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What Is Fiber Optic Closure?
Fiber optic closure, also known as fiber optic splicing closures, is a device used to provide space and protection for fiber optic cables spliced together. The fiber optic closure connects and stores optical fibers safely either in the outside plant or indoor buildings. It can provide protection for the fiber joint and the fiber cables since they have excellent mechanical strength and strong out shell, which ensures the joints are not damaged by the hostile environment.
Types of Fiber Optic Closure
No matter the size, types, and configuration of your network, protecting the connectivity is what counts. According to different applications, there are various types of fiber optic closures in the market for users to choose from and help them protect their networks.
Horizontal Type Fiber Optic Closure
Horizontal type fiber closure is like a flat or cylindrical case. This type of fiber splice closure is the most commonly used one in mounted aerials or buried underground. Horizontal type fiber optic closure usually contains one or more fiber splice trays to provide space and protection for fiber optic splices. Fiber splice trays used in different fiber optic splice closures may have different designs and fiber counts. The common fiber counts of flat fiber splice closure are 12 and 24 fibers.
Horizontal fiber optic splice closures are designed to be waterproof and dustproof. They have good adaptability and compression resistance, for they are commonly made of high tensile construction plastic. If attached to a pole or hung from wiring, these fiber splice closures need to be held firmly in place, to avoid damage from weather and wind.
The following picture shows a 96-fiber horizontal fiber optic splice closure. It has two input ports and two output ports providing space for 96 fiber splices. There are four standard 24-fiber splice trays stacked together inside the fiber optic splice closure.
Vertical Type Fiber Optic Closure
Vertical fiber optic closure looks like a dome, thus it is also called dome fiber optic splice closure or fiber dome closure. The dome shape makes it easy to be buried in many applications, though it also can be used above-ground as well.
Due to the growing network demands, there is a wide range of models and configurations of vertical fiber optic splice closures. High-capacity versions and variations in the number of splicing trays are also available in the market to meet the complex needs of today’s fiber-optic networks. The number of inlet/outlet ports of the dome fiber optic closure also varies with application needs. Dome fiber optic splice closure requires high-levels seals and waterproof technology, due to its underground applications. Besides, keeping insects and dirt out is also important for underground closures.
The following shows a vertical type splice closure which has five entries providing up to 24 fiber optic splices in two 12-fiber splice trays. Different from the above one, the internal fiber splice tray here is suitable for the vertical design of the fiber splice closure.