INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING THE ULTIMATE STRENGTH OF OPTICAL FIBERS
The main problem that the practice solves is to overcome one of the main reasons for the unsatisfactory installation of fibre optic connections in the BRICS and CIS countries - the use of low-quality optical fibres by companies during installation and the blaming of all problems on the installers, which creates a vicious circle. This problem is particularly acute in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia, because in the first case the work of many government agencies that are vital to the country, such as the Russian Ministry of Health, is hampered or made impossible, while in the second case there are communication problems within the agencies due to a fundamentally different approach to remote reception of citizens. For example, serious problems arise in the interaction between the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia and the State Committee for Real Estate Cadastre, which can lead to litigation for law-abiding citizens. Practice offers the following solution to the problem: express diagnostics of a certain part of a batch of optical fibres with a portable device, which allows to make a conclusion on the whole received batch for a small number of measurements, which will allow to determine without errors the mechanical reliability at a certain technique of installation - researches in this field have been conducted since the end of the 70s with the support of such structures as Bell Labs, even after leaving the AT&T company, and the U.S. Navy, which ensures the reliability of the results obtained in the course of their application. In the end, this will make it possible to significantly reduce the rate of line failures, both by directly improving the quality of the work carried out by the company's employees and, if necessary, by choosing a different strategy for laying fibre optic cables. The practice has an important additional feature: it is not tied to a specific type of optical fibre, thanks to the availability of a set of working profiles in the on-board computer of the device, which are responsible for different types of optical fibres. These profiles can be adjusted over a wide range of limits in a way that is accessible to the experienced PC user, so that there are no problems with their practical application, provided that they are physically correct. This fact is guaranteed by the deep level of immersion of the practitioners in the subject of two-point bending of various multilayer rods (in general, strength tests can be carried out on any multilayer rod with a sufficiently low theoretical resistance to bending, obtained by means of deductions from the theory of elasticity, for example, from the inference of rod bending, or, for special accuracy of the model, from the bending of a cylindrical shell or cylinder).
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Manufacturing management and optimization
To implement the instrument in a production or maintenance team, the initial purchase, setup with a workstation (not necessary for field teams) and training of staff to calibrate the zero value of the distance between the plates of the instrument are required. The calibration process takes less than 20 minutes and should be carried out after approximately two thousand measurements. This allows for the implementation of the instrument to be completed in approximately three working days, assuming all the required working profiles are available. Should additional profiles be required, the development time will be approximately one working week for each missing profile.
The device is not location-based, as the problem it solves is not limited to any particular locality or jurisdiction. The project team anticipates a broad geographical range of applications for the device. It will occupy a well-deserved niche in the typically western economies of North America, Americans still have territories where subscribers connect to PBXs to access the Internet. It will also be well-positioned in India. The device has been used as one of the diagnostic devices of a city Internet provider. With further project development and the addition of new working profiles, it will be possible to measure the strength of not only optical fibres and expand the customer base.
There are analogues of the device manufactured by FiberSigma (geographical coverage - UK with some offices in the Commonwealth of Nations and USA) and ThorLabs (geographical coverage mainly - USA and Germany). The advantages over the ThorLabs product are labelled T and the advantages over the FiberSigma product are labelled F. The main competitive advantages of this meter are 1. High degree of measurement automation. The operator only has to give commands to perform measurements via a graphical interface and load the cable to be measured into the meter; [T]. 2. Fully automated calculation of various measurement related parameters such as fibre strain and non-linear modulus of elasticity; [T] 3. automatic plotting of the specimen strength based on the results of a series of measurements and approximation of the values obtained by various types of functions (according to the experience of using the instrument, these are most often polynomials of the second degree); [T][F] 4. The statistical processing of the measurement results, including the construction of a regression model, is also carried out in the automatic mode; [T][F]. 5. Algorithms performing one or another part of the process of taking and processing measurements are available for modification and editing by the user, and they can be stored in several variants as part of grouped work profiles in the memory of the meter; [T][F] 6. All data, including reference values (e.g. the above-mentioned Young's modules), are transmitted by the user to a workstation connected to the meter, the vast majority of which are compatible with the meter; [T][F]. 7. Simplified maintenance of the meter involves only its initial setting when paired with the workstation and its further calibration after about one thousand measurements; [F]. 8. Significantly lower cost of the instrument compared to those already on the market, also thanks to some of the features mentioned above; [T][F]. 9. Compactness of the device - none of its linear dimensions exceeds thirty centimetres; [F] 10. Unpretentiousness of the meter in terms of power supply, it is possible to power it from a portable source of electrical energy; [F]. 11. Ease of use of the meter for both the operator and the user during various operations, including purely user operations (e.g. changing the profile of the meter and downloading additional data); [T][F] 12. The ability to create work profiles relatively easily and to use them to measure the strength of completely different systems, while switching between operating modes with the highest possible speed; [T][F]. 13. Ease of changing the connection interface to the workstation. [T][F].
The device was presented at an international conference, where a representative was in attendance. The practice has now reached the final stage of the Russian Innovation Promotion Foundation, but unfortunately did not meet the criteria for immediate eligibility for a grant. The project leader has been nominated for prizes in various competitions held in the Russian Federation, including 1st place in the Student Workshop competition from Rosatom State Corporation.
Firstly, the paper presented at the international conference and the publication in the respected journal “Instruments and Experimental Techniques” are both related to the practice. We are currently preparing materials for two journal publications and five conference proceedings articles. These articles will provide a more detailed analysis of the two-point bending process of multilayer rods from a statistical perspective, and will present the optimal distribution for estimating the true ultimate strength with the fewest tests.
