The 3 Golden Rules of Fiber Cleaving
Rule 1: Always clean before you cleave. Strip the 250um coating, clean the bare 125um cladding with 99% isopropyl alcohol, and then place the bare glass in the cleaver. Never clean after cleaving, as alcohol residue or lint will contaminate the clean mirror face.
Rule 2: Monitor cleaver blade rotation. A worn diamond blade produces ragged end-faces with cleave angles exceeding 1.5 degrees, causing automatic splice machine rejection.
Recording Splicing History in CoreMap
Inside CoreMap, field technicians record which fiber cores are joined, the splice machine's estimated loss (e.g., 0.03 dB), and upload enclosure photos. When signal degradation occurs years later, NOC engineers can immediately check historical splice quality records.