Part of the manufacturing process for Fiber-based Lasers requires that the ends of sections of optical glass fibers are etched into a tapered conical shape. This requires dip-etching fibers and extracting at a smooth, precise, and programmable rate. Our customer wanted to increase their production capacity via a custom tool for dipping sections of stripped optical fiber into a corrosive HF etch chemistry.
We designed and fabricated all custom components. The cabinet, X-Z dip stage, custom recirculating covered dip tanks (minimum volume HF etch and DI rinse), custom peristaltic pumps (for tank circulation, fill, and drain), negative exhaust safety alarms, chemical storage containment, and full process automation via programmable controls and a remote PC with a secure-controls interface .
