JP2002260457A - Composite cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a composite cable that can be used in, conventional information communication such as telephone, FAX, domestic LAN and also in information communication of consumer apparatus such as next-generation information home electric apparatus of IEEE1394 specification. SOLUTION: Two twisted metal pairs 20 and POF(plastic optical fiber) cables 30 are alternately twisted to face each other with a distance, and filler 11 is filled in to function as an intervening substance, the rigidity of the POF cable 30 especially reinforced by the twisted metal pair 20. No conventional intervening material twisted together or a reinforcing member of a tensile-resistant body is required for improving the rigidity of the POF cable 30, to avoid increase of outer diameter of the POF cable 30, resulting in thinner composite cable which comprises the twisted metal pair 20 and POF cable 30. A metal communication cable is inserted in a protective conduit for indoor wiring such as in a house and the thinner composite cable can be inserted in the protecting conduit to cope with introduction of a consumer apparatus such as an information home electric apparatus compatible with IEEE1394.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a composite cable which can cope with the establishment of an information communication network after introduction of a next-generation information home appliance, particularly in a general house.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, even in general houses, a LAN (Local-area network) is a communication network for connecting hardware of information devices such as telephones and facsimile machines to each other.
k) In conjunction with the system, future IEEE 1394 (The I
nstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc .: American Electrical and Electronic Industries Association) There is an urgent need to develop and commercialize composite cables that can be used in consumer electronics devices such as next-generation information appliances that come standard with the standards.

Conventionally, as a cable for a home information communication network such as a LAN, a metal pair stranded wire 2 shown in FIG. 3 generally called a UTP cable (unshielded pair stranded wire).
The four metal communication cables 1 have been used. The metal twisted pair 2 is formed by extruding and covering an insulator 4 such as a vinyl chloride resin on a conductor 3 such as a copper wire.
Is formed, and two of the insulated wire cores 5 are twisted. The thus constructed metal pair stranded wire 2-4
A set of books is called a metal unit, and is housed inside the outermost sheath 6 to form a metal communication cable 1 for LAN.

[0004] On the other hand, in order to support consumer equipment equipped with the above-mentioned IEEE 1394 standard as standard, an L-type as shown in FIG.
The AN-compatible metal communication cable 1 cannot be used.
For this reason, it is considered that wiring is performed using a plastic optical fiber cable (hereinafter referred to as a POF cable) 7 shown in FIG. Normally, in the case of a home information communication network cable, the cable is routed in a protected state by passing it through a protection pipe having a maximum diameter of 25 mm that has been laid in advance in a house. Therefore, when complying with the IEEE 1394 standard, it is necessary to simultaneously insert and wire the LAN-compatible metal communication cable 1 and the POF cable 7 in such a protective pipe.

The POF cable 7 shown in FIG. 4 has the following configuration. Plastic fiber core 8
a, two optical fiber cores 8 extruded and coated with a resin coating layer 8b, and two interpositions 9a, 9a are alternately provided with the two optical fiber cores 8 as fiber dummy. ing. The interposition 9a is formed in a linear shape with polyethylene (PE) or the like. A tensile member 9b is provided at the center between the four optical fiber cores 8 and the intervening members 9a which are alternately arranged, and a filler 9c is filled so as to fill the space between the members. The press-winding tape 9d is wound over the filler 9c to reshape and reinforce the shape, and the outermost sheath 9e is extruded and coated on the press-winding tape 9d to form the POF cable 7.

[0006] During installation work indoors, external force such as bending or compressive force due to tensile force may act on the POF cable 7, but in order to secure rigidity against the lateral pressure due to such external force, the interposition of the fiber dummy member is required. 9a and the strength member 9b are reinforced and twisted.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, POF
Since the cable 7 has such a structure in which the interposition 9a and the strength member 9b are twisted together and the outer diameter is greatly enlarged, it is difficult to pass the cable 7 together with the metal communication cable 1 in the above-mentioned protective pipe due to the inner diameter of the pipe. There is a problem that it is almost impossible and involves very difficult work.

[0008] Against this background, an object of the present invention is to provide a telephone, F
It is an object of the present invention to provide a composite cable capable of supporting not only conventional information communication such as AX and home LAN but also information communication of consumer devices such as next-generation information home appliances equipped with the IEEE 1394 standard in the near future.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a composite cable according to the present invention.
A plurality of metal twisted pair wires 20 and a plastic optical fiber cable 30 are twisted so as to face each other at a staggered distance from each other, and a gap 11 between the cables is filled with a filler 11. A tape 12 is wound, and further extruded onto the holding tape 12 and covered with an outermost sheath 13. The metal twisted pair 20 is an insulated wire in which an insulator 22 is provided on a conductor 21. The two cores 23 are twisted and covered with a coating layer 24 to form a circular cross section. The plastic optical fiber cable 30 has a plastic fiber core 31 covered with a coating layer 32. Features.

With the above construction, the metal twisted pair 20 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30 are alternately twisted and the filler 11 is filled between the cables to provide an intervening function. 20
The plastic optical fiber cable 30 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30 reinforce each other from the side pressure with respect to each other. In particular, the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable 30 is enhanced by the metal pair stranded wire 20. That is, since the plastic optical fiber cable 30 is reinforced with respect to the lateral pressure, there is no need for an intervening reinforcing member or a tensile member twisted together to increase the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable 30 as in the related art. . By reducing the number of these members, enlargement of the outer diameter of the plastic optical fiber cable 30 can be avoided, and the outer diameter of the composite cable in which the metal pair stranded wire 20 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30 are combined can be reduced (slimmed).

The composite cable according to claim 2 is
It is characterized by comprising two pairs of the metal twisted pair wire 20 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30, and one of the two and the other two are symmetrical with respect to each other.

According to the above configuration, when the metal twisted pair 20 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30 are two each, that is, four in total, the metal twisted pair 2 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30 are alternately twisted.
0 oppose each other at a distance. The same applies to the two plastic optical fiber cables 30. That is, the metal twisted pair 20 and the plastic optical fiber cable 30
Are symmetrical with respect to each other, so that the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable
0 reinforces and strengthens the plastic optical fiber cable 30 against lateral pressure.

Further, the composite cable according to claim 3 is
A tear string 14 is provided linearly over the entire length of the cable at the boundary between the holding tape 12 and the outermost sheath 13.

With the above configuration, when performing a terminal processing operation such as peeling at a wiring site, if the tear string 14 is pulled, the terminal of the sheath 13 of the outermost layer is easily torn, thereby improving the efficiency of the operation. In addition, as described in the first aspect, the elimination of the use of the tensile strength member for the plastic optical fiber cable 30 is also effective for greatly reducing the terminal processing work.

Further, the composite cable according to claim 4 is
It is characterized by being formed with an outer diameter that can be inserted into a protection pipe laid indoors for use in a home information communication network.

In particular, when wiring a metal communication cable indoors such as at home, the cable is passed through a protective pipe. Therefore,
As described in claim 1, the slim composite cable can be inserted into such a protective pipe.
It is compatible with the introduction of consumer equipment such as information home appliances equipped with EEE1394 standard equipment.

[0017]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a composite optical / electric power cable according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are a cross-sectional view showing a combined optical / electric power type cable 10 of the present embodiment and a side view showing a state in which a cable terminal is peeled. This cable 10
Is a method in which two metal twisted pair wires 20 forming a metal communication cable and two POF cables 30 are alternately twisted so as to face each other at a distance, and a filler 11 is filled between the cables. And a structure in which a holding tape 12 is wound from above and covered with an outermost sheath 13.

The details of each part are as follows.
For example, a conductor 21 such as a copper wire is extruded and coated with an insulator 22 made of a vinyl chloride resin or the like to form a metal core 23.
Is formed, and two (cores) of the metal cores 23 are twisted. In addition, a coating layer 24 made of a resin material such as polyethylene is extruded so as to cover the two twisted metal cores 23 to form a single metal twin strand 20. This metal twin strand 20
Is covered with a coating layer 24 and shaped into a circular cross section as shown in the figure. Therefore, two of the metal pair twisted wires 20 facing each other at a distance can be twisted at a constant pitch.

The POF cable 30 is formed by coating a plastic fiber core 31 with a coating layer 32 of a resin material such as polyethylene. Two of such POF cables 30 are alternately twisted with the two metal twisted pairs 20, and the metal twisted pair 20 serves as a reinforcing member. The "tensile body" twisted together is omitted.

In addition, the metal pair stranded wire 20 and P
A filler 11 made of a resin material such as polypropylene is filled and interposed between cables in which two of the OF cables 30 are alternately twisted. Since the filler 11 itself does not have the property of being tightly bound to the metal twisted pair wire 20 and the POF cable 30, the holding tape 12 is placed over the filler 11 so as not to disperse each cable.
, And it is shaped and shaped to have the required circular cross section. The press-winding tape 12 is wound in one direction, for example, by wrapping a tape made of a resin material such as polystyrene having a width dimension of about 20 mm from the top of the filler 11 at a uniform overlapping margin.

An outermost sheath 13 made of a vinyl chloride resin or the like is extruded from the holding tape 12 and covered. Also, as is apparent from FIG. 2, in the present embodiment, at the stage when the pressing and winding tape 12 has been wound, the tearing string 14 is not twisted at an appropriate position on the tape over the entire length of the cable, but in a straight line, that is, vertically. It is wrapped with it. The tear string 14 is a member provided so that the sheath 13 can be easily torn during a terminal processing operation at a wiring site. Thus, the composite cable 10 of the combined optical / power type is obtained.

With the above configuration, the composite cable 10 according to the present embodiment operates and is wired as follows. The metal twisted pair 20 is composed of only two metal units in comparison with the conventional metal unit including four metal twisted pairs 2 shown in FIG. As a substitute for the other two, two of the POF cables 30 can perform the communication function. As a result, the overall outer diameter of the composite cable 10 is reduced (slimmed), and the maximum diameter of 25 mm which is laid beforehand indoors is realized.
Can be inserted into a protective pipe having a limited diameter.

It should be noted that simply reducing the number of metal twisted pair wires 20 from the conventional four to two wires to make them slim makes it possible to insert the wires into the protection pipe, but rather, the following effects are evident. However, this is realized by adopting a structure that suppresses the enlargement of the POF cable 30. In other words, the conventional POF cable 7 shown in FIG. 4 is enlarged by virtue of the fact that the rigidity is strengthened by twisting the interposition 9a and the strength member 9b together. Such an inconvenience is eliminated by eliminating the need for the interposition 9a and the tensile strength member 9b, thereby enabling space saving. As a result, it is possible to manufacture the POF cable 30 by suppressing enlargement of the POF cable 30 and combining the POF cable 30 with the metal pair stranded wire 20.
It can be inserted into a protection pipe already laid in the house to be compatible with next-generation information home appliances equipped with the IEEE standard as standard equipment.

Specifically, two pairs of the metal pair stranded wires 20 are:
The two POF cables 30 are located opposite to each other at a distance from each other. A space between the two metal twisted pairs 20 is filled with a filler 11 and interposed therebetween, and the filler 11 functions as a “category 6 cruciform inclusion” used in a conventional UTP cable. That is, since the filler 11 functions as an interposition, the rigidity of the entire cable is strengthened against the lateral pressure of external force due to bending or compression when pulled at the wiring site. As a result, it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the transmission characteristics and the like of the metal twisted pair wire 20 and the POF cable 30 due to the influence of the lateral pressure, and the effectiveness is further enhanced particularly for the POF cable 30 that is relatively weak in bending and bending.

Further, in terms of enhancing rigidity against lateral pressure, the effectiveness is enhanced by staggering the two metal twisted wires 20 and the POF cable 30. That is, the two metal twisted pair wires 20 and the POF cable are located symmetrically with respect to the plane connecting the other. Thereby, with respect to the lateral pressure due to a tensile external force or the like at the wiring site, a reinforcing effect is exerted on two POF cables 30 with two weak metal-twisted wires 20 in mechanical characteristics. At this time, the metal pair stranded wire 20 bears the bending stress and the compressive stress acting on the POF cable 30,
The OF cable 30 acts evenly with the bending stress and the compressive stress reduced. As a result, the transmission characteristics of the POF cable 30 are effectively prevented from deteriorating.

In other words, the metal twisted pair 20 is made of POF
The cable 30 serves as a substitute for the conventional “intervening” and “tensile member”. Therefore, unlike the POF cable 7 shown in FIG. 4 of the conventional example, it is not necessary to reinforce and shape with the interposition 9a and the tensile strength member 9b.
By eliminating the intervening parts 9a and the tensile members 9b, it is possible to contribute to cost reduction by reducing the number of members. In addition, the fact that the tensile member 9b does not need to be provided in the cable brings a great advantage that the terminal processing work becomes very easy.
For the above reasons, as shown in FIG. 1, the POF cable 30 of the present example only needs to have a structure in which the covering layer 32 is provided on the plastic fiber core 31.

On the other hand, the metal twisted pair 20 itself is formed by twisting two metal cores 23, extruding the coating layer 24 from above and shaping the coating into a circular cross section. Therefore, in the manufacturing process of twisting two pairs of metal twisted wires 20, the twisting process is facilitated and productivity is improved, and a great advantage is that a product having a constant twisting pitch can be manufactured. Can be stabilized.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the cable end is to be stripped, the outermost layer of the sheath 13 can be easily torn by pulling the tearing string 14 without any special tool. It is effective to reduce work.

[0030]

As described above, in the composite cable according to the first aspect of the present invention, the metal twisted pair and the plastic optical fiber cable are alternately twisted, and the filler is filled between the cables. As a result, the metal pair stranded wire and the plastic optical fiber cable reinforce each other from the side pressure with respect to each other, and especially the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable is reinforced by the metal pair stranded wire. In other words, the plastic optical fiber cable is reinforced against lateral pressure,
As in the past, there is no need for a reinforcing member such as an intertwisted body and a tensile member to increase the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable. The outer diameter of a composite cable obtained by combining fiber cables can be reduced.

Further, the composite cable according to claim 2 is
2 metal twisted wires and 2 plastic optical fiber cables
In the case of a total of four wires each, if the wires are twisted alternately, the two metal-pair stranded wires face each other at a distance, and the metal-pair stranded wires and the plastic optical fiber cable become symmetrical with respect to each other. In particular, the metal pair strands reinforce the rigidity of the plastic optical fiber cable and strengthen the plastic optical fiber cable against side pressure.

Further, the composite cable according to claim 3 is:
When performing a terminal processing operation such as peeling at a wiring site, pulling a tear string easily tears the terminal of the outermost layer of the sheath, thereby increasing the efficiency of the operation. Further, the elimination of the use of a tensile member in the plastic optical fiber cable is effective in greatly reducing the terminal processing work.

Further, the composite cable according to claim 4 is
In particular, when laying a metal communication cable indoors such as at home, the cable is passed through a protective pipe. The slim composite cable can be inserted into the protective pipe, and the
It can respond to the introduction of consumer equipment such as information appliances that are equipped with E1394 standard equipment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical / electric power composite type as an embodiment of a composite cable according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a processing state of a terminal portion of the cable according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a conventional metal communication cable.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a conventional POF cable.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Composite cable 11 Filler 12 Holding tape 13 Outermost layer sheath 20 Metal twisted pair 21 Conductor 22 Insulator 23 Metal core 24 Coating layer 30 Plastic optical fiber (POF) cable 31 Plastic fiber core 32 Coating layer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of metal twisted pair wires and a plastic optical fiber cable are twisted so as to face each other at a staggered distance from each other, a gap between the cables is filled with a filler, and a holding member is placed on the filler. A winding tape is wound, and further extruded onto a holding winding tape and covered with an outermost sheath. The metal-paired stranded wire is formed of two insulated wires having an insulator provided on a conductor. A composite cable, wherein the plastic optical fiber cable is formed by covering a plastic fiber core wire with a coating layer, wherein the plastic optical fiber cable is covered with a coating layer. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of said pair of metal twisted wires and said plastic optical fiber cable is symmetric with respect to each other. Item 7. The composite cable according to item 1. 3. The composite cable according to claim 1, wherein a tear string is provided linearly over the entire length of the cable at a boundary between the holding tape and the outermost sheath. 4. A home information communication network,
The composite cable according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the composite cable is formed with an outer diameter capable of being inserted into a protection pipe laid indoors.