JP2001100048A - Tapering machine for optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical fiber tapering machine of a simple structure which can taper an optical fiber at low cost and with high precision without causing strength deterioration or breakage of the optical fiber. SOLUTION: When a tapering machine body 1 moves a coated optical fiber and a grindstone 7b along and on an axis in driving for tapering work and polishes the tip part of an optical fiber strand part 10a of the optical fiber made to abut against the polishing surface of the grindstone 7b for conic tapering, a intermediate part of the optical fiber part 10a is fixed by the internal wall of a through hole of a sleeve 6a of a holding guide part and the sleeve 6a is held and fixed by a sleeve holder 6b, and hence the tip part of the optical fiber strand part 10a can be tapered with high precision without decreasing the strength or the optical fiber part 10a or damaging its surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention mainly relates to an optical fiber used for tapering the distal end of an optical fiber, which is exposed by stripping an optical fiber coating of an optical fiber by machining using a grindstone. The present invention relates to a taper processing machine for a fiber.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in response to demands for downsizing and high-density optical connectors, optical connectors of a type in which optical fibers are directly connected at a narrow pitch have been developed. As an example of such an optical connector standard, for example, there is a case where optical fibers having an outer diameter of 0.125 mm are connected at a pitch of 0.25 mm.

In an optical connector having such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 2, a distal end portion 10a 'of an optical fiber wire portion (also called a bare optical fiber) 10a in which an optical fiber coating portion of an optical fiber is peeled off and exposed is connected. In order to reduce the load and improve the insertability into the alignment member, it is required to perform conical tapering.

As a well-known technique related to this type of optical fiber tip processing, for example, in an optical fiber tip polishing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 60-217054, when an optical fiber tip is processed into a conical shape by a grindstone, In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the optical fiber, a guide part is provided between the optical fiber part of the installed optical fiber and the grindstone, and the guide part penetrates and holds an intermediate part of the optical fiber part by the optical fiber. The distal end portion of the wire portion can be tapered without axial deviation.

In the method of processing the tip of an optical fiber disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-210411, the vicinity of the tip of the optical fiber to be rotated at the time of processing the tip of the optical fiber is slightly smaller than the diameter of the optical fiber. By passing through a guide with a large-diameter through-hole and supporting it, and centering it by the air bearing action, it is possible to damage the outer surface (surface) of the optical fiber in this part, which may cause practical problems. Avoided.

[0006]

In the above-mentioned optical fiber tip polishing apparatus, a guide plate provided as a guide portion provided for improving the accuracy of taper processing is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the optical fiber wire portion. Provide a guide hole with a large inner diameter,
Since the optical fiber is directly penetrated and held in the guide hole, the main body of the processing machine holds the optical fiber during the taper processing, and is driven in the uniaxial direction, which is the extending direction thereof, and around the uniaxial direction. When the optical fiber rotates with respect to the fixed guide plate, the surface of the optical fiber portion is damaged, and there is a problem that the strength of the optical fiber is easily deteriorated or damaged.

On the other hand, in the case of the above-described method for processing the tip of an optical fiber, the optical fiber is directly held in the through hole of the guide, and the surface of the optical fiber is damaged during driving. An air layer is formed on the inner wall of the through hole of the guide in consideration of the load capacity of receiving a hydrodynamic fluid film pressure by applying an air bearing action to the bearing structure of the guide so as not to give a problem. However, such a bearing structure has a drawback in that it requires sophisticated design accuracy and tends to be expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and its technical problem is to provide a simple structure, low cost and high precision taper processing without causing deterioration or breakage of the strength of an optical fiber. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber taper processing machine which enables the following.

[0009]

According to the present invention, an optical fiber covering portion of a uniaxially extending optical fiber formed by coaxially covering an optical fiber wire portion with an optical fiber covering portion is peeled off and exposed. In an optical fiber taper machine for tapering the distal end of the optical fiber strand portion, the optical fiber coating portion is fixed with a holding medium interposed, and while the optical fiber is held during driving, the optical fiber coating portion is rotated around one axis. The main body of the processing machine to be moved to, and the holding guide part that guides at the time of driving by penetrating and holding the middle part of the optical fiber wire part exposed by peeling the optical fiber coating part corresponding to the part to be stripped, The optical fiber has a polished surface which is disposed so as to be tilted at a desired angle in advance, and the tip of the optical fiber is brought into contact with the polished surface. And taper An optical fiber taper machine, comprising: a sleeve for fixing the optical fiber by passing through a middle part thereof; and a sleeve holder for holding and fixing the sleeve. Is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-mentioned optical fiber taper machine, the sleeve has a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the optical fiber wire portion which can penetrate the optical fiber wire portion, or An optical fiber tapering machine provided with a through hole having a slightly larger diameter is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-mentioned optical fiber tapering machine, the sleeve is fixed to an intermediate portion of the optical fiber by a wax or a water-soluble UV adhesive filled on the inner wall of the through hole. The obtained optical fiber taper machine is obtained.

In addition, according to the present invention, in any one of the above-described optical fiber taper machines, the sleeve is made of quartz, borosilicate, polycarbonate, PES as a transparent material.
Is obtained by selecting any one of the above.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a basic structure of an optical fiber tapering machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.

This optical fiber taper machine peels off and exposes an optical fiber coating portion 10b of a uniaxially extending optical fiber formed by coaxially coating an optical fiber wire portion 10a with an optical fiber coating portion 10b. The optical fiber coating portion 10a is formed by tapering the distal end portion of the optical fiber wire portion 10a. As a basic configuration, the optical fiber coating portion 10b is fixed with a tube 5 serving as a holding medium interposed, and the optical fiber is held in the uniaxial direction while being held during driving. And a holding guide portion for guiding the optical fiber coating portion 10b corresponding to the portion to be peeled by driving through the middle portion of the optical fiber wire portion 10a which is peeled and exposed. And a polished surface which is arranged so as to be tilted at a desired angle in advance with respect to the uniaxial direction and is in contact with the tip end of the optical fiber strand 10a. Grinding stones 7a and 7b (the grinding stone 7b is used in the illustrated example, and the grinding stone 7a has a different roughness) for polishing and tapering the tip of the wire portion 10a with a polishing surface when driving. .

Of these, the processing machine main body 1 is capable of mounting a cylindrical fiber holder 3 with a cylindrical chuck 2 interposed substantially at the center. The fiber holder 3 has a through hole through which the optical fiber covered with the tube 5 can be penetrated along the axis, and a body portion for holding and fixing the optical fiber coating portion 10b covered with the tube 5 on one end side. A screw 4 whose inner diameter is variable by turning the outer diameter portion is provided, and a through hole at the other end is provided for facilitating insertion of the optical fiber covered with the tube 5. An enlarged space S is formed.

The holding guide section is composed of an optical fiber section 10a.
And a sleeve 6a made of a glass capillary that penetrates through the middle part of the sleeve 6a, and a sleeve holder 6b that houses, holds and fixes the sleeve 6a. Further, the optical fiber and the grindstone 7a,
When moving 7b in and around the one axis direction, the distal end of the optical fiber 10a projects about 2 mm from the sleeve 6a so as to be in contact with the polishing surface of the grindstone 7b during driving.
The grindstones 7a and 7b are moved by a stage (not shown).
Further, the sleeve 6b is provided with a through hole having a diameter substantially the same as or slightly larger than the diameter of the optical fiber element 10a that can penetrate the optical fiber element 10a. Wax or water-soluble U
The sleeve 6b is fixed to the middle part of the optical fiber portion 10a by V-adhesive by bonding or the like.

That is, in the case of this optical fiber taper processing machine, the optical fiber and the grindstones 7a and 7b are moved in and around the one axis by the processing machine body 1 during the taper driving, so that the optical fiber and the grindstone 7b come into contact with the polishing surface of the grindstone 7b. When the distal end portion of the optical fiber 10a of the optical fiber thus formed is polished with a polishing surface and tapered into a conical shape, an intermediate portion of the optical fiber 10a is formed by the inner wall of the through hole of the sleeve 6a of the holding guide. The sleeve 6a is fixed and the sleeve holder 6b is
The optical fiber 10a can be fixed with high precision or rotatably, so that the tip of the optical fiber 10a can be formed with high precision without deteriorating the strength of the optical fiber 10a or damaging its surface at all. Can be tapered. Therefore, according to this optical fiber taper processing machine, high-precision taper processing can be performed at a low cost with a simple structure without causing strength deterioration or breakage of the optical fiber.

Incidentally, in the above-mentioned optical fiber taper processing machine of one embodiment, the glass capillary is used as the material of the sleeve 6a, but other materials such as quartz, borosilicate, polycarbonate, and PES are used as transparent materials. Any one of them may be selected and formed. In either case, if the optical fiber is bonded to the optical fiber 10a using, for example, a UV adhesive, it can be directly incorporated into the optical connector without peeling off the sleeve 6a after the taper processing.

[0020]

As described above, according to the taper machine for optical fiber of the present invention, the optical fiber covering portion of the existing optical fiber is peeled off and exposed through the middle part of the optical fiber wire portion. Improve the basic structure of the guide part to hold, fix the middle part of the optical fiber wire part with the inner wall of the through hole of the sleeve as the holding guide part, then hold and fix the sleeve with the sleeve holder, or hold and fix rotatably As a result, the tip of the optical fiber can be tapered with high precision without deteriorating the strength of the optical fiber or driving the surface of the optical fiber at all during the tapering operation. Become. As a result, in the case of this optical fiber taper processing machine, it is possible to perform high-precision taper processing with a simple structure at low cost without causing the strength deterioration or breakage of the optical fiber.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a basic configuration of an optical fiber tapering machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state of a taper processing at a distal end portion of an optical fiber wire portion provided for direct connection in a conventional optical connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processing machine main body 2 Chuck 3 Fiber holder 4 Screw 5 Tube 6a Sleeve 6b Sleeve holder 7a, 7b Grinding stone 10a Optical fiber bare part 10a 'Tip part 10b Optical fiber coating part S Enlarged space

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazunori Tawarayama 13-13, Sumiyoshi 1-chome, Koto-ku, Tokyo F-term in Innex Corporation (reference) 2H036 KA01 KA03 2H038 CA22 3C049 AA03 AB01 AB04 CA01 CA06

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An end portion of an optical fiber wire portion of a uniaxially extending optical fiber formed by coaxially coating an optical fiber wire portion with an optical fiber coating portion, wherein the optical fiber coating portion is peeled off and exposed. In an optical fiber taper machine for tapering the portion, a processing machine body that moves around the uniaxial direction while holding the optical fiber during driving after fixing the optical fiber coating portion with a holding medium interposed therebetween, A holding guide portion that guides at the time of driving by penetrating and holding a halfway portion of the optical fiber wire portion where the optical fiber coating portion corresponding to the portion to be stripped is exposed by stripping, The optical fiber element has a polished surface which is disposed so as to be inclined at an angle, and the distal end of the optical fiber element is brought into contact with the optical fiber element. A whetstone, and the holding guide portion further comprises a sleeve that penetrates and fixes an intermediate portion of the optical fiber, and a sleeve holder that houses and holds and fixes the sleeve. Fiber taper processing machine. 2. The optical fiber taper machine according to claim 1, wherein the sleeve has a diameter substantially equal to a diameter of the optical fiber portion that can penetrate the optical fiber portion, or An optical fiber taper machine, wherein a through hole having a slightly larger diameter is provided. 3. The optical fiber taper machine according to claim 2, wherein the sleeve is formed at an intermediate portion of the optical fiber by a wax or a water-soluble UV adhesive filled into an inner wall of the through hole. An optical fiber taper processing machine fixed. 4. The optical fiber taper machine according to claim 1, wherein said sleeve is made of quartz, borosilicate, polycarbonate, PE as a transparent material.
An optical fiber taper processing machine formed by selecting any one of S.