JP2005148504A - Method and apparatus for manufacturing coated optical tape - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a coated optical tape, which prevents an arrangement disorder of an optical fiber, by preventing the occurrence of line deflection between a guide roller and a resin coating dies. <P>SOLUTION: In the method for manufacturing the coated optical tape 3 for collectively performing resin coating by sending a plurality of optical fibers 1 fed out from an optical fiber supply apparatus 10 into a resin coating part 12, after aligning them parallel by the plurality of guide rollers 11, the running lines of all optical fibers are made the vertical lines in one vertical plane, between the guide rollers 11 and the resin coating part 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus for an optical tape core in which a plurality of optical fibers are arranged in parallel and are collectively covered with a resin.

  FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional structure of the optical tape core wire. An optical tape core wire 3 is configured by arranging a plurality of optical fibers 1 in parallel at equal intervals and collectively covered with a resin 2. The outer diameter of the optical fiber is typically 250 μm, and the optical fiber core 3 is generally designed so that the center interval between adjacent optical fibers is arranged in parallel at an interval of 250 μm. The number of optical fibers constituting the optical tape core is various from 2 to 24, and the resin 2 is generally an ultraviolet curable resin (hereinafter referred to as UV resin).

  An example of an optical tape core manufacturing apparatus is shown in FIG. (A) of the figure is a schematic view of the entire apparatus, and a plurality of optical fibers 1 wound around individual bobbins are fed out from the optical fiber supply apparatus 10 toward the corresponding guide rollers 11. The guide roller 11 collects and aligns a plurality of optical fibers 1. The optical fiber exiting the guide roller 11 enters the coating portion 12 where the resin 2 is coated, and is collectively coated with the resin. When the coating part 12 is exited, it enters an ultraviolet irradiation furnace 13 where the ultraviolet ray is irradiated and the UV resin is cured to form an optical tape core 3 in which the optical fiber 1 and the resin 2 are integrated. This optical tape core wire 3 is turned by a turn roller 14 at the lower part of the ultraviolet irradiation furnace, taken up by a take-up device 15, and taken up on a bobbin by a winder 16.

  In order to maintain the tension of the optical fiber fed from the optical fiber supply device 10 with a constant tension, the plurality of guide rollers 11 are generally rotated independently. In this case, the number of guide rollers is the same as the number of optical fibers. For example, in the case of a four-core optical fiber, four guide rollers are necessary. Normally, these guide rollers are installed so that the rotation shaft is common as shown in FIG. 4B (FIG. 4B shows the AA arrow in FIG. 4A). ). In this case, if the groove center lines of the guide rollers (travel center line of the optical fiber) are also arranged at intervals of 250 μm, all the optical fibers are arranged in parallel from the guide roller to the coating portion 12, but in reality, a bearing is provided on the rotating shaft of the guide roller. For example, the thickness of the guide roller is usually several millimeters. For example, the thickness of the guide roller is 4.5 mm, and the distance between the center lines of the guide rollers is 4 to 5 mm, which is much larger than 250 μm.

  Therefore, the plurality of optical fibers traveling from the guide roller to the resin coating portion cannot be parallel, and the interval between the optical fibers is large on the guide roller side and small on the resin coating portion as shown in FIG. The travel line is such that an interval of 250 μm is realized in a die (not shown) inside the unit. Therefore, the optical fiber near the center of the optical tape core runs on a line close to the vertical line, but the optical fiber near the edge of the optical tape core runs on a line that is considerably inclined with respect to the vertical line. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  The vertical line with the guide roller side up is ideal for the multiple optical fiber travel lines that run from the guide roller to the resin coating die, but as described above, the optical fiber near the edge of the optical tape core is the vertical line. The line is considerably inclined. An optical fiber traveling on an inclined line is susceptible to vibration (hereinafter referred to as linear blur) due to the action of gravity. When line blurring occurs, a plurality of optical fibers are deviated from the regular arrangement (the arrangement shown in FIG. 3 where all the center lines of the optical fibers are arranged in parallel at equal intervals in one plane). The amount of deviation varies variously in the length direction of the optical tape core wire, resulting in disordered arrangement in the cross section. There is a standard value for the amount of misalignment, and an arrangement disorder exceeding the standard value is an optical tape core quality defect, and when connecting the optical tape core by connector or fusion later, the connection loss increases. This causes harmful effects such as In addition, the arrangement disorder also leads to poor appearance of the optical tape core wire.

  In order to bring all the optical fiber travel lines closer to the vertical line, it is effective to increase the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating die, but this also increases the travel span between the guide roller and the resin coating die. As a result, there is a tendency that line blurring tends to occur on the contrary, and the problem of the above-mentioned arrangement disorder cannot be solved. Further, in this case, there is a problem that the equipment is enlarged and the manufacturing cost is increased.

  For example, in the case of a 4-fiber ribbon, the 4.5 mm thick guide rollers are arranged as shown in FIG. 4B so that the inclination of the optical fiber running line from the vertical line is 1 ° or less. In this case, it is necessary to increase the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating die by 1 m or more. Furthermore, since the width of the guide roller row is increased in a multi-core optical tape, the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating die needs to be further increased.

  In other words, if the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating die is too small, the traveling line of the optical fiber tends to cause tilt line blurring, and if it is too large, the line blurring tends to occur. The actual situation was that the distance was chosen appropriately, and the problems of line blurring and alignment disorder could not be solved completely.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-142464

  The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for manufacturing an optical tape core wire that does not cause a line blur between a guide roller and a resin coating die and eliminates an optical fiber arrangement disorder.

  The present invention relates to an optical tape core in which a plurality of optical fibers fed out from an optical fiber supply device are aligned by a plurality of guide rollers corresponding to the respective optical fibers, and then sent to a resin coating portion to collectively cover the resin. In this manufacturing method, the traveling line of all the optical fibers between the guide roller and the resin coating portion is a vertical line in one vertical plane.

  In addition, optical fiber cores are manufactured by aligning a plurality of optical fibers fed out from an optical fiber supply device by a plurality of guide rollers corresponding to the respective optical fibers, and then feeding them to a resin coating portion to collectively coat the resin. In the apparatus, the optical fiber traveling line coming out of the guide roller forms a vertical line in one vertical plane, and the optical fiber traveling line is sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction according to the upper and lower sides of the guide roller. The optical tape core manufacturing apparatus is characterized in that it is installed separately in the vertical direction in the plane.

  By doing so, each guide roller has an independent rotation axis and is installed in a step difference in the height direction, and the center line interval between adjacent optical fibers is the design value shown in FIG. 3 immediately after passing the guide roller. For example, it can be set to 250 μm, for example. Since a plurality of optical fibers enter the resin coating portion while maintaining this distance, the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating die can be made small, and all optical fiber travel lines are parallel with no inclination. Therefore, no line blurring occurs, and therefore optical fiber arrangement is not disturbed.

  According to the present invention, there is no line blur between the guide roller and the resin coating portion, so that the optical fiber is not disturbed, and an optical tape core that satisfies the quality standards can be easily obtained. The fact that the optical fiber is not disturbed does not cause a difference in length between the plurality of optical fibers constituting the optical tape core wire, which leads to an improvement in skew. Further, since the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating portion can be reduced, the equipment can be reduced in size and is economical.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The overall equipment configuration is the same as in FIG. 4, and a plurality of optical fibers 1 wound on individual bobbins from the optical fiber supply device 10 are fed out toward the respective guide rollers 11. The optical fiber that has exited the guide roller 11 enters the coating portion 12 of the resin 2, is collectively coated with the resin, enters the ultraviolet irradiation furnace 13, becomes the optical tape core wire 3, and is turned by the turn roller 14 at the lower part of the ultraviolet irradiation furnace. Then, it is taken up by a take-up device and taken up on a bobbin by a winder. 4 is basically the arrangement of the guide rollers 11, whereby the wide surface of the optical tape core in FIG. 4 (a) is orthogonal to the paper surface, whereas the wide surface of the optical tape core in FIG. Is parallel to the page. Since only the wide surface of the optical tape core wire can be bent, the rotation axis of the turn roller 14 in FIG. 1 is also parallel to the paper surface, and the take-up device and the winder are arranged perpendicular to the paper surface. For this reason, the take-up device and the winder in FIG. 4A are not shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 1, the number of guide rollers 11 is equal to the number of optical fibers, and these are installed while being shifted in the vertical direction. Of course, the rotation shafts of the respective guide rollers 11 are independent. The rotation shafts of the respective guide rollers 11 can be individually moved in the horizontal direction (left-right direction in the figure). For example, the adjustment screw 17 shown in the figure is rotated so that the bearing portion of the rotation shaft of the guide roller attached to the tip of the screw can be moved left and right.

  If the individual adjustment screws 17 are adjusted, the distance between the travel lines of each optical fiber can be set arbitrarily. As described above, if all the intervals are set to 250 μm, all the optical fibers are introduced into the coating portion 12 in a state of being in close contact in parallel. As is apparent from FIG. 1, according to the method and apparatus of the present invention, all the optical fiber travel lines can be made vertical between the guide roller and the resin coating portion. Therefore, unlike the prior art, it is not necessary to increase the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating portion in order to bring the traveling line of the optical fiber closer to the vertical line, and this distance can be reduced to the limit. In the present invention, since the generation factor of the line blur is removed in this way, there is no problem even if all the optical fibers are introduced into the coating portion in close contact in parallel.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the rotation shafts of the guide rollers 11 may be arranged on a straight line, and the radii of the guide rollers may be sequentially changed in the order of the upper and lower arrangements. If the radius is sequentially changed by 250 μm, all the optical fibers enter the resin coating portion 12 in a completely adjacent parallel state. Even if it does in this way, the distance between a guide roller and a resin coating part can be made small by making all the travel lines of an optical fiber into a perpendicular line.

  Further, the configurations shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be combined. That is, the rotation axis of the guide roller may be sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction in the order of the upper and lower lines, and the radius of the guide roller may be changed in the order of the upper and lower lines. Even if it does in this way, the distance between a guide roller and a resin coating part can be made small by making all the travel lines of an optical fiber into a perpendicular line.

  As described above, the present invention eliminates both the two problems that cause line blurring, that is, the fact that the traveling line of the optical fiber is inclined and that the distance between the guide roller and the resin coating portion is not required, and thus the conventional problem. The point is eliminated. In addition, the electrostatic removal shown in Claim 5 of the said patent document 1 may bring about a useful effect also in this invention.

It is explanatory drawing of the manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus of the optical tape core wire of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus of the optical tape core wire of this invention. It is sectional drawing of an optical tape core wire. It is explanatory drawing of the manufacturing method and manufacturing apparatus of the conventional optical tape core wire of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1: Optical fiber 2: Resin 3: Optical tape core wire 10: Optical fiber supply apparatus 11: Guide roller 12: Resin coating part 13: Ultraviolet irradiation furnace 14: Turn roller 15: Take-up apparatus 16: Winder 17: Adjustment screw

Claims (9)

  In an optical tape core manufacturing method in which a plurality of optical fibers fed from an optical fiber supply device are aligned by a plurality of guide rollers corresponding to the respective optical fibers, and then sent to a resin coating portion to collectively cover the resin. An optical tape core manufacturing method characterized in that all optical fiber travel lines between the guide roller and the resin coating portion are vertical lines in one vertical plane.   2. The optical tape core manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber travel lines are arranged at equal intervals.   The method of manufacturing an optical tape core wire according to claim 1, wherein the equally spaced distances are values in the vicinity of the outer diameter of the optical fiber.   By installing a plurality of guide rollers separately in one vertical plane in the vertical plane, the optical fiber running line coming out from the guide roller forms a vertical line in the vertical plane, and the optical fiber according to the vertical direction of the guide roller. 4. The method of manufacturing an optical tape core wire according to claim 1, wherein the running lines are sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction.   In an optical fiber ribbon manufacturing apparatus in which a plurality of optical fibers fed from an optical fiber supply device are aligned by a plurality of guide rollers corresponding to the respective optical fibers, and then sent to a resin coating portion to collectively cover the resin. The optical fiber traveling line coming out of the guide roller forms a vertical line in one vertical plane, and the optical fiber traveling line is sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction according to the upper and lower sides of the guide roller. An optical tape core manufacturing apparatus, characterized in that it is installed separately on the top and bottom.   The optical tape core manufacturing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the rotation axis of the guide roller is sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction in the order of the upper and lower lines.   7. The optical tape core manufacturing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a horizontal shift amount of the rotation shaft of the guide roller can be adjusted by an adjusting means.   6. The optical tape core manufacturing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the radius of the guide roller is sequentially changed in the order of top and bottom.   6. The optical tape core according to claim 5, wherein the rotation axis of the guide roller is sequentially shifted in the horizontal direction in the order of the upper and lower lines, and the radius of the guide roller is sequentially changed in the order of the upper and lower lines. apparatus.

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