JP2000131551A - Coated optical fiber of which terminal end has been processed and coated optical fiber with connector ferrule and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make easily fittable a connector ferule to the terminal end of a coated optical fiber by shortening the length of an exposed glass fiber at the terminal end of the coated optical fiber and without performing grinding work. SOLUTION: A coat to be removed at the terminal end of the coated optical fiber 3, to which a coat 2 is applied on the glass fiber 1, is shifted toward the terminal end side to expose the glass fiber 1, and forms the tip surface 1a of the exposed glass fiber 1 with cutting, and makes the length until the tip surface 1a of the exposed glass fiber 1 6 mm or below, and inserts the cut out and exposed glass fiber part into the fiber port of the connector ferrule, and matches the tip surface of the glass fiber with the tip surface of the connector ferule to stick/fix them.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber core and an optical fiber core with a connector ferrule, which are processed for attachment to a connector ferrule and the like, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a connector ferrule is attached to a terminal of an optical fiber core, the following procedure is usually performed.
First, a part of the coating is removed at the end of the optical fiber to expose a glass fiber having a length of about 20 to 30 mm. Next, the exposed glass fiber is inserted into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule from the rear, and a part of the tip of the glass fiber is projected from the tip surface of the connector ferrule, and the glass fiber is bonded and fixed to the connector ferrule in this state. . Thereafter, the glass fiber portion protruding from the connector ferrule is cut with a nipper or the like, and the tip surface of the glass fiber and the tip surface of the connector ferrule are polished using a polishing machine to form a joint surface for joining the connector ferrules together. .

[0003]

As described above, when the connector ferrule is attached to the end of the optical fiber, the tip surface of the glass fiber and the tip surface of the connector ferrule are polished to join the connector ferrules together. Although the joining surface is formed, since a polishing device is required for the polishing operation, it is difficult to perform the mounting operation of the connector ferrule including the polishing operation at an outdoor construction site because a power supply and the like are required. In addition, a considerable time is required for the polishing operation, which increases the cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an optical fiber core with a processed terminal, an optical fiber core with a connector ferrule, and an optical fiber core with a connector ferrule, which does not require a polishing operation to attach the connector ferrule to the end of the optical fiber core. It is intended to provide a manufacturing method.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an optical fiber core having a processed end, in which the coating is removed at the end of the optical fiber coated with a glass fiber to expose the glass fiber. The distal end surface of the fiber is formed by cleavage cutting, and the length of the exposed glass fiber to the distal end surface is processed to be 6 mm or less. In mounting the connector ferrule, it is only necessary to insert the exposed glass fiber portion into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule, and bond and fix the front end surface of the glass fiber and the front end surface of the connector ferrule. As it is, it can be used as a coupling surface for coupling the connector ferrules without polishing the distal end surface of the connector ferrule and the distal end surface of the glass fiber.

[0006] The end face of the glass fiber exposed at the end of the optical fiber is formed by cleavage cutting.
In the prior art, a fusion splicing method or a mechanical splicing method is used.However, those used for these connections are to butt the exposed glass fibers to each other, and to align the optical axes of the glass fibers in the butt. There is a need. Therefore, it is necessary to perform positioning by pressing the exposed glass fiber from the side, and in order to secure a pressing position for positioning, the length of the optical fiber core wire to the end surface of the exposed glass fiber at the end of the optical fiber is: It is as long as 10 to 30 mm. Therefore, the connector ferrule cannot be mounted by utilizing the tip surface.

[0007] In addition, a plurality of fiber strands in which a glass fiber is covered with a wire are arranged in parallel, and the ends of the optical fiber coated and covered at a time are collectively covered. The glass fiber is exposed by removing a part thereof, and the tip surface of each exposed glass fiber is formed by cleavage cutting, and the length to the tip surface of each exposed glass fiber is 6 mm or less. Thus, a fiber having a terminal-processed optical fiber core according to the present invention can have an irregular length of 20 μm or less at the tip end surface.

[0008] The terminal-processed optical fiber is a plurality of glass fiber-coated optical fiber cores arranged in parallel to collectively cover them. In the terminal, a cut is made in the wire covering and collective covering in the cross-sectional direction to form a covering cut portion, and the coating removing portion consisting of the wire covering and collective covering on the terminal side from the covering cutting portion is the covering removing portion. The glass fiber is shifted in the terminal direction by a length shorter than the length of the glass fiber to expose an intermediate part of the glass fiber. The glass fiber can be manufactured by cleaving and cutting the glass fiber at a position of 6 mm or less from the coating cut point on the fiber core side to form the tip surface of the glass fiber. .

When attaching a multi-core connector ferrule to the terminal-processed optical fiber core,
A glass plate with an exposed optical fiber is inserted into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule from the rear by placing a backing plate on the distal end surface of the connector ferrule and abutting against the backing plate to align the glass fiber into the connector ferrule. It only needs to be fixed by bonding. Then, since the irregular length of the glass fiber tip surface is extremely small and does not hinder the optical coupling, it can be used for joining the connector ferrules without polishing the connector ferrule tip surface and the glass fiber tip surface. You can do it.

[0010]

1 (A) and 1 (B) are a side view and a front view, respectively, showing an embodiment of a terminated optical fiber core wire according to the present invention, and FIG. Figure 1
(B) shows an example of multiple cores. In FIG. 1, 1 is a glass fiber made of quartz or the like, 1a is a tip face, 2 is a coating made of an ultraviolet curable resin or the like, 3 is an optical fiber core, 4 is a glass fiber made of quartz or the like, 4a is a tip face, 5 is a wire coating made of an ultraviolet-curable resin or the like, 6 is a batch coating made of an ultraviolet-curable resin or the like, 7 is an optical fiber core wire, L and L 'are the lengths to the tip end surface of the exposed glass fiber, and ΔL' Are irregular lengths.

The terminal-processed optical fiber core of the present invention comprises:
As shown in FIG. 1 (A), a plurality of optical fibers 3 in which a coating 2 is applied to a glass fiber 1 or a plurality of wires in which a coating 5 is applied to a glass fiber 4 as shown in FIG. 1 (B) At the end of the optical fiber core wire 7 which is arranged in parallel and coated collectively 6 so as to cover it collectively, a part of the coating is removed to expose the glass fiber. Length L or L 'to glass fiber tip surface
Is set to 6 mm or less. The tip surfaces 1a and 4a are formed by cleavage. Further, in the case of the optical fiber core wire 7 having a plurality of glass fibers, the irregular length ΔL ′ of the distal end face can be reduced to 20 μm or less by manufacturing by a method described later.

The above-mentioned optical fiber with a processed end is inserted into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule, and the distal end surface of the connector ferrule and the distal end surface of the glass fiber are aligned and bonded and fixed. The connector ferrule can be used as a coupling surface without polishing the surface and the end surface of the glass fiber. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an optical fiber core with a connector ferrule according to the present invention, wherein 4a is a distal end surface of a glass fiber, 7 is an optical fiber core, and 8 is a connector ferrule made of molding resin, ceramic or the like. , 8a is an adhesive, 8b is a guide pin hole, and 8c is a tip surface of the connector ferrule.

In the case of FIG. 2, the exposed glass fiber of the optical fiber 7 is inserted into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule 8 from behind the connector ferrule 8 by attaching a not-shown patch to the distal end surface 8 c of the connector ferrule 8. I do. Then, when the tip surface 4a of the glass fiber abuts against the backing plate, the tip surface 4a of the glass fiber is aligned with the tip surface 8c of the connector ferrule. The glass fiber is bonded and fixed to the connector ferrule 8 by injecting 8a. The guide pin hole 8b is used as a hole for inserting a guide pin for positioning when coupling with a connector ferrule to be coupled.

Further, the terminal processing for producing the terminal-processed optical fiber of the present invention is performed as follows.
3 (A), 3 (B), 3 (C), and 3 (D) are side views for explaining the procedure, wherein 4 is a glass fiber, 4a is a tip surface, 4b is a glass fiber cut portion, and 7 is an optical fiber core. A line, 7a is a coating removal portion, 7b is a coating cutting portion, 9 is a rotary blade, 10 is a pillow member, and 11a and 11b are holding members.

First, as shown in FIG. 3 (A), a cut is made in the direction of the cross section at the sheath cutting portion 7b of the optical fiber 7, and the sheath removing portion 7a is moved to the right side as shown in FIG. 3 (B). Shift by about 10 mm. The shift length is shorter than the length of the coating removal portion 7a. Then, a part of the glass fiber 4 is exposed in the middle. Although the optical fiber core 7 has a plurality of glass fibers 4, since the plurality of glass fibers are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, they appear as one in FIG. I have.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3 (C), the blanket coating of the optical fiber cores 7 on both sides of the glass fiber exposed by the holding members 11a and 11b is held down, and the rotary blade 9 is rotated in a direction perpendicular to the paper. By moving, a part of the surface of each of the plurality of glass fibers 4 is damaged. In addition, the rotary blade 9
The distance L 'between the wire and the coating cut portion 7b is 6 mm or less, and is set in consideration of the length of the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule to be attached to the terminally processed optical fiber core wire of the present invention. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3D, the pillow member 10 is pressed against the side surfaces of the plurality of glass fibers 4 from the opposite side of the glass fiber scratches to cleave and cut each glass fiber 4. Reference numeral 4a denotes a mirror surface perpendicular to the fiber axis, which is the tip surface of the glass fiber formed by cleavage and cutting.

As described above, the uncoated portion 7a is not removed from the glass fiber 4 without being removed.
Since the cleavage of the glass fiber 4 is performed in a state where only a is shifted, the length of the exposed glass fiber to the tip surface can be reduced to 6 mm or less,
In addition, the irregularities of the tip surfaces of the plurality of glass fibers can be suppressed to an extremely small value, that is, 20 μm or less. In the method of cutting the glass fiber after removing the uncoated portion, as is usually performed in the cutting operation of the glass fiber after the coating is removed, the cutting point of the glass fiber is set to 6 mm or less, which is close to the coated cutting point. Then, one side presses the coating with the pressing member, and one side presses the glass fiber with the pressing member, the parallelism of the glass fiber becomes insufficient, and the irregular length of the tip surface becomes large,
It is not suitable as a method for performing the terminal processing of the terminal-processed optical fiber core wire of the present invention.

[0018]

According to the present invention, there is provided an optical fiber core having a processed end, which is formed by removing a part of the coating at the end of the optical fiber coated with a glass fiber, exposing the glass fiber, and exposing the end of the exposed glass fiber. Since the surface was formed by cleavage cutting and the length of the exposed glass fiber to the tip end surface was set to 6 mm or less, in attaching the connector ferrule to the terminally processed optical fiber core wire of the present invention. It is only necessary to insert the exposed glass fiber into the fiber insertion hole of the connector ferrule, and bond and fix the tip surface of the glass fiber and the tip surface of the connector ferrule. Without polishing the tip surface of the connector ferrule and the tip surface of the glass fiber,
It can be used to connect connector ferrules.

Further, at the end of the optical fiber core having a plurality of fiber strands, a cut is made in the cross-sectional direction to slightly shift the coating-removed portion toward the end to expose a middle part of the glass fiber, and The coating on both sides of the glass fiber was pressed with a pressing member to cut the exposed glass fiber to form a tip surface, so that the length of the exposed glass fiber to the tip surface was 6 m.
m or less, and the irregular length of the tip surface can also be set to 20 μm or less, so that a multi-core connector ferrule can be attached to the end of the optical fiber as it is, The irregular length of the tip surfaces can also be made less than acceptable, so that the connector ferrules can be used for coupling between connector ferrules without polishing the tip surfaces of the connector ferrule and the glass fiber.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are a side view and a front view, respectively, showing an embodiment of a terminally processed optical fiber core according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an optical fiber core with a connector ferrule of the present invention.

FIGS. 3 (A), (B), (C), and (D) are side views for explaining a processing procedure of an optical fiber core having been processed according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: glass fiber 1a: tip end surface 2: coating 3: optical fiber core wire 4: glass fiber 4a: tip end surface 4b: glass fiber cutting portion 5: element coating 6: batch coating 7: optical fiber core 7a: coating removal Portion 7b: Cover cutting portion 8: Connector ferrule 8a: Adhesive 8b: Guide pin hole 8c: Tip surface 9: Rotating blade 10: Pillow member 11a, 11b: Holding member L, L ': Up to the tip surface of exposed glass fiber Length ΔL ': irregular length

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Kakii 1-chome, Taya-cho, Sakae-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa F-term in Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Yokohama Works 2H036 JA02 KA01 KA02 QA23 QA24

Claims (4)

[Claims] At the end of an optical fiber core coated with a glass fiber, a part of the coating is removed and the glass fiber is exposed, and the tip surface of the exposed glass fiber is formed by cleavage cutting. Wherein the length of the exposed glass fiber to the distal end surface is 6 mm or less, wherein the optical fiber core has been processed. 2. The optical fiber core coated and coated at a terminal of an optical fiber core coated with a plurality of glass fibers coated with an element and coated in parallel and covering them collectively. Is removed to expose the glass fiber, the tip surface of each exposed glass fiber is formed by cleavage cutting, and the length of each exposed glass fiber to the tip surface is 6 mm.
An end-processed optical fiber core, wherein the irregular length of the front end face is 20 μm or less. 3. The optical fiber core coated and coated at a terminal of an optical fiber core coated with a plurality of glass fibers coated with an optical fiber and arranged in parallel to cover them collectively. The glass fiber is exposed by removing a part of the glass fiber, the tip surface of the glass fiber is formed by cleavage cutting, the length of the exposed glass fiber to the tip surface is set to 6 mm or less, and the exposed portion of the glass fiber is formed. Wherein the glass fiber is bonded and fixed to the connector ferrule by aligning the distal end surface of the connector ferrule with the distal end surface of the glass fiber by inserting the glass fiber into the connector ferrule. . 4. The terminal coating and collective coating at the end of an optical fiber core coated with a plurality of glass fibers coated in parallel with a glass fiber and arranged collectively to cover them. A cut is made in the cross-section direction to form a coating cut portion, and the coating-removed portion consisting of the wire coating and batch coating on the terminal side is cut from the coating cut portion in the terminal direction by a length shorter than the length of the coating-removed portion. To expose a middle part of the glass fiber, and press and fix the collective coating on both sides of the exposed glass fiber with a pressing member. The glass fiber is cleaved and cut at the following positions to form a distal end surface of the glass fiber, the holding member is removed, and the exposed portion of the glass fiber is exposed to the connector ferrule. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber with a connector ferrule, comprising inserting a glass fiber into a connector ferrule by inserting the glass fiber into the fiber insertion hole, aligning the distal end surface of the connector ferrule with the distal end surface of the glass fiber.