A tube about 40 or 60 mm long with an outer heat-shrink jacket, a hot-melt inner tube and a stainless or ceramic strength rod. It is slid onto one fiber before splicing, centered over the joint afterwards and shrunk in the splicer's oven, then stored in a splice tray. Without it the stripped glass at the splice snaps at the slightest bend.
Forgot the splice protector again, now you get to cut it out and burn it twice.
Sliding the sleeve on before cleaving is the habit every splicer learns after cutting out a perfect splice to add a forgotten one.
Also heard as
- heat-shrink sleeve
- sleeve
- splice sleeve
Related terms
Fusion splice
A permanent joint made by melting two cleaved fiber ends together with an electric arc.
Fusion splicer
The instrument that aligns two fiber ends, welds them with an electric arc and estimates the splice loss.
Splice closure
A sealed, re-enterable housing that protects fiber splices in outside plant, on poles, in vaults or buried.
Burn
Splicer slang for making fusion splices, from the electric arc that welds the glass.