How are fiber optic cables spliced?
Two methods of splicing fiber optic cables exist: Mechanical splicing and fusion splicing.
Mechanical splicing involves butting the two fibers to be joined together in a mechanical splice connector, and crimping or gluing it in place. The connector is responsible for aligning them so the cores or claddings of the fibers align. Before joining them in the connector, the ends of the fiber are cleaved to give the best mating surfaces, with minimal loss and reflectance at the splice.
In fusion splicing, two fibers are melted together at the splice joint, aligned either to the fiber’s core or cladding. This is done using a relatively expensive fusion splicer, but gives significantly better results than mechanical splicing, with lower signal loss.
References
(2014) The FOA Reference For Fiber Optics – Mechanical Splices [Online]. Available: http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/termination/mechsplice.html