Fiber optic patch cords and pigtails are the same as fiber optic products, but it is not a concept, in layman’s terms, fiber optic patch cords in two can be used as pigtails, in order to make you more clear the difference between pigtails and patch cords, I will expand the introduction.
Pigtail, only one end has a connector, while the other end is a fiber optic core break, connected to other fiber optic cores through fusion splicing, often found in fiber optic terminal boxes, used to connect fiber optic cables and fiber optic transceivers (between also used couplers, patch cord, etc.).
The pigtail has a fibre optic connector at one end and a fibre optic core break at the other end. The end with the fibre optic connector is used to connect the equipment, while the fibre optic core break is fused to the other fibre optic core break to achieve minimum insertion loss. Pigtails and patch cords are very similar in structure.
In simple terms, a patch cable is cut down the middle to form two pigtails. The pigtails have various connectors, usually 0.9mm in diameter, and are mounted in an ODF unit.
The patch cord has connectors at both ends and a thicker protective layer on the outside, and is generally used for the connection between the optical terminal and the terminal box, but can also be used in fibre optic communication systems, fibre optic access networks, fibre optic data transmission and local area networks and a number of other areas.
The pigtail can be commonly understood as a patch cord cut from the middle is two pigtails, pigtail only has a connector at one end, while the other end is the fiber core of the break, after fusion can be used with other fiber core connection.