Powerful, positionable Ring of Fire® heat source provides even heating for fiber splicing, fiber end-capping, Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) splicing and other applications. • Splicing of 50 μm – 2.5 mm diameter fibers can all be accomplished using one machine. • Ability to splice largely dissimilar fiber diameters (with or without fiber shaping) surpasses capabilities of all existing splice technologies. • “Ionic Ablation” fiber cleaning software provides a secondary cleaning of optical fibers. • Extremely high splice strengths are achievable without repetitive passes of the plasma field. • Repeatable and reliable system performance achieved through three automated, easy-to-implement internal calibrations. • Up to 10 axes of active feedback fiber alignment • Pitch and yaw alignment (+/- 20° range of motion with 0.01° adjustability). • “Hot” imaging of x- and y- dimensions, provided simultaneously using two independent, orthogonally mounted cameras, enables user to view fiber processes in real time. • Automatic scanning software scans fiber diameters pre- and post-splice. • System capable of splicing end-cap materials with high melting temperatures (sapphire). • Radius Calculation Tool provides real-time radius values and pass/fail monitoring capability for lenses generated on fiber ends. • Two-dimensional geometric scanning provides precision heat source balancing by monitoring extremely small dimensional differences in capillary walls or fiber diameters. • Capability of uniformly collapsing Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) to lengths below 50% the fiber diameter allows low fiber waste cleaving, ultrasonic cleaning (no liquid wicking into air holes) and achievement of excellent splice losses. • Many Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCF) can be spliced with no air hole collapse. • Graphical User Interface (GUI) is intuitive, clearly marked and easy to use; no need to scroll through menus or find functions imbedded within other functions to change program parameters. • Real time data and high quality images (before, during and after splice or other process) can be captured and automatically saved to Microsoft compatible files. • Piezo-driven flexure stage and software package providing 130 μm of vibration-free z-axis motion with 0.25 μm theoretical resolution. • Removal of vibrations, hysteresis and backlash allows for absolute fiber alignment during the critical final stage of splicing.