JP2000264660A - Apparatus for drawing glass preform - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensive apparatus for drawing a glass preform capable of conveying a glass rod having a large diameter which is difficult to perform conveying operations with a hand from a housing container to a storage place by an operator alone and suitable for the conveying. SOLUTION: This apparatus is equipped with a feeding mechanism for feeding a glass preform 1, a heating furnace 2 for heating and softening the glass preform 1, a takeoff mechanism 5 for taking off the heated and softened glass preform 1 and a balancer used for conveying a glass rod 6 and operated in a state thereof supported with an upper structure for conveying the glass rod 6 divided into an optional length after drawing under the takeoff mechanism 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the production of a glass rod having a predetermined outside diameter and length, for example, a glass rod as a base material for optical fibers, by drawing a large diameter glass base material by heating. And a transfer device for transferring the drawn glass rod from a drawing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a glass base material stretching apparatus. The stretching apparatus is provided with a heating furnace 2 for heating the glass base material 1 and has a heating element 3 therein. The glass preform 1 is hung down into the heating furnace 2 by the glass preform supply mechanism 4, and is heated and stretched from a lower end portion. The stretched end of the glass preform 1 is gripped by the take-off mechanism 5, and a take-up force is applied to the glass preform 1 to stretch the glass preform 1 to a desired diameter. The drawn glass rod 12 is divided into arbitrary lengths below the pulling mechanism 5 where the pulling force of the pulling mechanism 5 does not act on the glass rod 12, and the divided glass rod 6 is temporarily stored in the storage container 7. Is done. Then, the glass rod 9 is transported to the storage location 8 of the glass rod 6, and the transported glass rod 9 is arranged in the storage location 8.

The storage container 7 is slidable up and down along a guide rail 10 attached to the storage container 7.
When the glass container 12 is divided from the drawn glass rod 12, the storage container 7 is moved to a position where the distance between the drawn glass rod 12 and the divided glass rod 6 is as small as possible. 7 Next, in order to transport the divided glass rods 6, the storage container 7 is lowered and brought as close as possible to the unloading work floor 11, and then the operator manually transports the glass rods 6 to the glass rod storage location 8.

[0004]

Conventionally, the length of a divided glass rod 6 stored in a storage container 7 is 2,000 mm or more.
2,500 mm, diameter is φ40 ~ φ50mm. When the weight of the glass rod 6 is calculated as a density of 2.2 g / cm ³ , the weight is 5.5 kg.
~ 10.8kg. If the weight, diameter, and length of the glass rod 6 are conveyed from the storage container 7, the worker can easily perform the operation alone by hand. However, with the recent increase in diameter of optical fiber preforms,
Glass rods for optical fiber preforms have also been increasing in diameter and increasing in weight. The length of the glass rod 6 divided by the glass base material stretching device is 2,000 mm to 2,500 mm,
The diameter reaches φ70 ~ φ90mm and the weight ranges from 16.9kg to 35.0kg.

In order to transport the divided large-diameter glass rod 6 from the storage container 7, the weight of the glass rod 6 becomes approximately
This transport operation can be performed by an operator alone because it can reach 35 kg.
It is very difficult to carefully support and transport a glass rod 6 weighing up to 35 kg so as not to damage it by wearing heat-resistant gloves. For this reason, the work of transporting the glass rod 6 usually requires 2
Name workers are engaged. Further, the diameter of the glass rod 6 is conventionally about 50 mm, and it is easy to grasp with a hand wearing heat-resistant gloves.
Since it reaches 90 mm, it is very difficult to grasp with a hand wearing heat-resistant gloves, and there is a high possibility that the glass rod 6 is dropped by mistake.
As described above, when the diameter of the glass rod is increased, the number of workers must be increased, and the labor cost is increased, so that the manufacturing cost is increased, and further, the workability of transporting the glass rod is deteriorated. .

FIG. 2 shows a state where the glass rod 6 is stored in the storage container 7. In order to transfer the glass rod 6 from the storage container 7, use of a balancer is conceivable. However, the support state of the glass rod 6 by the support rings 13 and 14 of the storage container 7 is different every time the divided glass rod 6 is stored, and the posture supported by the support rings 13 and 14 is three-dimensionally different each time. I have. That is, the inclination angles α and β are different each time. Therefore, when using a balancer, it is very difficult to design the glass rod gripping portion of the balancer. Even if the design is successful, the glass rod gripping portion becomes very complicated, and the design cost of the balancer also increases.

The transported glass rods 9 are arranged horizontally in a storage place 8 as shown in FIG. 1, and the storage place 8 has two Vs arranged at a certain interval as shown in FIG. It is composed of blocks 15 and 16. Therefore, when the glass rod 9 is placed on the V blocks 15 and 16,
If the weight of the glass rod gripping mechanism of the balancer acts on the glass rod 9 as a load, the glass rod 9
May be broken. There is a device for automatically taking out such a work, but it is expensive.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive apparatus that enables a worker to independently transfer a large-diameter glass rod from a storage container to a storage place, which is difficult to perform manually. With the goal.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been accomplished as a result of intensive studies in order to improve the work of transporting a large-diameter glass rod, and the present invention has been achieved. (Hereinafter, simply referred to as a transfer balancer) to improve the workability of the transfer work of the large-diameter glass rod manually by the operator alone.

That is, the glass preform stretching apparatus of the present invention includes a supply mechanism for supplying a glass preform, a heating furnace for heating and softening the glass preform, a take-off mechanism for retrieving the heat-softened glass preform, It is characterized in that it has a transport balancer that is operated in a state of being supported by an upper structure for transporting the glass rod divided into arbitrary lengths after stretching below the mechanism.

The transfer balancer has a rotating mechanism for rotating the gripped glass rod from vertical to horizontal or from horizontal to vertical. The divided glass rods are stored in a substantially vertical state in the storage container, and when transported from the storage container, the glass rods are rotated horizontally and transported to the glass rod storage location. For this reason, the transport balancer is provided with a rotating shaft for rotating the glass rod from vertical to horizontal. When the glass rod is transported from the storage container, it is preferable to take out the glass rod in a vertical state for the operation of rotating the glass rod horizontally.

[0012] The glass rod pressing force of the glass rod holding member can be adjusted stepwise or steplessly even during the glass rod holding operation. By providing a mechanism for changing the pressing force against the glass rod in this manner, even a simple glass rod gripping mechanism can easily and three-dimensionally change the angle of the glass rod in the storage container. It is possible to securely hold.

Further, the weight of the entire glass rod gripping mechanism and the lower limit of the vertical support force of the transfer balancer are substantially equal to each other, and when the glass rod is placed horizontally in the glass rod storage place, The glass rod is prevented from being broken by its own weight of the gripping mechanism.
The vertical movement of the transport balancer is performed by operating a switch.

The transport balancer includes a rotating mechanism A having a rotating shaft for rotating the gripped glass rod from vertical to horizontal or from horizontal to vertical, and the rotating mechanism for separating the glass rod gripping member upward from the opened glass rod. A rotation mechanism B having a rotation axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the mechanism A in the horizontal or vertical direction is provided. In addition, the glass rod gripping portion of the transfer balancer is devised so that a glass rod inclined from a vertical state can be easily gripped.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(Embodiment) FIG. 4 shows an example of a glass rod conveying apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a transfer balancer is used as the transfer device. In the present invention, a pneumatic balancer is preferable as the transfer balancer,
It is not limited to the pneumatic type but may be an electric type. The glass rod 17 is gripped by the movable gripping member 19 and the fixed gripping member 20 attached to the air cylinder storage box 18. When the air cylinder provided in the air cylinder storage box 18 is driven, the moving side gripping member 19 reciprocates on a straight line using the linear bush, the linear guide, and the like provided in the air cylinder storage box 18 as a guide. At this time, by moving the movable side gripping member 19 toward the fixed side gripping member 20, a gripping force for gripping the glass rod 17 is obtained.

The pressing force of the movable side gripping member 19 against the fixed side gripping member 20 can be changed by changing the pressure of the air flowing into the air cylinder. It is possible to change the air pressure of the air cylinder by operating during operation. In this embodiment, the moving side gripping member is used.
The air pressure for pressing 19 against the fixed side gripping member 20 is 2
As a result, a two-stage pressing force can be obtained. As an example, the weaker first pressing force (hereinafter, referred to as a first holding force) for pressing the movable side holding member 19 against the fixed side holding member 20 is 0.5 kg, and the stronger second pressing force (hereinafter, referred to as a second holding force). 80)
kg. In the present embodiment, a two-stage adjustment system is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a multi-stage adjustment system in which the number of stages is changed to three or more, or a stepless adjustment system may be used.

A driving device for rotating the glass rod 17 from a vertical state to a horizontal state includes a rotary actuator 22.
Is adopted. This is driven to rotate the gripping members 19 and 20 via the air cylinder storage box 18. Reference numeral 23 denotes a support frame for supporting the transport device on the upper structure, reference numeral 24 denotes a take-out for operating the transport device, and reference numeral 25 denotes a rotating shaft for rotating the gripper side.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the storage container. The storage container mainly includes a receiving tray 26, a support column 27, a pair of support members 28a and 28b for supporting the glass rod, and a pair of support members 29a and 29b provided below the support members 28a and 28b. The shape of these support members is substantially semicircular, which is preferable for supporting the glass rod in the storage container 7, and each pair of support members forms a substantially circular support portion. Support members 28a, 28
b and the support members 29a and 29b are each connected at one end to a support 27 by a pin, and at the other end to the support member 28a by a stop pin 30.
Similarly, the supporting members 29a and 29b are pin-connected to each other by the stopper pin 31. Each pair forms a substantially circular shape. The height of the support column 27 is 1,550 mm, and the inner diameter of the tray 26 is φ30
The inner diameter of the glass rod supporting portion formed by 0 mm and the pair of supporting members is both φ180 mm.

When the glass rod 17 having an outer diameter of 80 mm is stored in the storage container 7 having such a configuration, the inclination angle α of the support 27 that the glass rod 17 can take with respect to the front-rear direction is −
3.7 ° to + 8.1 °, and the inclination angle β of the column 27 with respect to the left-right direction is −5.9 ° to + 5.9 °. The inclination angles α and β described here are only limit values, and in actual work, the combinations of α and β are infinite within these ranges, and the glass rod is stored in various postures. The glass rods 17 are in various postures near infinity in the storage container 7, which makes it difficult to design a glass rod gripping mechanism of the transfer balancer.

FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory view for explaining the procedure of the glass rod conveying operation in the order of (a) to (e). The glass rod 17 in the storage container 7 is gripped with the first gripping force by the gripping members 19 and 20, and the glass rod supporting members 28a and 28b are held.
The front, rear, left and right are set so that the glass rod 17 is vertical within the regulation range of. Since the first gripping force is very weak as described above, when a force greater than the glass rod gripping force (first gripping force) is applied to the moving-side gripping member 19 when the glass rod 17 is shaken, the structure is opened. . Further, since the frictional force acting between the moving side gripping member 19 and the glass rod 17 and between the fixed side gripping member 20 and the glass rod 17 is much smaller than the weight of the glass rod 17, Even if the transfer balancer is lifted while holding the glass rod 17 with one holding force, the glass rod 17 cannot be lifted.

After confirming that the glass rod 17 is vertical, the gripping force of the glass rod 17 is switched from the first gripping force to the second gripping force, the stopper pins 30 and 31 are removed, and the support member of the glass rod 17 is removed. 28a, 28b and the lower support member 29a
, 29b with one end open,
Take out 7 and transport. The glass rod 17 taken out of the storage container 7 is rotated in a horizontal state and arranged in a storage place. When arranging the glass rods 17 horizontally in the storage place, the vertical support force of the transfer balancer that balances the weight of the entire glass rod gripping mechanism with gravity is not released during the glass rod transfer operation. By constantly applying air pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined pressure to the ascending / descending air cylinder, the weight of the glass rod gripping mechanism can be prevented from being applied to the glass rod, and breakage of the glass rod can be prevented.

FIG. 7 shows a glass rod conveying device of another embodiment different from the above embodiment. This glass rod gripping mechanism has two rotary actuators each having a rotary actuator.
Rotating mechanisms A and B. Specifically, the rotary shaft 22 is rotated by the rotary actuator 22,
Rotating mechanism A for changing glass rod 17 from vertical to horizontal
The rotating shaft 33 is rotated by a rotary actuator 32 in a direction perpendicular to the rotating shaft 25 in the horizontal direction (or in a vertical direction), and the glass rod gripping member side is connected to the rotating shaft 33 via the connecting shaft 34 using the rotating shaft 33 as a supporting shaft. And another rotating mechanism B for rotating.

FIG. 8 shows the operation of the rotating mechanisms A and B. The glass rod gripping mechanism that vertically grips the glass rod 17 with the gripping members 19 and 20 rotates the glass rod 17 from the vertical state to the horizontal state by operating the rotary actuator 22 (see FIG. 8A). ). Thereafter, the rotary actuator 32 is operated to rotate the gripping member side downward (see FIG. 8B). By operating the rotary actuator 32, the opening / closing direction of the moving-side support member 19 becomes horizontal. For this reason, it is possible to open the moving-side support member 19, open the glass rod 17 and place the glass rod 17 on the V blocks 15 and 16, and then retract the glass rod gripping member upward.

Without the rotary actuator 32,
Since the moving-side support member 19 moves in the vertical direction, the retracting direction of the glass rod gripping mechanism after opening the glass rod 17 is horizontal (see FIG. 4A). Glass rod
In the case where 17 is placed at a low position, for example, on the floor, the workability is better in the retracting direction of the glass rod gripping mechanism in the upward direction than in the lateral direction. Therefore, by providing another rotating shaft 33 orthogonal to the rotating shaft 25 in addition to the rotating mechanism A for rotating the glass rod 17 from vertical to horizontal, the workability of transporting the glass rod 17 is greatly improved.

[0025]

In the stretching step of the optical fiber preform, the work of transporting the preform after stretching becomes easy,
Enables transport work by workers alone, improves workability,
It has become possible to streamline personnel.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a glass base material stretching apparatus.

2A and 2B show a state in which a glass rod is stored in a storage container, wherein FIG. 2A is a front view and FIG. 2B is a side view.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a storage location of a glass rod.

4A and 4B show an example of a glass rod transport device according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 4A is a plan view and FIG. 4B is a side view.

5A and 5B are diagrams schematically showing a storage container for a glass rod, wherein FIG. 5A is a front view, FIG. 5B is a side view, and FIG. 5C is a plan view.

FIGS. 6A to 6E show the procedure of the glass rod transfer operation.
FIG.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of a glass rod transport device;
(A) is a plan view and (b) is a side view.

FIG. 8 shows the operation of the rotating mechanisms A and B according to the present invention,
(A) is a side view showing a state when the rotary actuator 22 is operated, and (b) is a side view showing a state when the rotary actuator 32 is operated.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Glass base material 2 ... Heating furnace 3 ... Heating element 4 ... Glass base material supply mechanism 5 ... Take-off mechanism 6 ... Divided glass rod 7 ... Storage container 8・ ・ ・ Storage location 9 ・ ・ ・ Conveyed glass rods 10 ・ ・ ・ Guide rails 11 ・ ・ ・ Unloading work floor 12 ・ ・ ・ Glass rods after extension 13,14 ・ ・ Support ring 15,16 ・ ・ V block 17 ・ ・ ・ Glass rod 18 ・ ・ ・ Air cylinder storage box 19 ・ ・ ・ Moving side gripping member 20 ・ ・ ・ Fixed side gripping member 21 ・ ・ ・ Operation switch box 22 ・ ・ ・ Rotary actuator 23 ・ ・ ・ Support frame 24 ... Handle 25 ... Rotary shaft 26 ... Plate 27 ... Post 28a, 28b, 29a, 29b Support member 30,31 Stop pin 32 ... Rotary actuator 33 ... Rotary shaft 34 ・ ・ ・ Connection shaft

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tadakatsu Shimada 2-3-1-1, Isobe, Annaka-shi, Gunma Shin-Etsu Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. Precision Functional Materials Research Laboratories (72) Inventor Hideo Hirasawa Isobe, Annaka-shi, Gunma 2-13-1 Shin-Etsu Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. Precision Functional Materials Laboratory F-term (reference) 4G021 BA00

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A supply mechanism for supplying a glass preform, a heating furnace for heating and softening the glass preform, a take-off mechanism for taking the heat-softened glass preform, and an arbitrary length after drawing below the take-off mechanism. What is claimed is: 1. A glass base material stretching apparatus, comprising: a glass rod transport balancer that is operated while being supported by an upper structure for transporting a glass rod divided into pieces. 2. The glass rod transport balancer,
The glass base material elongating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rotation mechanism configured to rotate the gripped glass rod from vertical to horizontal or from horizontal to vertical. 3. The balancer for transporting a glass rod,
The glass base material stretching apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the glass rod pressing force of the glass rod holding member can be adjusted stepwise or steplessly even during the glass rod holding operation. 4. The balancer for transporting a glass rod,
4. The glass rod gripping mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the lower limit of the vertical support force of the glass rod transport balancer is substantially equal to the weight of the entire glass rod gripping mechanism, and the vertical movement is possible by a switch operation. Glass base material stretching equipment. 5. The balancer for transferring a glass rod,
A rotation mechanism A having a rotation axis for rotating the gripped glass rod from vertical to horizontal or from horizontal to vertical, and a rotation axis of the rotation mechanism A and the rotation axis of the rotation mechanism A for detaching the glass rod gripping member upward from the opened glass rod. The glass base material stretching apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a rotation mechanism (B) having a rotation axis perpendicular to the vertical direction.