Characterize the Oven Ports to Validate Your Curing Schedule

Published: July 12, 2018

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Setting up a new bonding process and need to establish the curing schedule or your production process is set but experiencing fiber movement and need to adjust curing temperature or time, here is a FOC TIP to validate your curing schedule:

Characterize the oven ports – If you thermally cure epoxy, you must characterize the oven ports. Note that you are not measuring the ambient temperature of the port; instead, you are measuring the temperature of the epoxy inside a connector.

Using a thermocouple probe potted in a ferrule is a great way to characterize oven ports, because this mimics the actual epoxy-curing process for your product.

For example, let’s say your curing schedule is 100 degrees C for 10 minutes. That doesn’t mean you simply put a connector into a 100-degree oven for 10 minutes. The epoxy’s temperature is influenced by the mass of the connector, so it may take 2 or 3 minutes for the epoxy’s internal temperature to reach 100 degrees C. Your total curing time maybe 12 minutes, not 10.

READ THE BLOG: Bonding Optical Fiber to the Ceramic Ferrule Part 3: Best practices to validate your epoxy curing schedule

Additional resources from the FOC team include:

Category Resource:
- FOC Epoxy Page
View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com

Have questions about this FOC Tip?

Contact FOC with questions at: (800) 473-4237 / 508-992-6464 or email: FiberOpticCenter@focenter.com and we will respond ASAP.

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About the Author

FOC Tips Fiber Optic Center has a team of technical experts and marketing strategists with decades of years in the field. This team contributes to the fiber, cable and specialty industries coverage through news, alerts, reports and general media information.

About Fiber Optic Center, Inc.

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., (FOC), is an international leader in distributing fiber optic components, equipment and supplies and has been helping customers make the best cable assemblies in the world for over two decades. Several areas of specialization and expertise, in which they are the industry leader, make them the preferred choice for many of the world’s fiber professionals. In these key technology areas, FOC is "at least as technical as the manufacturer" about the products they sell. Striving to "make the business part easy," they offer outstanding and personal customer service, low or no minimum purchase order values, and from-stock delivery on industry-leading products and technology. FOC is the industry connection to the most innovative optical products, technologies and technical experts who integrate their manufacturing knowledge and vast experience into customers' worldwide operations. @FiberOpticCntr

For further information contact:

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., 23 Centre Street, New Bedford, MA 02740-6322
Toll Free in US: 800-IS-FIBER or 800-473-4237 . Direct 508-992-6464. Email: sales@focenter.com or fiberopticcenter@focenter.com

For media contact:

Kathleen Skelton, Director of Strategic Marketing, C: 617-803-3014 . E: kskelton@focenter.com

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