Converting a pigtail splice tray to a strip tray involves removing pigtails, preparing the trunk fibers, and routing them into the strip tray for ribbon or strip splicing while maintaining proper bend radius and polarity.

Preparation

1. Remove Existing Pigtails: Open the splice tray and carefully release the pigtail fibers from their holders or mesh inserts, ensuring no tension is applied to the fibers during removal (as described in AFL RTD instructions) .
2. Prepare Trunk Fibers: Strip the protective jacket and buffer from the incoming trunk fibers using a fiber jacket stripper. For ribbonized fibers, use a ribbon cable jacket splitter tool to expose the individual ribbons without damaging the fibers .

Installing Strip Tray

1. Insert Ribbon or Strip Fibers: Place the prepared ribbon or strip fibers into the designated slots or compartments of the strip tray. Ensure that the fibers follow the tray's routing paths to maintain proper bend radius and avoid pinching .
2. Splicing: Perform fusion or mechanical splicing between the trunk fibers and the new strip fibers according to standard practices. For single-fiber splicing from a ribbon, de-ribbonize as needed .
3. Polarity Management: Maintain correct fiber polarity by following the tray manufacturer's guidelines. Ribbon trays often require specific fiber-to-fiber alignment to ensure straight-through or universal wiring .

Securing and Managing Slack

1. Looping and Securing Fibers: Create gentle loops of excess fiber inside the tray and secure them with hook-and-loop straps or tie wraps. Avoid tight bends to prevent signal loss .
2. Tray Installation: Slide the strip tray into the enclosure, securing it to the base plate or swing-out holder. Ensure that the trunk fibers are routed around the tray without pinching and that the tray can move freely if it is a sliding or swing-out type .

Final Checks

• Verify that all fibers are properly seated and that no fibers are under tension.
• Confirm that the splice tray cover is in place and that the enclosure doors are securely latched.
• Test connectivity to ensure that splices are correctly aligned and that insertion loss is within acceptable limits. By following these steps, you can successfully transition from a pigtail-based splice tray to a strip or ribbon tray configuration, improving fiber density and organization while maintaining network performance and reliability.