Resource Library

Wet-Dry Cleaning — What Are the Advantages? Is It Really Better?

As people became aware of the problems with IPA alcohol, many folks discontinued the use of solvents and went with dry cleaning only. However, dry cleaning has been proven to be less than desirable. As it turns out, wiping dry on a fiber end-face will generate a static charge (technically known as a triboelectric charge)…

What's the Best Way to Clean Plastic Clad Silica Fiber?

When cleaning soft plastic clad silica fiber, the Sticklers™ team recommends using the Sticklers™ fiber optic cleaning fluid. This chemistry is used every day to clean PCS fiber in various applications. For example, an aerospace manufacturer uses the Sticklers™ cleaning fluid on their PCS fiber. It works very well and does not cause any deformation or…

What's the Best Way to Clean Ports, Down Inside Alignment Sleeves?

Cleaning inside the alignment sleeve is one of the most challenging cleaning tasks in industry today, and yet it must be performed quickly, consistently and reliably for the fiber network to operate to its rated specifications. To clean inside an alignment sleeve, you should use a clean-room grade optical swab or a push-to-clean cleaning tool.…

Best Practice Cleaning Fiber — What's the Right Technique?

When cleaning fiber, it is absolutely essential that you follow best practices techniques to get perfectly clean end faces before mating. This means (a) cleaning and inspecting both end-faces every time they are mated, (b) using a fast-drying solvent engineered for fiber optic cleaning, (c) using the right kind of wipe (for jumpers) or swabs (for ports), and (d) only using them once.But how should those tools…

Cleaning Jumpers and Exposed End-faces — What’s the Best Way?

The fiber end-face should be inspected with a fiberscope of at least 80-200x magnification, and if it is contaminated, it should be cleaned using wet-dry cleaning.With the wet-dry cleaning method, an optical quality cleaning cloth and fluid are used. When using this method, dampen the cleaning cloth with the Sticklers® Fiber Optic Splice and Connector Cleaner Fluid (#MCC-POC03M) and…

Swabs or Clickers — Which Is Better, and When?

One of the most common questions we get is asking for guidance upon when to use a mechanical clicker and when should a tech should use a stick to clean. That’s a great question.Here’s the short answer: clickers get you fast cleaning, but sticks get you better cleaning. Which is the right choice? It depends.The thing about click-to-clean tools is they’re…