Strip the coating off the end of the fiber with a precision stripper, wipe the bare glass with lint-free wipes and high-purity isopropyl alcohol until it squeaks, then cleave it to length. The order never changes, and once the fiber is clean the bare glass must not touch fingers, the bench or anything else before it goes into the splicer. Most bad splices trace back to shortcuts in this routine.
Strip, clean, cleave, and don't touch the glass, if you drop it on the tray you start over.
Never wipe a fiber after cleaving: the wipe can chip the fresh edge or leave lint on the end face.
Also heard as
- fiber prep
- prep
Related terms
Cleave
To break a stripped fiber in a controlled way so its end is flat, mirror-smooth and square to the axis.
Two-fifty
Splicer slang for fiber that has only its 250 µm acrylate coating, with no tight buffer over it.
Icky pick
Slang for the sticky petroleum gel that fills loose buffer tubes and some cable cores to keep water out.
Burn
Splicer slang for making fusion splices, from the electric arc that welds the glass.