Some optical cleaners for lenses may leave residues

Some optical cleaners for lenses may leave residues. Residues usually attract dirt and make it stick.

We have used Alco Pads which are pure isopropyl alcohol on lint-free pads for over 20 years with no problems. After the alcohol evaporates, they are good to dry the ends of the ferrules after cleaning.

All "canned air" has a liquid propellant and may leave a residue unless you 1. hold them perfectly level when spraying and 2. spray for 3-5 seconds before using to insure that any liquid propellant is expelled from the nozzle. These cans can be used to blow dust out of bulkheads with a connector in the other side or an active device mount (xmit/rcvr). NEVER use compressed air from a hose (they emit a fine spray of oil from the compressor!) or blow on them (you breath is full of moisture , not to mention all those germs!)

A better way to clean these bulkheads is to remove both connectors and clean with Alco Pads, then use a swab made of the same material with alcohol on it to clean out the bulkhead.

Detectors on FO power meters should also be cleaned occasionally to remove dirt. Take the connector adapter off and wipe the surface, then air dry or dry with a lint-free wipe.

Ferrules on the connectors/cables used for testing will get dirty by scraping off the material of the alignment sleeve in the splice bushing. Some of these sleeves are molded glass-filled thermoplastic and sold for multimode applications. These will give you a dirty connector ferrule in 10 insertions. You can see the front edge of the connector ferrule getting black. The alignment sleeve will build up an internal ledge and cause a gap between the mating ferrules - creating an attenuator!

Use the metal or ceramic alignment sleeve bulkheads only, especially for testing where you have repeated insertions.

Cleaning contaminated connectors requires aggressive scrubbing on the ferrule sides with the AlcoPad and tossing the bulkhead away.

December 2, 2011

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