CN115685451A - Expand a beam cable connector and aim at subassembly and expand a beam cable connector - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a beam expanding optical cable connector aligning assembly and a beam expanding optical cable connector, which comprise a base body and at least one collimator arranged in collimator mounting holes of the base body, wherein the number of the collimator mounting holes is the same as that of the collimators, the base body is provided with a positioning pin positioned in the positioning pin mounting hole and a positioning pin hole used for accommodating a positioning pin on another beam expanding optical cable connector aligning assembly, and the outer diameter of the positioning pin is matched with the inner diameters of the positioning pin mounting hole and the positioning pin hole; the invention provides a light expansion cable connector which can be butted under low pressure by arranging the annular end face as a positioning reference surface, keeps excellent use hand feeling and can reduce the influence of impurities such as dust on the whole butt-joint assembly and the cable connector.

Description

Expand a beam cable connector and aim at subassembly and expand a beam cable connector

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of optical fiber transmission, in particular to a beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly and a beam expanding optical cable connector.

Background

The light expanding optical cable connector has the characteristics of easiness in cleaning, dust prevention and the like, so that the light expanding optical cable connector is widely applied to severe environments such as the field and the airborne environment. The optical reference surfaces of the existing beam expanding optical cable connector and the alignment assembly thereof are generally two, one is a front end surface, and the other is a circumferential surface. A typical representation of the type of front face is a flared beam cable connector as described in CN200620042106.9, where the front face is a rigid flat plate. A representative of the circumferential surface type is CN201610651305.8, in which the alignment of two expanded beam alignment assemblies (modules) uses a sleeve (reference numeral 15), and the reference surface of each alignment assembly is the circumferential surface of the front end. The contact area of the two hard flat plates when the beam expansion optical cable connectors aligned by the hard flat plates are butted is very large, and large pressure is needed. If the pressure is not enough, the two reference surfaces are not coincident, and the loss is influenced; if the pressure is too high, the user is required to have larger arm strength, and the operation is seriously influenced. The alignment sleeve of a cable extender connector that is aligned using a sleeve is typically a ceramic or metal material, and the surface area of circumferential contact is also very large, and the alignment sleeve also needs to provide a large compressive force against the circumferential surface, or else it cannot be aligned, thereby affecting loss. Similarly, if too large compression force is adopted, the ceramic sleeve is easy to damage, and the hand feeling of the connector is also influenced. The hard flat plate and the circumferential surface which are used as reference surfaces have large surface area and high requirements on flatness and surface roughness accuracy, so that the processing is difficult; and is also susceptible to deformation of other parts and debris and external dust during assembly and use.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly and a beam expanding optical cable connector, which can solve the technical problems that the processing is difficult and the cable is easily influenced by impurities such as dust and the like due to the large surface area of a reference surface of the beam expanding optical cable connector.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

a flare bundle fiber optic connector alignment assembly 101, comprising: the collimator comprises a base body 2 and at least one collimator 3 arranged in collimator mounting holes 30 of the base body 2, wherein the number of the collimator mounting holes 30 is the same as that of the collimators 3, the base body 2 is provided with positioning pins 1 positioned in positioning pin mounting holes 27 and positioning pin holes 22 used for accommodating the positioning pins 1 on another expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly 101, and the outer diameter of each positioning pin 1 is matched with the inner diameters of the positioning pin mounting holes 27 and the positioning pin holes 22; the base body 2 is provided with a plane 29 which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body 2, the plane 29 is lower than the front end face of the base body 2 to form the front end face of the base body 2, so that an annular end face 25 which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body 2 is formed, and the positioning pin 1, the positioning pin mounting hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22 are arranged on the front end face of the base body 2 in an axial direction in parallel; the axial distance between the plane 29 and the front end face of the base body 2 is L, and the width of the annular end face 25 in the radial direction is D.

Furthermore, the preferable range of the axial distance L between the plane 29 and the front end face of the base body 2 is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 1.5mm.

Furthermore, the preferable range of the width D of the annular end surface 25 in the radial direction is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 3mm.

Preferably, the positioning pin 1 and the positioning pin hole 22 are in clearance fit or interference fit.

Preferably, the collimator 3 is fixed in the collimator mounting hole 30 by bonding or welding with glue, so that alignment between the optical cable connector and the optical fiber 31 in the collimator 3 is realized, and alignment connection of the expanded beam optical path is ensured.

Preferably, the two ends of the positioning pin 1 are provided with chamfers 11, and the positioning pin hole 22 is provided with a rounding matched with the chamfers 11, so that when two expanded beam cable connector alignment assemblies 101 are butted, the positioning pin 1 can be smoothly aligned and inserted into the positioning pin hole 22 of the base body 2 on another expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101.

To achieve the objective of the present invention, the present invention further provides a cable connector with enlarged beam, which is characterized by comprising an inner housing assembly 100, an outer housing 102, a tail attachment 103, and an alignment assembly 101 of the cable connector with enlarged beam according to the present invention disposed at the front end of the inner housing assembly 100.

Further, the inner housing assembly 100 is provided with a positioning surface 107, the expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101 is provided with a step surface 28, and the positioning surface 107 and the step surface 28 are arranged in a matching manner and used for limiting the axial movement between the expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101 and the inner housing assembly 100; a key groove 24 is arranged at the tail of the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly 101, a positioning key 108 is arranged on the inner shell assembly 100, and the key groove 24 and the positioning key 108 are arranged in a matching manner and used for limiting the rotation between the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly 101 and the inner shell assembly 100.

Further, the outer housing 102 is a connection locking mechanism, and the outer housing 102 and the inner housing assembly 100 of another bundle expansion optical cable connector are locked to each other through a threaded connection structure or a bayonet structure, so as to achieve a mechanical connection function between the connectors.

Preferably, the positioning pin mounting hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22 of the flare bundle optical cable connector alignment assembly 101 are blind holes, and the base body 2 is provided with a sealing ring groove 23 for assembling the sealing ring 106 and the end face sealing ring 109, so as to prevent water, oil, moisture, dust, etc. from entering the interior of the optical cable connector to affect the performance of the optical cable connector.

According to the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly and the expanded beam optical cable connector, the annular end face is arranged as the positioning reference surface, the expanded beam optical cable connector which can be butted at low pressure is provided, excellent use hand feeling is kept, and meanwhile the influence of impurities such as dust on the whole butting assembly and the optical cable connector can be reduced. Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

1. according to the alignment assembly of the beam expanding optical cable connector and the beam expanding optical cable connector, the annular end face is arranged as the positioning reference surface, the beam expanding optical cable connector which can be butted can be realized at low pressure, excellent use hand feeling is kept, and meanwhile, the influence of impurities such as dust on the whole butt assembly and the optical cable connector can be reduced.

2. By arranging the annular end face with different cross-sectional shapes, more parts can be conveniently installed.

3. The expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly and the expanded beam optical cable connector provided by the invention have excellent sealing performance, and can adapt to various different connector shells through the arrangement of the key slot, the step surface and the like of the base body.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the construction of a flare bundle fiber optic cable connector alignment assembly;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a flare bundle fiber optic cable connector alignment assembly in a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is another cross-sectional view of the alignment assembly of the expanded beam fiber optic connector in the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic end view of a flare bundle fiber optic connector alignment assembly in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a substrate in a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is another cross-sectional view of the substrate in a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the structure of the expanded beam cable connector in the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a expanded beam fiber optic cable connector in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the docking of the expanded beam fiber optic cable connector in the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

description of reference numerals:

1: positioning pins; 2: a substrate; 3: a collimator; 11: chamfering; 22: a positioning pin hole; 23: a seal ring groove; 24: a keyway; 25: an annular end face; 27: a positioning pin mounting hole; 28: a step surface; 29: a plane; 30: a collimator mounting hole; 31: an optical fiber; 100: an inner housing assembly; 101: aligning the assembly; 102: an outer housing; 103: a tail attachment; 104: an optical cable; 105: a spring; 106: a seal ring; 107: positioning the surface; 108: a positioning key; 109: an end face seal ring; 251: straight sides; 252: round corners; 253: an inner bevel; 254: an outer bevel.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the following drawings and specific examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

With reference to fig. 1 to fig. 3, the alignment assembly 101 for a beam expanding optical cable connector provided by the present invention includes a base 2, a collimator 3 installed in a collimator installation hole 30 of the base 2, the base 2 is provided with a positioning pin 1 located in a positioning pin installation hole 27 and a positioning pin hole 22 for receiving a positioning pin 1 on another beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly 101, and an outer diameter of the positioning pin 1 is matched with inner diameters of the positioning pin installation hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22;

the base body 2 is provided with a plane 29 which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body 2, the plane 29 is lower than the front end face of the base body 2 to form the front end face of the base body 2, so that an annular end face 25 which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body 2 is formed, and the positioning pin 1, the positioning pin mounting hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22 are arranged on the front end face of the base body 2 in an axial direction in parallel; the axial distance between the plane 29 and the front end face of the base body 2 is L, the preferred range of L is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 1.5mm, the radial width of the annular end face 25 is D, and the preferred range of D is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 3mm, so that only the annular area needs to be processed in a finish machining mode during machining, and machining cost and difficulty can be greatly reduced; preferably, the collimator mounting hole 30, the positioning pin mounting hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22 are processed by a precision numerical control processing center, and a clamping tool of the base body is not replaced during processing, so that the three can meet extremely high position precision requirements: 0.02mm or higher;

as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the inner inclined surface 253 axially formed between the plane 29 and the annular end surface 25 is provided on the base 2, so that the processing is facilitated, the forming is facilitated, and the contact area can be further reduced, an included angle between the inner inclined surface 253 and the plane 29 is preferably a right angle or an obtuse angle, and the cross-sectional shape along the axial direction between the base 2, the plane 29 and the plane 25 can be a rectangle, a trapezoid or the like; the provision of the outer bevel 254 on the base 2 facilitates the installation of the entire alignment assembly; the alignment assembly 101 only needs to finish the annular end face region during processing, so that the processing cost and the processing difficulty can be greatly reduced, and meanwhile, because the contact area is reduced during butt joint, the annular end faces of the two alignment assemblies can be kept to be tightly attached by applying smaller pressure; the annular end face can be in a standard annular shape (concentric circle), and in order to facilitate installation of other parts, the annular end face can be in different shapes so as to facilitate installation of a collimator, a positioning pin and the like, as shown in fig. 4, the annular end face can also be in a circular shape at the outer ring, and is internally square with round corners, round corners 252 are arranged, and straight edges 251 are formed between adjacent round corners, and the arrangement is convenient for processing and installation; because the annular end face 25 is arranged, the front end faces of the positioning pin mounting hole 27, the positioning pin hole 22 and the collimator mounting hole 30 are all arranged on a plane 29 lower than the annular end face, the plane 29 does not require flatness and roughness precision, the processing cost can be reduced, and the height of the plane lower than the annular end face can be generally set to be 0.2 mm-1.5 mm, so that the optical performance of the collimator is not influenced; when a small amount of impurities such as dust, debris and the like enter the beam expanding optical cable connector, most of the impurities are located in a large-range area of the plane 29, but not in a small-range area of the annular end face 25, so that the influence of the impurities such as the dust, the debris and the like on the beam expanding optical cable connector is reduced, the installation difficulty and the assembly difficulty of the collimator are reduced, whether the collimator and the fixing glue are higher than the plane or not is not strictly controlled, and the assembly difficulty is reduced; as shown in fig. 1, in this embodiment, a distance L between the plane 29 and the front end surface of the substrate 2 is 0.5mm, which has no influence on optical properties such as beam expanding effect and coupling performance of the collimator;

preferably, chamfers 11 are arranged at two ends of the positioning pin 1, and the positioning pin hole 22 is provided with a rounding matched with the chamfers 11; when two expanded beam cable connector alignment assemblies are butted, the positioning pin 1 can be smoothly aligned and inserted into the positioning pin hole 22 of the base body 2 on the other expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101; the positioning pin 1 and the positioning pin hole 22 can be in clearance fit, and preferably, the positioning pin 1 and the positioning pin hole 22 can be in interference fit;

preferably, the collimator 3 may be bonded or welded and fixed in the collimator mounting hole 30 by glue, so as to achieve alignment of the optical fiber connector and the optical fiber 31 in the collimator 3, and ensure alignment connection of the expanded beam optical path; the number of the collimators 3 is determined according to the number of required light paths, and the number of the collimator mounting holes 30 is determined according to the number of the collimators 3; in this embodiment, the alignment assembly 101 includes 2 collimators 3, which are fixed in the corresponding collimator mounting holes 30 by glue;

the alignment of the alignment assembly of the expanded beam optical cable connector provided by the invention comprises two directions of an axial direction and a radial direction: when two expanded beam cable connectors are butted, wherein radial alignment is realized through the matching between the positioning pin 1 and the positioning pin hole 22 on the other expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101, the positioning pin 1 is pressed into the positioning pin mounting hole 27 from the front end surface of the base body 2, and the positioning pin 1 is aligned with and inserted into the positioning pin hole 22 on the other expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly 101, so that circumferential positioning is realized; when two beam expanding optical cable connectors are connected, axial alignment is realized by alignment between the annular end face 25 on the base body 2 and the annular end face 25 on the other beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly 101, and the annular end faces 25 on the respective base bodies 2 are tightly attached to each other, so that reference plane superposition is realized, and beam expanding optical path alignment connection is ensured;

the diameter of the substrate is generally more than 15mm, when the width D of the annular end face is 0.5mm, the contact area is equal to 0.5% of the original contact area, when in butt joint, because the contact area is reduced, the contact area only needs smaller pressure, theoretically, the contact area is generally reduced to one percent, the same pressure intensity can be achieved, and the end faces of the two alignment assemblies can be kept to be tightly attached; in the embodiment, the radial width D of the annular end face 25 is 0.5mm, and stable beam expanding optical path alignment connection can be realized only by setting the pressing force of two beam expanding connector matrixes to be 40N or less, compared with the prior art that hard flat plate alignment needs at least more than 100N, the screwing force required during operation is greatly reduced, and the hand feeling during use is effectively optimized; in this embodiment, the positioning pin 1 is press-fitted into the positioning pin mounting hole 27 on the base body 2 by interference fit, the nominal diameter of the positioning pin 1 is 2mm, the interference magnitude is 0.005mm to 0.015mm, deformation of the positioning pin mounting hole 27 is inevitably caused during press-fitting, a circle of protruding area is formed on a plane around the positioning pin 1, because the plane 29 is not an optical reference plane, the influence of deformation on a light path is avoided, which is equivalent to improving the precision among parts of the whole alignment assembly, the slight deformation of the plane 29 caused during press-fitting needs to be seen under a magnifying glass of at least 40 times, and the slight deformation does not affect the annular end surface 25, so the optical performance of the connector is not affected;

referring to fig. 7 and 8 in combination, the expanded beam optical cable connector provided by the present invention includes an inner housing assembly 100, an outer housing 102, a tail attachment 103, and the alignment assembly 101 disposed at the front end of the inner housing assembly 100, wherein a positioning surface 107 of the inner housing assembly is disposed to match with the step surface 28 of the alignment assembly 101 for limiting the axial movement between the alignment assembly 101 and the inner housing assembly 100, and a key slot 24 disposed at the tail of the alignment assembly 101 is disposed to match with a positioning key 108 of the inner housing assembly 100 for limiting the rotation between the alignment assembly 101 and the inner housing assembly 100; preferably, a spring 105 is arranged between the alignment component 101 and the tail accessory 103, and meanwhile, the optical cable connectors and the optical cables 104 are butted, and the optical fibers 31 can be connected in a fusion mode;

preferably, the positioning pin mounting hole 27 and the positioning pin hole 22 are both blind holes; the matrix 2 is provided with axial and radial positioning, can be conveniently arranged in an outer shell for orientation, and is provided with a sealing groove at the periphery for realizing sealing with the outer shell; the base body 2 is provided with a sealing ring groove 23 for assembling a sealing ring 106 and an end face sealing ring 109, so that water, oil, moisture, dust and the like are prevented from entering the interior of the optical cable connector to influence the performance of the optical cable connector; an end face sealing ring is arranged between the alignment component 101 and the outer shell 102, the waterproof and dustproof functions of the connector are further optimized, a spiral spring and a wave spring can be adopted between the outer shell 102 of the optical cable connector and the alignment component 101 to apply pressure, and the spring is arranged after the optical cable connector is aligned to the component and provides pressure for the alignment component, so that the two alignment components of the optical cable connector are tightly attached during matching;

the inner housing assembly 100 is locked with the outer housing 102 to realize the installation of the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly, the outer housing 102 is used for realizing the locking function of the connector, the outer housing 102 can be a connection locking mechanism, and the outer housing and the inner housing assembly of another expanded beam optical cable connector can also be mutually locked through a threaded connection structure, a bayonet structure or other similar structures, so that the mechanical connection function between the connectors is realized.

Examples

Specifically, as shown in fig. 7 and 8, in this embodiment, the inner housing assembly 100 is an external thread, the outer housing 102 is an internal thread, when two expanded beam cable connectors are mated, the external thread of the inner housing assembly 100 of one cable connector is mated with the internal thread of the outer housing 102 of the other cable connector, as shown in fig. 9, the positioning pin 1 of the alignment assembly 101 installed inside the inner housing assembly is mated with the positioning pin hole 22 on the other alignment assembly, so that mutual alignment is simultaneously achieved, and alignment connection of expanded beam optical paths is achieved; in the embodiment, the alignment assembly 101 is provided with the annular end face 25, the spiral spring is arranged behind the alignment assembly 101, the working pressure during alignment is 45N +/-5N, and compared with a wave spring, the cost is lower; compared with the common connector, the optical cable connector provided by the embodiment has the advantages that the outer diameter is basically consistent, the spring force is reduced, the rotation torque is further reduced by adopting the thread locking shell, only a small rotation torque is needed, and the rotation torque is smaller than 1 N.m and far lower than that of a common hand through calculation, so that the connection of the optical cable connector can be realized, and the operation is convenient.

According to the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly and the expanded beam optical cable connector provided by the invention, the annular end face is used as the positioning reference surface, so that the technical problems that the processing is difficult and other sundries are easily influenced due to the large area of the reference surface of the expanded beam optical cable connector can be solved, the expanded beam optical cable connector capable of realizing butt joint at low pressure is provided, the excellent use hand feeling is kept, and the influence of dust and other sundries on the whole butt joint assembly and the optical cable connector can be reduced.

Claims (10)

1. A spread beam optical cable connector alignment assembly (101), characterized by: the collimator comprises a base body (2) and at least one collimator (3) arranged in collimator mounting holes (30) of the base body (2), wherein the number of the collimator mounting holes (30) is the same as that of the collimators (3), the base body (2) is provided with positioning pins (1) positioned in positioning pin mounting holes (27) and positioning pin holes (22) used for accommodating the positioning pins (1) on another expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly (101), and the outer diameter of each positioning pin (1) is matched with the inner diameters of the positioning pin mounting holes (27) and the positioning pin holes (22); the base body (2) is provided with a plane (29) which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body, the plane (29) is lower than the front end face of the base body (2) to form the front end face of the base body (2), so that an annular end face (25) which is vertical to the axial direction of the base body (2) is formed, and the positioning pin (1), the positioning pin mounting hole (27) and the positioning pin hole (22) are arranged on the front end face of the base body (2) in an axial direction in parallel; the axial distance between the plane (29) and the front end face of the base body (2) is L, and the radial width of the annular end face (25) is D.

2. A spread beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) as claimed in claim 1 wherein: the preferred range of the axial distance L between the plane (29) and the front end face of the base body (2) is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 1.5mm.

3. A spread beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: the preferred range of the radial width D of the annular end face (25) is more than or equal to 0.2mm and less than or equal to 3mm.

4. The expanded beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) of claim 1 or 2, wherein: the positioning pin (1) and the positioning pin hole (22) are in clearance fit or interference fit.

5. A spread beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: the collimator (3) is bonded or welded and fixed in the collimator mounting hole (30) by glue, so that alignment of the optical fiber connector and the optical fiber (31) in the collimator (3) is realized, and alignment connection of a beam expanding optical path is guaranteed.

6. A spread beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: the two ends of the positioning pin (1) are provided with chamfers (11), the positioning pin hole (22) is provided with a rounding matched with the chamfers (11), and when the two expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assemblies (101) are butted, the positioning pin (1) can be smoothly aligned and inserted into the positioning pin hole (22) of the base body (2) on the other expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly (101).

7. A beam expanding optical cable connector, comprising: comprising an inner housing assembly (100), an outer housing (102), a tail attachment (103) and a flare beam cable connector alignment assembly (101) as claimed in claim 1 or 2 disposed at a front end of the inner housing assembly (100).

8. The expanded beam fiber optic cable connector of claim 7, wherein: the inner shell assembly (100) is provided with a positioning surface (107), the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly (101) is provided with a step surface (28), and the positioning surface (107) and the step surface (28) are arranged in a matched mode and used for limiting axial movement between the expanded beam optical cable connector alignment assembly (101) and the inner shell assembly (100); the tail of the beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly (101) is provided with a key groove (24), the inner shell assembly (100) is provided with a positioning key (108), and the key groove (24) and the positioning key (108) are arranged in a matched mode and used for limiting rotation between the beam expanding optical cable connector alignment assembly (101) and the inner shell assembly (100).

9. The expanded beam optical cable connector of claim 7, wherein: the outer shell (102) is a connection locking mechanism, and the outer shell (102) and an inner shell component (100) of another beam expanding optical cable connector are locked with each other through a threaded connection structure or a bayonet structure, so that the mechanical connection function between the connectors is realized.

10. The expanded beam optical cable connector of claim 7, wherein: the alignment assembly (101) of the beam expanding optical cable connector is characterized in that the positioning pin mounting hole (27) and the positioning pin hole (22) are blind holes, and the base body (2) is provided with a sealing ring groove (23) for assembling a sealing ring (106) and an end face sealing ring (109), so that water, oil, moisture, dust and the like are prevented from entering the interior of the optical cable connector to influence the performance of the optical cable connector.

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