Alignment and ball lens gluing

Info from video and own experience:

Alignment of the finger on the gluing jig for the ball lenses

1) Align the laser to the optical rail by putting the target as far and as close as possible from the laser (2 positions)

2) Align the fingertable with the finger gripper with a 90 degree angle

3) Put a flat mirror on the top of the fingertable and adjust the 45° folding mirror so that the beam is reflected back in to the laser

4) Put Typex on the 45° mirror adjusting screws so that it can't be moved

For the next steps use the dummy fibre with the mandrels on each side

5) Mount a mandrel in the gripper and the side in the power meter

6) Use the laser on the optical rail to fire light in the fibre

7) Adjust the mandrel so that maximum light is coming out at the AF2 side.(check this with the fibre power meter or the output figure)

8) Put the dummy finger with the ball lenses on the fingertable. Use the middle hole to adjust the fingertable so the spot on the target on the optical rail is in the middle. DO NOT AJUST THE MANDREL ITSELF. Now you have located the optical axes of the table with the optical rail

9) Put Typex on the micrometers of the fingertable so that it can't be moved

Gluing the fibre in the fingers

10) Replace the test fibre with the real fibre module

11) Put an assembled finger with the ball lenses in on the fingertable

12) Bring the fibre in the first hole (defined as looking from the fold mirror to the target, the first hole is at the target side on the left)

13) Align the fibre, by adjusting the gripper position, so that the spot at 1190 mm from the finger is in the middle of the target.

14) Put the UV-glue at the end of the fibre and the LOCTITE 415 on the top plate of the finger

15) Spray some LOCTITE ACTIVATOR on the top plate

16) Light the finger with the UV-light source to harden the UV-glue

17) Remove the gripper from the fibre

18) Put another fibre in the gripper and go on to the next hole (working from left to right along each row and form up to down)

19) Repeat steps 15 to 19 until all fibres have been glued

20) Remove the finger with the fibres and store them well

21) Assemble a new fibre module at the AF2 side and a new finger on the table

22) Repeat steps 14 till 20 until all fingers have been done