Vytran, a supplier of semi-automated and fully automated fiber fusion splicing and glass processing solutions for the telecom, fiber laser, sensing, medical, aerospace, and specialty fiber products markets, has announced an automatic optical fiber cleaver.

Known as the LDC-400, the new product can create flat and angled cleaves on fibers that are 80 microns to 1.25 mm in diameter. This flexible precision tool is intended to cleave standard and specialty fibers for fiber laser, research, medical, defense, aerospace, telecommunications and sensing applications.

The LDC-400 will make its first appearance at Vytran's Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, or "CLEO": Expo 2010 in San Jose, California on May 18-20, 2010.

Jean-Michel Pelaprat, the president and chief executive officer at Vytran, stated that their new LDC-400 fiber cleaver is derived from the corroborate technology and strong design of the company's successful LDC-200 series of fiber cleavers. The LDC-200 series is a product line that Vytran has distributed for several years.

The LDC-400 has numerous major enhancements such as its ability to enables users to slice large diameter optical fibers up to 1.25 mm - an important feature for a lot of early stage applications in the medical device and fiber laser markets. The latest LDC model is also more reliable and easier to use than the older models.

By using tension and scribe technology, the LDC-400 cleavers are able to make precise, consistent cleaves with mirror-quality end-face finishes. This model can also be configured to create cleaves that are angled up to 15 degrees. It has programmable cleave tension, scribe conditions and rotation angle, as well as, special processes for cleaving photonic crystal fiber, polarization maintaining fibers or capillary tubing. The LDC-400 can also be utilized to cleave a lot of non-circular fibers that are normally used in fiber laser systems.

Vytran products are intended to the risk for customers, speed their products to market, and reduce their cost of ownership.