This week at the Outside Plant Expo in San Antonio, TX, MicroCare introduced a fiber optic cleaning tool specifically engineered for high-volume production of fiber optic patch cords and jumpers. The company says its Sticklers CleanWipe BigBox system enable factory technicians to clean end-faces more quickly, more gently, more consistently and at the lowest possible cost.
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According to the company, the CleanWipe BigBox cleaning tool is based on a high-modulus wiping material that outperforms traditional cellulose, paper or fabric wipes. The material is soft, highly absorbent and inherently static-dissipative, which minimizes three very common cleaning problems. Most importantly, the exceptionally strong material is highly resistant to linting and shredding, eliminating the single most source of contamination, especially on LC end-faces.
The packaging of the CleanWipe BigBox device is an essential element to the performance of the product, notes MicroCare. A metal static pad surrounds the wiping surface, enhancing static control. The device features four color-coded CleanSlots tracks for the technicians to use when cleaning. By restricting end-face cleaning to these four slots, the risk of cleaning an end-face on an already-contaminated wipe is removed.
The design of the CleanWipe BigBix system also minimizes the handling of the wipe itself, protecting the wipe and the end-faces from contamination which can be deposited by clumsy handling. Each CleanWipe BigBox will deliver more than 3,200 cleanings. The company notes that this means that just a handful of CleanWipe BigBox cleaning devices will clean the entire daily output of the high-volume factories for just pennies per cleaning.
“It all comes down to the cost-per-part-cleaned,” explains MicroCare president, Christopher A. Jones. “By using the new CleanWipe BigBox system, companies can be sure their end-faces are perfectly clean, that test failures will be minimized and warranty failures will be close to zero. These drive substantial savings right to a factory’s bottom line.”
The new Sticklers CleanWipe BigBox cleaning tool is available from Sticklers distributors world-wide. The part number is #MCC-WCS800. For more details, visit www.SticklersCleaners.com/BigBox.