Patent ID: 6885800

Claim:
A method of cross-connecting the individual optical fibers of a plurality of fiber optic ribbons, comprising the steps of: providing a first substrate having an adhesive thereon; routing a plurality of individual optical fibers onto the substrate to form at least portions of a plurality of fiber optic input ribbons, reorganizing the fibers on the substrate and forming at least portions of a plurality of fiber optic output ribbons, the fibers extending beyond input and output sides of the substrate to define input tails and output tails of the input ribbons and output ribbons, respectively; providing a second substrate having an adhesive thereon; routing a plurality of individual optical fibers onto the second substrate to form at least portions of a plurality of fiber optic input ribbons, reorganizing the fibers on the second substrate and forming at least portions of a plurality of fiber optic output ribbons, the fibers extending beyond input and output sides of the substrate to define input tails and output tails of the input ribbons and output ribbons, respectively; coating the gathered input and output tails on the ribbonizing apparatus to hold the tails in ribbon form; and stripping the coated tails from the ribbonizing apparatus.