JP2000304971A - Parts for optical fiber connector and their production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to lower a defective rate and to enhance the productivity by introducing a metallic rod into a mold while aligning them, injecting a resin in a liquid form therein, molding and solidifying the resin and taking out molded articles together with metallic wire, then drawing the metallic wire. SOLUTION: The required SUS 304 wire is prepared and is immersed in a release agent. After the wire is dried,the wire is introduced in a strongly tensed state into the mold for injection molding to a prescribed position and the mold is clamped. Next, the glass fiber reinforced denatured phenylene ether resin is subjected to ordinary injecting in a heated state and cooling and thereafter, the mold is opened and the metallic wire is taken out in the inserted state and thereafter the metallic wire is drawn, following which the metallic wire is subjected to a gate treatment and polishing treatment. As a result, the metallic wire is used just once and, therefore, obviates the wear of a core, etc., and consequently, if the size of the metallic wire made to meet a prescribed shrinkage rate is previously adopted, the hole diameter size meeting the standard may be sufficiently obtained. There is, therefore, no need for polishing the finished metallic wire with a polishing body and there is substantially no manual work. Accordingly, the defective rate can be lowered and the ease of dimensional management are made possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component for an optical fiber connector and a method of manufacturing the same. More specifically, the optical fiber connector has an optical fiber having a cross section of a perfect circle and a thickness of 0.125 mmφ. Is supported by passing it through a cylindrical tube to accurately align the cores at the center of the optical fiber to establish a connection. It relates to a component that supports a fiber and is generally called a ferrule.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a ferrule of a tubular part for supporting an optical fiber, which is one of the parts for an optical fiber connector, has a shape as shown in FIGS.
As for the material, those using zirconia ceramics are dominant. FIG. 1 (a) is a single-core type ferrule 1 having a cylindrical shape having a thickness of about 2 mm and a length of about 8 mm and a true circular hole 2 having a diameter of 0.126 mm centered at the center. It is a two-core type.

[0003] In the production, first, a mixture of zirconia powder and resin is used as a raw material and molded by injection molding, compression molding, or the like, then baked at a temperature of about 500 ° C to decompose the resin component, and then about 1200 ° C. After firing at the above high temperature, since the dimensions of the pores do not come out, it is manufactured by a laborious method of manually setting the exact dimensions through a linear diamond polishing body, but the following problems are encountered. there were.

[0004] Although the molding is performed using a cemented carbide pin such as a tungsten compound for the core, a predetermined hole diameter cannot be obtained due to wear due to extremely hard zirconia powder or the like. Dimensions must be determined with a diamond polished body, so there is difficulty that can not be done without relying on manual work, and since high skill of the worker is required, the dimensional defect rate of the hole diameter also increases, Therefore, it takes time to manage the dimensions.

[0005] Further, since the carbide pin is used for the core as described above, the pin is easily broken or bent, so that it is troublesome to replace the pin each time, and a large number of pins are produced without being noticed. Defective products may be manufactured.

In addition, productivity must be low because the operator must rely on highly skilled manual work to obtain the hole diameter.

Conventionally, a single-core type as shown in FIG. 1A has been mainly used, but a two-core type as shown in FIG. 1B or more. Since a multi-core type has been required, there has been a problem that the polishing dimensioning step using a diamond polishing body is extremely difficult, and if the number of cores is three or more, production becomes substantially impossible.

[0008] On the other hand, plastic ferrules are used in terminal devices and the like, although only a small part of them. However, since a normal molding method using cemented carbide pins is employed, Pin breaks, pin wear, pin bending, etc. occur in the same way as above, so replacing the pin each time requires time and effort for the management, and manufactures a large number of pins in a bent or broken state. At present, there is a problem in productivity and quality due to the occurrence of a major problem in quality, and there is almost no practical use.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above,
It has good dimensional stability, is easy to manage, does not require special skills of workers, and therefore has a low reject rate, extremely high productivity, and is a component for multi-core optical fiber connectors of two or more cores. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method which can be manufactured extremely easily.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is to accurately introduce a metal wire into a mold, tighten the mold while strongly pulling it, and remove the liquid resin. After injection, molding and solidification or hardening, the molded article was taken out together with the metal wire, the metal wire was pulled out, and a gate treatment, a burr treatment and the like were adopted.

More specifically, FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view showing an important part of an embodiment of the present invention. The upper die 3, the lower die 4, the parting part 5, the metal wire 6, and the wire guide groove 7 are shown. , A gate section 8 and a product section 9.

The molding method according to the present invention can employ injection molding, compression molding, cast molding, etc., and the plastic has a heat resistance, a stress crack resistance, an impact resistance, a water resistance and the like. Any material may be used as long as it is excellent in chemical properties and aging resistance, and any of a thermoplastic resin and a thermosetting resin can be employed. As the thermoplastic resin, engineering plastics such as polyester resin, polyacetal resin, polyamide resin, and modified phenylene ether resin are preferable, and as the thermosetting resin, phenol resin, melamine resin, epoxy resin, and the like are preferable. Fibers such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, Kevlar, and Amorphous metal, and reinforced with whiskers such as alumina, silicon carbide, and graphite are desirable.

In the case of the injection molding described above, a thermoplastic resin is generally used, but a thermosetting resin can also be used. In the case of compression molding, a thermosetting resin is used, but the gate shown in FIG. The unit 8 may not be provided. In the case of casting, a low-viscosity liquid resin such as an epoxy resin may be used to inject the resin from the gate section 8 under reduced pressure.

The upper mold 3 and the lower mold 4 mainly use an iron mold in the case of injection molding or compression molding, and use a mold or a resin mold in the case of cast molding.

A mixture of a powder of zirconia or the like and a resin or a mixture of a metal powder and a resin is formed by injection molding, compression molding or the like with the metal wire 6 as a core, solidified, and taken out of the mold. And pull out the metal wire, 500-1
A method for producing a ceramic or metal ferrule by firing at about 400 ° C. is also within the scope of the present invention.

As the metal wire 6, any material having good corrosion resistance, high tensile strength and high toughness can be used. For example, an iron alloy, a copper alloy, an aluminum alloy or the like is desirable, and SUS is particularly desirable. In the case of a single-core type ferrule, the thickness of the metal wire 3 needs to be slightly increased in accordance with the contraction rate of the material to be used.
It is selected from about 129 mmφ. Manufacturing control of the thickness of the metal wire is important, and the thickness is adjusted by a method of extruding from a die, a method of drawing, or the like. It is desirable that the metal wire be subjected to a release treatment with a paintable release agent immediately before molding.

The purpose of the line guide groove 7 is to facilitate positioning when the metal wire is introduced into the mold. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, and a line groove 10 through which the metal wire enters to exactly half the depth without any gap is connected to the product part.

Although the gate section 8 is provided on the product section 9 of the upper die 3 in FIG. 2, it is not particularly limited to this section.

Up to now, the present invention relates to a single-core type ferrule using one metal wire, and two or more metal wires can be used. In this case, the position of the metal wire is determined by the party. It is configured to be arranged in the ringing part.
FIGS. 4A and 4B are cross-sectional views showing an example thereof, where FIG. 4A is the single-core type described so far, and FIGS. 4B and 4C are the four-core type with the metal wires attached and separated. All can be manufactured.

It is also possible to use one wire having a sectional shape other than a circle as the metal wire, for example, as shown in FIG.

Conventionally, a connector has been manufactured by combining a cylindrical ferrule as shown in FIG. 1 and a plurality of parts. However, it is easy to manufacture these parts in a complicated shape by integrating these parts. I can do it.

[0022]

According to the method of the present invention, a method in which a metal wire completely different from the conventional method is used as a core and a method of molding with various resins is employed. Abnormality such as abrasion, breakage and bending of the core pin does not occur, and therefore, a predetermined hole diameter can be sufficiently obtained only by molding.Therefore, there is almost no manual work and no skill of the operator is required, and the defect rate is low, The productivity is high, and it is possible to easily manufacture a ferrule for a multi-core having two or more cores.

[0023]

(Embodiment 1) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. A SUS304 wire having a perfect circular cross section of 0.127 mmφ is prepared, immersed in a release agent (Lilisagen H-15-11N) and dried. After that, it was introduced into a predetermined position while being strongly stretched in an injection mold as shown in FIG. 2 and clamped.
After normal injection of glass fiber reinforced modified phenylene ether resin in a heated state and cooling, open the mold and take it out with the metal wire inserted, then pull out the metal wire, gate processing, polishing treatment And finished it. The ferrule thus manufactured was a product having no problem within the standard.

Example 2 A ferrule was completed by injection molding of a thermosetting resin in the same manner as in Example 1 using a carbon fiber reinforced phenol resin. The ferrule manufactured in this way was a satisfactory product within the standard.

[0025]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained by the method and configuration described above. Conventionally, the process of polishing and sizing with a diamond polishing body by hand has been a bottleneck because there is no hole diameter, and the rejection rate is high due to relying on manual work that requires a high degree of skill. Although there was a problem that management took time, the present invention adopted molding using a metal wire as a core, which is completely different from the conventional method, so that the metal wire does not wear the core for one-time use. Therefore, if the thickness of the metal wire according to the shrinkage rate is adopted in advance, the hole diameter size as specified can be sufficiently obtained.Therefore, there is no need to polish the resulting product with an abrasive body, and there is almost no manual work, and therefore, It is possible to reduce the defect rate and facilitate dimensional management.

In the past, there was a problem that productivity was low because it could only be performed by highly skilled manual work. However, according to the method of the present invention, there was almost no manual work, so that productivity was low. Is high.

Further, the conventional method has a problem that it is very difficult to determine the polishing dimensions of a multi-core type, and it is practically impossible to obtain a three- or more-core type. However, according to the method of the present invention, It is extremely easy to manufacture without any difference from single core type.

Also, resin ferrules that have been used in some parts of the past have been produced due to quality problems due to bending, bending, and abrasion of the core pins, and the need to replace the core pins each time. Although there was a problem of low performance, according to the method of the present invention, the metal wire of the core,
Because of the one-time use, there are no these problems.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view and a side view of a ferrule according to a conventional method.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view and a side view showing an example of a method for manufacturing a ferrule according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of positioning a wire and introducing the wire into a mold of the lower mold according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a method for inserting one or more wires into a mold according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a cross-sectional shape of a line when a multi-core type ferrule is manufactured using a line having a cross section other than a circle according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ferrule 2 Round hole 3 Upper mold 4 Lower mold 5 Parting part 6 Metal wire 7 Wire guide groove 8 Gate part 9 Product part 10 Line groove

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A light beam characterized in that a metal wire is positioned in a molding die and put in a stretched state, a liquid plastic is introduced and molded, solidified, and then the wire is pulled out. Fiber connector component and method of manufacturing the same. 2. A component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, wherein said molding is performed by injection molding. 3. The component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, wherein the molding method is compression molding. 4. The component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, wherein casting is adopted as a molding method. 5. The optical fiber connector component according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said metal wires are used. 6. The component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, wherein said metal wire has a cross section other than a circular shape and is used for a multi-core type. 7. The component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, wherein two or more components are formed into a complicated shape in an assembled state. 8. A ceramic ferrule made by using a mixture of ceramic powder and plastic as a raw material for molding, solidifying by molding, drawing out the metal wire, and firing to decompose and remove the plastic. The component for an optical fiber connector according to claim 1, and a method for manufacturing the same. 9. A method of manufacturing a metal ferrule using a mixture of metal powder and plastic as a raw material for molding, solidifying by molding, drawing out the metal wire, and firing to decompose and remove the plastic. The optical fiber connector component according to claim 1, and a method for manufacturing the same.