JPH07270659A - Manufacture of coated optical fiber ribbons - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a coated optical fiber ribbon manufacturing method having excellent productivity, capable of reducing the thickness of the ribbon and also having no trouble such as crocking. CONSTITUTION:A colored part for discriminating the position of each coated optical fiber 21 is installed in the longitudinal direction of the coated optical fiber ribbon 26 constituted by arranging plural coated optical fibers 21 in a parallel state. At the time of coating plural coated optical fibers 21 with a ribbon-forming material 27 for forming coated optical fibers into a ribbon and made of a synthetic resin in a mass so as to be arranged in a parallel state, the colored part 31 is formed by replacing a part of the ribbon forming material 27 with a colored ribbon-forming material. Thereafter, the ribbon-forming material 27 and the colored part are hardened. Thus, a work of manufacturing the coloring layer every coated fiber and a coloring layer printing work are unnecessitated, then, the productivity of the coated optical fiber ribbon is drastically improved and also, the manufacturing cost is drastically reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape core wire in which a plurality of optical fiber core wires are arranged side by side, and in particular, an optical fiber having a colored portion for identifying the position of each optical fiber core wire. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a fiber ribbon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When manufacturing such an optical fiber ribbon, as shown in FIG. 4, conventionally, a primary layer 2 and a secondary layer 3 are first formed on the outer peripheral surface of a bare optical fiber 1.
After forming the optical fiber core wire, a resin composition containing a coloring pigment is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the optical fiber core and cured to form a colored layer 4, and a dyed wire 5 is obtained.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the obtained dyeing lines 5 are arranged in parallel, and these dyeing lines 5 are formed into a tape shape to identify the position of each optical fiber.
The optical fiber ribbon 6 having the above is manufactured. In this optical fiber ribbon 6, the position of each optical fiber is identified by changing the color of the colored layer 4 of each optical fiber.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, uncolored optical fiber strands 7 are juxtaposed and covered with a tape coating layer 8, and a coloring agent is printed on the surface of the tape coating layer 8. By forming the colored portion 9 with the colored portion 9, the optical fiber ribbon 10 having the colored portion 9 for identifying the position of each optical fiber is manufactured.

[0005]

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, the above dyeing dye wire 5 to the optical fiber tape core wire 6 are used.
In the method of manufacturing the optical fiber, the colored layer 4 is formed on the optical fiber core wire.
Since a coloring step for forming each of the optical fibers is required, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost of the optical fiber ribbon increases. Furthermore, since the colored layer 4 is additionally provided on the optical fiber core wire, the outer diameter of the dye line 5 is increased accordingly, and it is difficult to manufacture a thin high-density optical fiber tape core wire. There is also a problem.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, in the method of manufacturing the optical fiber ribbon 10 by printing the colored portion 9 after forming the tape coating layer 8, it is used for adjusting the viscosity of the coloring agent. Since it is necessary to completely volatilize the existing solvent,
There is a problem that the winding speed of the optical fiber ribbon 10 cannot be made too high. Furthermore, when the optical fiber tape core wire 10 on which the colored portion 9 is formed by printing is put in a jury cable, the printed portion of the colored portion 9 may be dropped due to a jury material or the like, whereby the optical fiber core wire There is also a problem that it becomes difficult to identify the position.

The present invention effectively solves the above problems, and provides a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon which has excellent productivity, enables thinning of the tape, and is free from problems such as discoloration. To aim.

[0008]

The method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention is a coloring method for identifying the position of each optical fiber ribbon on an optical fiber ribbon in which a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are arranged in parallel. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, wherein a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are provided in a longitudinal direction, and when a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are collectively covered in parallel with a tape forming material made of synthetic resin, The means for solving the above problems is to replace the parts with colored tape forming materials to form the colored parts, and then to cure the tape forming materials and the colored parts. The colored portion may be formed in a sizing die.

[0009]

In the method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention, when a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are covered in parallel with the tape forming material, a part of the tape forming material is replaced with the colored tape forming material. After coating the tape-forming material so that it becomes a structure,
The colored tape-forming material is formed on the surface of the portion to be colored of this tape-forming material by a method such as injecting under high pressure, and then,
The tape forming material and the colored portion are cured, and the tape forming material and the colored portion are formed before passing through the sizing die of the tape forming material, and these are cured at the same time. Since it is not necessary to form the colored portion on the substrate, the process can be omitted. Therefore, productivity can be improved and cost can be significantly reduced. In addition, since it is not necessary to form a colored layer on the optical fiber core as in the conventional case, there is no problem of increasing the outer diameter dimension as in the case of forming a colored layer, so that a thin colored tape can be easily obtained. . Further, since the colored portion is formed of a tape material, there is no problem such as discoloration when used in a jelly type cable.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The manufacturing method of this optical fiber ribbon
As shown in FIG. 2, a parallel process of sending out a plurality of optical fiber core wires 21 to the concentrating portion 23 by the wire rod sending portion 20 and sending the plurality of optical fiber core wires 21 in parallel to the concentrating portion 23 to the coating die 25. , Coating die 25
Then, the tape forming material 27 and the colored portion 31 are formed on the plurality of optical fiber core wires 21 in the same step, and
And a tape-forming material curing step of curing the tape-forming material 27 and the colored portion 31 with a curing device 28, and a winding section of the cured optical fiber tape core wire 26 via a dancer 29. It is manufactured by a winding process of winding at 30.

In the parallel process of each of these processes, the optical fiber core wires 21 are unwound in a certain direction from the plurality of bobbins 21 of the wire rod feeding section 20, and the optical fiber core wires 21 are set at predetermined positions by the concentrating section 23. Parallel. Then, in the tape forming material coating step, the plurality of optical fiber core wires 21 are passed through the coating die 25 to form the optical fiber tape core wire 26 having the colored portion 31. As shown in FIG. 1, the coating die 25 is a tape forming material 2 in which the periphery of a plurality of optical fiber core wires 21 arranged in parallel is coated with a synthetic resin.
7. A resin coating portion 35 for forming 7 and a sizing die 36 for forming the tape forming material 27 to have a predetermined thickness.
And a supply unit 37 that is provided in the sizing die 36 and that supplies the colored tape forming material that constitutes the coloring unit 31 to the side of the tape forming material 27. When the colored tape-forming material is supplied in the sizing die 36 in this manner, the tape-forming material does not convection and mix with each other, so that the colored portion 31 can be reliably formed.

In the tape-forming material curing step, for example, when the same UV-curable resin is used for the tape-forming material 27 and the coloring portion 31, the tape-forming material 27 and the coloring portion 31 are irradiated with ultraviolet rays. , Cure them at the same time. Also, when the same thermosetting resin is used for the tape forming material 27 and the colored portion 31, it is similarly cured by heating. Then, in the winding step, the cured optical fiber tape core wire 26 is passed through the dancer 29, and the dancer 2
The optical fiber ribbon 26 is wound up from the winding section 30 from 9.

Therefore, according to such a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, when the plurality of optical fiber ribbons 21 are covered in parallel with the tape forming material 27, the tape forming material 27 is coated with a coloring agent. Since the colored portion 31 is formed of the tape forming material containing the and then the tape forming material 27 and the colored portion 31 are cured, the tape forming material 27 and the colored portion 31 can be manufactured at the same time. The work of manufacturing the colored portion 31 for each 21 and the work of printing the colored layer become unnecessary. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the optical fiber ribbon 27 can be significantly reduced.

[0014]

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention, when a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are coated in parallel with each other, the taped material is used. The tape-forming material and the colored part are formed in the same process in which a part is replaced with the colored tape-forming material, and these are cured simultaneously, so that each optical fiber is colored like the conventional colored tape core wire. Eliminates the work of manufacturing parts and printing of colored layers. Therefore, it is possible to significantly improve the productivity of the optical fiber ribbon and to significantly reduce the manufacturing cost.

Further, since the colored portion is formed by replacing a part of the tape forming material, the outer diameter of the optical fiber tape can be increased as in the case of forming a colored layer for each optical fiber core wire. Therefore, the optical fiber tape core wire can be made thinner. Also, since the colored part is made of tape material,
Unlike the case where the colored portion is formed by printing on the surface of the optical fiber ribbon, the colored portion does not drop due to the jury material or the like, so that the stable identification function can be maintained for a long period of time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an entire manufacturing process of an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the coating die of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the optical fiber ribbon of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a conventional dyeing line.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical fiber tape core wire manufactured from the dyeing wire of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an optical fiber ribbon which has a colored portion formed by printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 ... Optical fiber core wire, 26 ... Optical fiber tape core wire,
27 ... Tape forming material, 31 ... Colored part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon comprising a plurality of optical fiber ribbons arranged in parallel with each other, and a colored portion for identifying the position of each optical fiber ribbon is provided in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, when a plurality of optical fiber core wires are coated in parallel in a batch with a synthetic resin tape forming material, a part of the tape forming material is replaced with a colored tape forming material to form the colored portion. Then, a method for producing an optical fiber ribbon, which comprises curing the tape-forming material and the colored portion. 2. The method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to claim 1, wherein the colored portion is formed in a sizing die.