kSARIA Corp. (www.ksaria.com) previewed a fully automated fiber prep and fusion splicing system for optical-fiber module assembly this week.

The company previewed its system at the Fiber Optics Automation expo in Rosemont, IL.

kSARIA's Presta system is designed to integrate fiber prep and fusion splicing into one, continuous, in-line process which boosts throughput and yield while reducing labor costs.

The system strips, cleans, cleaves, splices, recoats and proof tests up to 40 fibers in a single pass in just one minute per splice with no operator intervention.

By packaging the fibers on bar-coded pallets, Presta can track each fiber's location, process state and performance quality, increasing first-pass yield and throughput. kSARIA says Presta can replace up to 15 operators as well as all the associated bench top prep and splicing tools.

"As the industry moves toward deployment of a metropolitan fiber-optic network, the development of high performance, low-cost optical modules is critical," says Jim McEleney, kSARIA's vice president. "The only way to achieve this production goal is to rethink the entire optical module assembly process."

The first Presta system will be shipped in December. The units are expected to be in full production early next year.