or voice protocols on the same physical fiber-optic cable by using several wavelengths (frequencies) of light with each frequency carrying a different type of data. With the use of optical amplifiers and the development of the OTN (Optical Transport Network) layer equipped with FEC (Forward Error Corection), the distance of the fiber optical communication can reach thousands of Kilometers without the need for regeneration sites.

DWDM vs. CWDM

DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technology allowing high throughput capacity over longer distances commonly ranging between 44-88 channels/wavelengths and transferring data rates from 100Mbps up to 100Gbps per wavelength. Each wavelength can transparently carry wide range of services such as FE/1/10/40/100GBE, OTU2/OTU3/OTU4, 1/2/4/8/10/16GB FC,STM1/4/16/64, OC3/OC12/OC48/OC-192, HD/SD-SDI and CPRI. The channel spacing of the DWDM solution is defined by the ITU.xxx (ask Omri) standard and can range from 25Ghz, 50GHz and 100GHz which is the most widely used today. Figure – 1 shows a DWDM spectral view of 88ch with 50GHz spacing.

Figure -1: Spectral view of 50GHz spacing 88 DWDM channels/wavelengths

DWDM systems can provide up to 96 wavelengths (at 50GHz) of mixed service types, and can transport to distances up to 3000km by deploying amplifiers, as demonstrated in figure 2) and dispersion compensators thus increasing the fiber capacity by a factor of x100. Due to its more precise and stabilized lasers, the DWDM technology tends to be more expensive at the sub-10G rates, but is a more appropriate solution and is dominating for 10G service rates and above providing large capacity data transport and connectivity over long distances at affordable costs. The DWDM solution today is often embedded with ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) which enables the building of flexible remotely managed infrastructure in which any wavelength can be added or dropped at any site. An example of DWDM equipment is well demonstrated by PL-1000, PL-1000GM, PL-1000GT, PL-1000RO, PL-2000 and PL-1000TN by DK Photonics Networks.

Figure-2 Optical amplifier used in DWDM solution to overcome fiber attenuation and increase distance

CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) proves to be the initial entry point for many organizations due to its lower cost. Each CWDM wavelength typically supports up to 2.5Gbps and can be expanded to 10Gbps support. This transfer rate is sufficient to support GbE, Fast Ethernet or 1/2/4/8/10G FC, STM-1/STM-4/STM-16 / OC3/OC12/OC48, as well as other protocols. The CWDM is limited to 16 wavelengths and is typically deployed at networks up to 80Km since optical amplifiers cannot be used due to the large spacing between channels. An example of this equipment is well demonstrated by PL-400, PL-1000E and PL-2000 by DK Photonics Networks.

It is important to note that the entire suite of DK Photonics’ equipment is designed to support both DWDM and CWDM technology by using standards based pluggable optical modules such as SFP, XFP and SFP+. The technology used is carefully calculated per project and according to customer requirements of distance, capacity, attenuation and future needs. DK Photonics also provides migration path from CWDM to DWDM enabling low entry cost and future expansion that can be viewed in the DWDM over CWDM technology page

WDM Installation

For designing and implementing a WDM network, there is a need to know some basic information regarding the infrastructure such as fiber type, attenuation of fiber, distance of fiber, network topology, service type, rate and connectivity. Based on this information, calculation of the optical link budget, OSNR (Optical Signal Noise Ratio) and dispersion can be performed in order to provide reliable, error free layer-1 optical solution.

DK Photonics’ WDM diversified equipment portfolio can provide either CWDM or DWDM solution for 4 wavelengths or 88 wavelengths ranging from few km to thousands of km and fit to the exact customer network needs. The network can be a point-to-point, linear add/Drop or ring Topology with passive Mux/DeMux or ROADM based infrastructure.

The WDM equipment serves as a demarcation point and is installed behind the Ethernet switch, router fiber channel SAN Fabric or SDH/SONET ADM coloring the fiber into different spectral wavelengths and multiplexing the rates fully isolated from each other over the same fiber to the remote site. This allows transmission of multiple channels of different services and rates of data over the same fiber utilizing the fiber resources agnostically to the service type and rate.

The WDM technology can be applied to multiple applications such as connecting building service agnostic optical layer backbone, data centers connectivity, Video broadcast, LTE fiber, cloud computing backbone, increasing existing fiber bandwidth and spectral efficiency.

Figure 3 shows the main traditional and emerging CWDM and DWDM technology applications which keep growing along with the rise of the cloud computing and CSP (Content Service Providers) as well as Smart phones and video applications causing constant increase to the WDM technology deployment and new capacities such as 100G.

Figure 3 – Main CWDM and DWDM technology applications

DK Photonics’ WDM products designed for easy and fast implementation take up minimal space and use least power, thus providing the highest integration level of CWDM and DWDM networks in the smallest 1U footprint, while providing high ROI. Additionally, the CWDM DWDM optical network is managed remotely with either DK Photonics’ Light Watch NMS/EMS or the imbedded web based management system as well as via any 3rd party SNMP tool.

Read more related articles :

Filter-based WDM CWDM Mini CWDM Module DWDM

Application of optical communication is still broad prospects

Once the Nortel global leader in fiber optic communications during the Internet bubble in 2000, the money in the acquisition of a large number of optical communications research and the production of small and medium enterprises, the industry has been criticized in the subsequent bankruptcy of Nortel. In fact, Nortel grasp of technology trends, the direction is right, unfortunately, Nortel too hasty, global demand for optical communication was not to such an extent.

But now the situation is very different compared with around 2000. The rapid development of mobile Internet and the widespread popularity of smart mobile terminal equipment, being a huge challenge to the global telecommunications network capacity, transmission speed. The era of “data flood peak to optical communication technology has always been known by the transmission bit of new development opportunities and a huge space. Optical communication technology not only did not fall behind, the contrary, the optical communication industry chain, from fiber optic cable system equipment, terminal equipment to optical devices, a critical period in the comprehensive technology upgrade.

The field of optical communication is a noteworthy event, the National Development and Reform Commission recently organizing the preparation of strategic emerging industries key products and services Guidance Catalogue, which in conjunction with the relevant departments, the optical communication technology and product responsibility and selected emerging industries of strategic focus products.

In fiber optics, including FTTx G.657 optical fiber, broadband long-distance high speed large capacity optical fiber transmission with G.656 optical fiber, photonic crystal fiber, rare earth doped fiber (including ytterbium doped fiber, erbium doped fiber and thulium doped fiber, etc.) the laser energy transmission fiber, and has some special properties of new optical fiber, plastic optical fiber, polymer optical fiber is fully finalists. The upgrade of the fiber optic technology, will bring the data transmission capacity, distance, quality leap.

In the field of fiber access equipment, passive optical network (PON), wavelength division multiplexer (WDM),OLT and ONU on the list. Optical transmission equipment, especially the line rate of 40 Gbit/s, 100Gbit/s large capacity (1.6Tb/s and abobe) DWDM equipment, reconfigurable optical bifurcation Multiplexer (ROADM) wavelength division multiplexing system ran cross-connect (OXC) equipment, large-capacity high-speed OTN optical transport network equipment as well as packetized enhanced OTN equipment, PTN packet transport network equipment also impressively. These products are “broadband China” works to promote a powerful weapon; both long-distance backbone network, metropolitan area network or access network even close to the user’s “last mile” of these products will come in handy.

The major products are classified as strategic emerging industries in the field of optical devices, high-speed optical components (active and passive). This is the core and foundation of the field of optical communication technology, device development, the improvement of integration, function enhancement can bring significantly reduce the cost of system equipment and provide a performance boost.

At the same time, the annual OFC / NFOEC (fiber-optic communications exhibition) will be held in late March in California. This event will showcase the latest technology and research progress of the global optical component modules, systems, networks and fiber optic products, represents a new trend of development of optical communication technology.

100G for ultra-high-speed network technology is the current OFC hot one. 2012 100G technology on a global scale backbone network level scale application of 100G optical network applications will rapidly expand with the 100G device further mature. In the same time, the industry has also increased efforts to develop the 100G optical modules, silicon photonics technology pluggable multi-source agreement 100G CFP MSA CPAK optical module has been available. Outside the backbone network, 100G MAN application is the current one of OFC discussion topic.

The rise of cloud computing brings data center construction boom, 100G technology in the data center is a popular data center for high-speed pluggable optical devices is also a hot topic. Experts believe that photonic technology has a key role to play in the large enterprise data centers, but this is only a start, the size of the new cloud computing data center such as a warehouse, with more than 100,000 servers carrying the computing and storage resources, the required network bandwidth than PB level. These data centers only optical communications technology in order to achieve VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) and multi-mode fiber has played an important role, and will continue to introduce new fiber optic communication technology.

Something you should know about CWDM DWDM and OADM

CWDM/DWDM Mux/Demux and OADM are all fit in with Passive. CWDM and DWDM technology produce an efficient strategy to share one set of fiber strands and hang together various communications interfaces, simply by using different wavelengths of light for each channel. Thus they could expand the proportions from the network without laying more fiber. And that i want to introduce the actual basical description of CWDM Mux/Demux, DWDM Mux/Demux and OADM.

As you know, Mux (Multiplexer) products combine several data signals into one for transporting over the single fiber. Demux (Demulitplexer) separates the signals at the opposite end. Each signal are at an alternative wavelength.

CWDM Mux/Demux

The Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing-CWDM Mux/Demux is often a flexible plug-and-play network solution, which helps insurers and enterprise companies to affordably implement denote point or ring based WDM optical networks. CWDM Mux/demux is perfectly suitable for transport PDH, SDH / SONET, ETHERNET services over WWDM, CWDM and DWDM in optical metro edge and access networks. CWDM tools are widely used in less precision optics and lower cost, un-cooled lasers with lower maintenance requirements. Weighed against DWDM and Conventional WDM, CWDM is a bit more affordable and much less power usage of laser devices. CWDM Multiplexer Modules can be found in 4, 8 and 16 channel configurations. These modules passively multiplex the optical signal outputs from 4 excessively electronic products, send on them somebody optical fiber and de-multiplex the signals into separate, distinct signals for input into gadgets along the opposite end for your fiber optic link.

DWDM Mux/Demux

The Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing-DWDM Mux/Demux Modules are built to multiplex multiple DWDM channels into 1 or 2 fibers. Depending on type CWDM Mux/Demux unit, with optional expansion, can transmit and receive around 4, 8, 16 or 32 connections of standards, data rates or protocols more than one single fiber optic link without disturbing the other person. DWDM MUX/DEMUX modules provides best and low-cost bandwidth upgrade on your current fiber optic communication networks.

OADM

OADM(Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) is often a device utilized in WDM systems for multiplexing and routing different channels of fiber into or out of a single mode fiber (SMF). OADM is made to optically add/drop one or multiple CWDM/DWDM channels into one or two fibers, provides capacity to add or drop an individual wavelength or multi-wavelengths from the fully multiplexed optical signal. This enables intermediate locations between remote sites gain access to the regular, point-to-point fiber segment linking them. Wavelengths not dropped pass-through the OADM and continue on in direction of the remote site. Additional selected wavelengths can be added or came by successive OADMS if required.

What is a fiber optic coupler?

Fiber optic coupler is used to split the fiber optic light into several parts at a certain ratio. fiber optic coupler are important passive components used in FTTX networks. A fiber-optic splitter is a device that takes a single fiber optics signal and divides it into multiple signals. Fiber optic is a type of technology that uses an optical signal instead of an electrical one to send data from one place to another. The cable is made either of glass or plastic coated in plastic, instead of the copper wire that was commonly used in the past. But two kinds of fiber splitters are popular used, one is the traditional fused type fiber optic coupler (FBT coupler), which features competitive prices; the other is PLC fiber optic coupler, which is compact size and suit for density applications. Both of them have its advantages to suit for different requirement. The use of fiber optic technology has become increasingly popular for several reasons. Fiber optic cables are much less sensitive to electrical interference, marking them more reliable than older types of cabling. They are also able to carry very large amounts of data in comparison with that older systems can handle. This makes them very efficient, despite the facts that there are some drawbacks to the system. The cables require a thicker covering to protect the optical cables and they also need to have repeaters installed to boost the signal strength in order for the system to work, two hindrances to the use of this technology.

Despite the limitations, fiber optics technology is in use for both home and commercial applications. The most common type of fiber optic coupler splits the output evenly, with half the signal going to one leg of the output and half going to the other. It’s possible to get splitters that use a different split ratio, putting a larger amount of the signal to one side of the splitter than the other. The Splitters are identified with a number that represents the signal division, such as 50/50 if the split is even, or 80/20 if 80% of the signal goes to one side and only 20% to the other.

Some types of the fiber optic coupler are actually able to work in either direction. This means that if the device is installed in one way, it acts as a splitter and divides the incoming signal into two parts, sending out two separate outputs. If it is installed in reverse, it acts as a coupler, taking two incoming signals and combing them into a single output. Not every fiber optic coupler can be used this way, but those that can are labeled as reversible or as coupler/splitters.