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Fiber optic cleaving is the process to scribe and break an optical fiber endface. Fiber optic technicians need some training in order to gain the skills necessary for best possible results.

The goal of fiber cleaving is to produce a mirror like fiber endface for fiber splicing – either fusion splicing or mechanical fiber splicing. incorrect or pool cleaving techniques will result in lips and hackles which makes good fiber splicing impossible. A bad cleaving usually has to be redone.

The tools needed for fiber cleaving are called fiber optic cleavers or fiber cleave tools. There are two types available on the market: high precision fiber cleaver and field fiber cleaver.

High precision fiber cleavers cost from $1,000 to $5000 dollars while field fiber cleavers cost from $100 to $500 dollars. High precision fiber cleavers are usually used for fiber fusion splicing applications while field fiber cleavers are mostly for field installable fiber connector applications.

The design of fiber optic cleavers varies among manufacturers such as AFL, Corning, Fujikura or York. But the working principle is the same. Here I describe a typical work flow of optical fiber cleavers.

Step one: Strip the fiber to its cladding size, the standard optical fiber cladding size is 125um. The strip length depends on your application.

Step Two: clean the fiber with lint-free wipes moistened with isopropyl alcohol.

Step three: Place the stripped and cleaned bare fiber into the fiber cleaver

Step four: Scribe the bare fiber with either a cutting wheel or a blade

Step five: Break the fiber with the built-in mechanism on the cleaver

Step six: Remove the fiber scrap and put it into a fiber disposal unit

This semi-automated process produces high quality cleaving in minimum steps. It has been used widely in the fiber optic communication industry.