Almost all polishers have MT fixtures but there is a substantial difference on capability and performance. It’s like with cars; you will notice the difference when driving it.
As you might notice on our website, in addition to Domaille, we are also a distributor for Seikoh Giken. About 15 years ago we concluded with large companies that Domaille has the best platform for MT while SG is dedicated to high volume single fiber telecom connectors. Occasionally we provide comparison demonstrations with always the same outcome. From USA, to China, Europe and Turkey ~ Domaille’s are used.
We had received a question under AskFOC that was understandable about price differences. Part of my answer included that there are options – for instance, you do not have to select the top computerized model. The HDC-4000 would give you the same performance for less. It will still be more expensive but you will have the benefit of having lowest production costs and spending less money on inspection and rework. Rework is very expensive on MTP assemblies and over 30% higher on other polishing platform according to our customers.
With many customers we’ve seen all polishing solutions and most of our customers are interested to produce MT assemblies with stable and good results (independent of production batches, operator etc.). Just a few arguments that might help you:
- The Domaille polishers show a much higher mechanical accuracy in fixturing, polishing movement, perpendicularity with orbital movement. The Domaille’s have a larger diameter stability ring underneath the rotation platen (much larger than the 5” fixture diameter), which means you’re polishing within your mechanical tolerance. All other polishers have smaller diameters 3-4”.
- Also the Domaille fixture does not move sideways, like many other circular polishers, you can polish 1 or 2 MT ferrules having the same performance as a full fixture. In production you will have situations where you would partially load fixture.
- The polishing process (CMP, chemical mechanical edging) requires controlled pressure and polishing speeds at every polishing step to enable the right uniformity and fiber height on all fibers. Keep in mind we’re managing min. 12 outstanding fibers at 1000-3000 nanometers with a max. variation of 200nm.
From commercial point, when providing MTP jumpers in the market you will notice that certain customers require different fiber protrusion. Polishers with larger geometrical variation will not get qualified. The Domaille polisher is the semi standard polisher for MTP and that is your competitive landscape. If would be a great disappointment when you can’t meet the customer’s performance and miss the sales opportunity.
A detailed quotation will very much depend on your existing equipment, experience etc. We can quote same day for:
- Polisher with one fixture
- Visual inspection
- Optical inspection
- Tools and consumables
Please contact sales@focenter.com with further questions or to set up a quote request.
