Optical fibre is used in many different industries for example hospitality, entertainment, displays and multi-sensory environments.
The use of glass helps as it allows the light to travel through with decreased loss than when using metals. The light is kept in the core of the fibre by the internal reflections. These internal reflections cause a waveguide which confines the light for it to travel through the tube of the fibre. Some fibre optics have a light fitting attached to the end of the tubes, for example paver fittings, downlight fittings and hermetic fittings.
As the fibre optic light fittings are machined, these become contaminated with oils and lubricating machine fluids which needs to be removed prior to the fittings being applied to the fibre optics. An ideal machine for removing these contaminants is an immersion wash and the Vixen Agiwash machine uses an immersion washing principle.
The Agiwash machine has a pneumatic ram at 60 strokes per minute; this causes a flushing action to occur, thoroughly removing any unwanted materials. This is particularly effective when cleaning tubular components or components which are complicated in shape and impossible to clean by simply spray washing. The components are cleaned quickly allowing them to flash dry very easily which is important for saving time in production, particularly when you need a lot of parts cleaned and dried quickly and efficiently.
Another more bespoke use for fibre optics is for connectors in the marine industry. The VM36 machine within Vixen’s Jetair range has been purchased for this particular application with the optional extras of a cyclone and extractor. The company use this particular machine to key the connectors which roughens the surface to give it more adhesive properties. The cyclone and extractor effectively separate the waste broken down abrasive from the good reusable abrasive. This process effectively means the abrasive remains constant in grade and any dust and debris is removed which maintains good visibility for the operator.