A fiber pigtail is a single, short, usually tight-buffered fiber optic cable with a factory-installed connector on one end, and un-terminated fiber on the other end. Fiber pigtails are different from cords because, pigtails have connectors on one end while cords have connectors on both ends. There are many advantages of using Factory-Terminated fiber optic pigtails. Here is why you must be using it.
Reduce the labor costs
Mostly a pigtail is stripped and fusion spliced. Splicing of pigtails to each fiber in the trunk “breaks out” the multi-fiber cable. When Installers work with single mode fiber all they have to do is typically have a fusion splicer machine. With a fusion splicer machine you just splice the pigtail right onto the fiber cable in a minute or less. So it reduces the labor costs to a minimum amount.
High quality fiber cords
Generally, the factory-terminated pigtails are made in a controlled environment of the factory. It means that the factories guarantee that the cords are of high quality made from reliable polishing machines. The factory promises low insertion loss, high return loss (low reflection). All the pigtail cords are labeled with factory-tested insertion loss and return loss. Also a serial number that you can trace to the factory measurements. So there is no need to worry about the quality of Factory-Terminated Factory-Terminated pigtails.
Make Pigtails out of cords
The testing of a pigtail in the field is risky and not easy. The unterminated end is difficult to check until the pigtail is actually spliced to the equipment. Thats why some of the installers avoid this problem by doing a few things ahead. They buy unjacketed fiber patch cord, test its performance, and then cut it into halves as two pigtails.
Best Performance
When installers combine the high quality fiber pigtails with correct fusion splicing practices it can offer some of the best performance for fiber optic cable termination. The high performance of fiber pigtails make it an easy pick. 99% of single mode applications use pigtails, as well as some multi-node applications.