Patent ID: 8651751

Claim:
An apparatus for terminating a polymer optical fiber ribbon, comprising: a rigid framework; a cutting blade, wherein the cutting blade is mounted on a rotatable blade holder; an electronically controllable motor, wherein the electronically controllable motor rotates the blade holder around a defined rotational axis; a motorized translation stage, wherein the motorized translation stage is separately controlled to provide variable translation speed parallel to an axis of rotation of the blade holder; and a collet, wherein the collet is fixed to the framework, and wherein the collet: holds the optical fiber ribbon at a location such that the cutting blade passes through the optical fiber ribbon as the cutting blade rotates, and contains a channel, wherein the channel is threaded by the polymer optical fiber ribbon and comprises dimensions and shape at an exit from the collet such that there is a gap of less than about 400 μm between any point on an inner surface of the channel and a nearest point on an outer surface of the polymer optical fiber ribbon.