JP2006259631A - Optical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an optical connector that can be easily assembled and that keeps the connected part unopened in bending. <P>SOLUTION: The boots 20, provided at the rear end of the optical connector 10 to cover a coated optical fiber 11, are constituted of a first and a second member 21, 22, wherein the second member 22, softer than the first 21, is inserted from the front end of the tubular first member 21 and pulled out to the rear end side. Then, to the engaging part 24 provided at the front end of the second member 22, there is restrained and connected a connecting projection 23 that is installed at the rear end of the first member 21. At this time, since the second projected part 26, installed at the front end of the second member 22, is abutted against the connecting projection 23 of the first member 21, the second member 22 is bound to be engaged with the first member 21. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an optical connector, for example, an optical connector provided with a boot for protecting an optical fiber core wire at a rear portion.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical connector that prevents a sharp bend at a connection portion between an optical connector and an optical fiber cord when a bending load is applied to the optical fiber cord connected to the optical connector is known. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
In the optical connector disclosed in Patent Document 1, a boot 100 as shown in FIG. 8 is provided to cover and protect the connection portion between the optical connector and the optical fiber. This boot 100 is coupled to a first member 101 made of a high hardness material and a rear portion (right side in FIG. 8) of the first member 101, and a second member 102 made of a medium hardness material. And have. The second member 102 includes a flat portion 103 having a predetermined length on the tapered side (the right end portion in FIG. 8).

As a result, the boot 100 can be in close contact with the optical fiber cord connected to the optical connector, and the two members 101 and 102 having different hardnesses act regardless of whether a large or small load that bends and deforms the optical fiber cord is applied. Thus, the connector connection portion of the optical fiber cord is always bent at a gentle angle to prevent an increase in transmission loss.
JP-A-5-297246

However, the connection between the first member 101 and the second member 102 of the boot 100 in the optical connector described in Patent Document 1 is outside the small-diameter mounting portion 104 provided at the rear portion of the first member 101. In addition, since the front end portion of the second member 102 is covered and the front end portion of the second member 102 is extended and covered in the directions of arrows A and A in FIG. 8, the assembling work efficiency is low. Note that the second member 102 can be pushed in without expanding the front end, but in this case, it is difficult to push the front end to the mounting position of the mounting portion 104 due to the frictional force. But workability is bad.
Further, when a strong bending force acts on the optical fiber cord and the second member 102 is bent at a steep angle, the front end portion 102a of the second member 102 is opened in the direction of arrow A on the bending outward side. As a result, it floats from the first member 101 to deteriorate the appearance and easily come off.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical connector that can be easily assembled and does not open a connection portion when bent.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an optical connector according to the present invention is an optical connector provided with a boot for protecting an optical fiber core wire, and the boot is formed in a cylindrical first member and the first member. A cylindrical second member to be fitted, and the first member can be fitted to an optical connector plug and has a connecting projection protruding inward, and the second member is softer than the first member. It has the latching | locking part which the said connection protrusion latches in the inner peripheral part of the said 1st member while being formed with a material.

  In the optical connector configured as described above, a boot that is provided at the rear end portion of the optical connector and covers the optical fiber core wire is constituted by the first member and the second member, and the second softer than the first member. The member is inserted into the cylindrical first member and pulled out from the first member, and the connection protrusion provided on the first member is locked and connected to the locking portion provided on the second member. For this reason, since it is not necessary to open the second member and cover the first member as in the conventional case, the first member and the second member can be easily assembled. Further, even if a bending force acts on the boot, the soft second member is inside the first member, so that it can be prevented from turning up and floating as in the prior art.

  In addition, as described above, the optical connector according to the present invention includes the boot composed of the first member and the second member, and the second member that is softer than the first member is inserted into the cylindrical first member. Pulling out from the first member and locking and connecting the connecting projection of the first member to a locking portion provided on the second member, the locking portion connecting the second member to the locking member The first protrusion is inserted through the front end of the first member and pulled out from the rear end of the first member, and is formed of a first protrusion through which the connection protrusion easily passes and a second protrusion that prevents the connection protrusion from passing through. It is characterized by having.

In the optical connector configured in this way, after the connection protrusion provided at the rear end portion of the first member passes through the first protrusion of the locking portion provided at the front end portion of the second member, The second member is locked to the first member at the locking portion because it is in contact with the second protrusion of the locking portion that is prevented from passing.
Here, the front end means the end on the optical connector plug side, and the rear end means the end on the optical fiber core side.

  In addition, as described above, the optical connector according to the present invention includes the boot composed of the first member and the second member, and the second member that is softer than the first member from the front end portion of the cylindrical first member. It is inserted and pulled out to the rear end side, and the connection protrusion provided at the rear end portion of the first member is locked and connected to the engagement portion provided at the front end portion of the second member. In addition, the side surface of the rear end portion side of the first projecting portion provided at the front end portion of the second member is formed as an inclined surface that facilitates passage of the connection protrusion.

  In the optical connector configured as described above, when the second member is pulled out from the rear end portion of the first member, the connection protrusion provided at the rear end portion of the first member is the first protrusion of the second member. Since it fits into a latching | locking part along the inclined surface of a part, a 1st member and a 2nd member can be assembled | attached easily.

  In addition, as described above, the optical connector according to the present invention includes the boot composed of the first member and the second member, and the second member that is softer than the first member from the front end portion of the cylindrical first member. The second member is inserted and pulled out to the rear end side to be connected, and the second member is characterized in that the outer diameter becomes thinner and thinner toward the rear end side.

  In the optical connector configured as described above, the boot is thinned toward the rear end portion and is thinned. Therefore, when a bending force acts on the boot, the connection portion between the first member and the second member bends. Although it is difficult, since the rear end portion is more easily bent, the second member gradually bends toward the rear end portion.

  In addition, as described above, the optical connector according to the present invention includes the boot composed of the first member and the second member, and the second member that is softer than the first member from the front end portion of the cylindrical first member. The second member is inserted and pulled out to the rear end side, and the second member is formed of silicon rubber having a hardness of 30 to 50 according to JIS K 6253.

  In the optical connector thus configured, the second member forming the boot can be formed with a certain degree of softness by forming the second member made of silicon rubber having a hardness of 30 or more and 50 or less according to JIS K 6253.

  According to the present invention, the second member softer than the first member is inserted from the front end portion of the cylindrical first member and pulled out to the rear end side to be connected. It is not necessary to open and cover the rear end portion of the first member, and can be easily assembled. Further, even if a bending force acts on the boot, the front end portion of the soft second member is inside the first member, so that it is possible to prevent turning up and floating as in the conventional case.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional side view showing an embodiment of the optical connector of the present invention, FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view showing a first member of a boot attached to the optical connector, and FIG. Sectional drawing which shows a 2nd member and FIG. 3 (A)-(D) is an assembly process figure of a boot.
As shown in FIG. 1, an optical connector 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an optical connector plug 12 connected to a front end portion (left end portion in FIG. 1) of an optical fiber core wire 11, and an optical fiber core. In order to protect the wire 11, a boot 20 attached to the rear end portion (right end portion in FIG. 1) of the optical connector plug 12 is provided. A ferrule 13 protrudes from the front end surface of the optical connector plug 12 and is connected to the other optical connector via an optical adapter (not shown).
Here, the front end portion means an end portion on the optical connector plug 12 side, and the rear end portion means an end portion on the optical fiber core wire 11 side.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, this optical connector 10 is an optical connector 10 including a boot 20 that protects the optical fiber core wire 11, and the boot 20 is a cylindrical first member 21. And a cylindrical second member 22 that fits inside the first member 21. The first member 21 has a front end portion that can be fitted onto the optical connector plug 12, and protrudes inwardly at the rear end portion. The second member 22 is formed of a softer material than the first member 21, and has a locking portion 24 to which the connecting protrusion 23 is locked at the inner peripheral portion of the first member 21. .
The portion of the first member 21 that fits with the optical connector plug 12 is not limited to the front end portion of the first member 21 as described above. Good.
The locking portion 24 includes a first projecting portion 25 through which the connecting projection 23 easily passes and a second projecting portion 26 that blocks the connecting projection 23 and abuts the connecting projection 23.

The first member 21 is formed in a cylindrical shape with a hard resin material such as plastic, for example, and the front end surface (left end surface in FIG. 2A) is for inserting the optical connector plug 12 (see FIG. 1). Has an opening 21a.
On the other hand, on the rear end surface of the first member 21 (the right end surface in FIG. 2A), a connecting projection 23 is provided so as to protrude inward, and on the inner side of the connecting projection 23, the second member 22 and the light are provided. An opening 21b for inserting the fiber core wire 11 (see FIG. 1) is provided. In addition, although the connection protrusion 23 is good to provide in a perimeter along the internal peripheral surface of the 1st member 21, if there exists sufficient intensity | strength, it may have a partial cut | interruption. In addition, a plurality (for example, four) of protrusions 21 c for locking to the optical connector plug 12 are provided on the inner peripheral surface of the first member 21 along the circumferential direction.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the second member 22 is formed in a cylindrical shape with a material softer than the first member 21 such as silicon rubber having a hardness of 30 to 50 according to JIS K 6253. The outer diameter D becomes thinner toward the side, and the wall thickness T becomes thinner. Accordingly, the optical fiber core wire 11 can be bent flexibly following the bending of the optical fiber core wire 11, and the optical fiber core wire 11 can be protected.
The outer diameter D and the wall thickness T can be reduced, for example, linearly toward the rear end side. Openings 22 a and 22 b through which the optical fiber core wire 11 is inserted are respectively provided on the front end surface and the rear end surface of the second member 22. Accordingly, the rear end opening 22b has a smaller inner diameter and outer diameter than the front end opening 22a.

Further, a locking portion 24 is formed at the front end portion of the second member 22 between the second protruding portion 26 and the first protruding portion 25, and the outer diameter of the locking portion 24 is that of the first member 21. The connecting protrusion 23 has substantially the same size as the inner diameter.
Both the second protrusions 26 and the first protrusions 25 are preferably provided on the entire circumference along the outer peripheral surface of the second member 22, but may be partially cut if the strength is sufficient. The outer diameter of the second projecting portion 26 is sufficiently larger than the inner diameter of the connecting protrusion 23 and is an outer diameter sufficient to lock the connecting protrusion 23. On the other hand, the outer diameter of the first protrusion 25 is larger than the inner diameter of the connection protrusion 23, but is large enough to allow the connection protrusion 23 to pass through the first protrusion 25 being elastically deformed inward. An inclined surface 25 a is formed on the side surface of the first projecting portion 25 on the rear end side to facilitate the passage of the connecting projection 23.
As a result, the connecting protrusion 23 that has passed over the first protrusion 25 and fitted into the locking part 24 comes into contact with the second protrusion 26 and is fixed at the position of the locking part 24.

Next, the assembly process of the boot 20 will be described based on FIGS. 3 (A) to 3 (D).
As shown in FIG. 3A, the opening 21a for inserting the optical connector plug 12 of the first member 21 is disposed on the front side (left side in FIG. 3). Then, the second member 22 is disposed in front of the first member 21, and the rear end side (the right end side in FIG. 3) having a small outer diameter is disposed toward the opening 21 a of the first member 21. As shown in FIG. 3B, the second member 22 is inserted into the opening 21a of the first member 21 from the rear end side, and the rear end portion of the second member 22 is inserted from the opening 21b on the rear end side of the first member. Extrude. Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, the rear end portion of the second member 22 is held and pulled out to the rear side (in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3C), and as shown in FIG. The connecting projection 23 of the member 21 is fitted over the locking portion 24 so as to get over the first protruding portion 25 of the second member 22. At this time, since the inclined surface 25a is provided on the side surface of the first projecting portion 25 on the rear end portion side, the first projecting portion 25 can be overcome more smoothly. As a result, the second member 22 is assembled to the rear side of the first member 21.

As described above, the optical connector 10 configured as described above was subjected to a bending test, and the increase in transmission loss due to bending was compared with the current product.
FIG. 4 shows the result of the static bending test. As shown in FIG. 6, the static bending test uses a bending jig 30 such as R10, R15, R30, R50, and R100, and passes the optical fiber core wire 11 and the boot 20 through which the light passes through the outer periphery of the bending jig 30. Bending along the surface, the transmission loss at this time was measured. Further, the hardness of the second member 22 of the boot 20 was measured by changing the hardness of 30, 40, 50 according to JIS K 6253.

  FIG. 4A shows a case where the optical connector optical fiber core wire 11 is φ0.25 mm. As shown in FIG. 4A, when the length of the boot 20 is 18 mm, the loss is 0.0 when the hardness of the second member 22 is 30 and 40 and the bending radius is R10 mm or more. It turns out that it becomes. In these cases, since the second member 22 is soft and the optical fiber core wire 11 is also thin, it can be seen that the second member 22 bends flexibly and is sufficiently improved compared to the current product. In addition, when the length of the boot 20 is 12 mm or when the hardness of the second member 22 is 50, the second member 22 is somewhat stiff so that some loss occurs but it is sufficiently compared with the current product. You can see that it has improved.

  FIG. 4B shows a case where the optical fiber core wire 11 is φ0.5 mm. As shown in FIG. 4B, it can be seen that when the bending radius is R15 mm or more, the loss is 0.0 and the optical fiber core wire 11 is flexibly bent. Further, it can be seen that even when the bending radius is R10 mm, the loss is sufficiently improved, but it is sufficiently improved as compared with the current product.

FIG. 5 shows the result of the dynamic bending test. In the dynamic bending test, as shown in FIG. 7, the optical connector plug 12 side of the light-transmitted sample is grasped with a finger, and the loss is measured by flicking the second member 22 with the finger.
As shown in FIG. 5, the hardness of the second member 22 of the boot 20 was measured for 30, 40, and 50 using the optical fiber core wires 11 of φ0.25 and φ0.5. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, in the case of φ0.25 and φ0.5, when the hardness of the second member 22 is 30, 40, 50, the boot length is 12 mm and 18 mm, both of which are the current products Compared with the loss, it can be seen that the loss is sufficiently improved.

As described above, according to the optical connector 10 described above, the boot 20 includes the first member 21 and the second member 22, and the second member 22 that is softer than the first member 21 serves as the front end portion of the tubular first member 21. Since the connecting projection 23 is engaged with the engaging portion 24 and connected to the rear end portion, the front end portion of the second member 22 is opened, for example, as in the prior art. The first member 21 and the second member 22 can be easily assembled.
Even if a bending force acts on the boot 20, the front end portion of the soft second member 22 is inside the first member 21, so that it can be prevented from turning up and floating as in the prior art.

The optical connector of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and appropriate modifications and improvements can be made.
For example, the materials shown in the above-described embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and materials having equivalent properties can be used.

  As described above, in the optical connector according to the present invention, the second member softer than the first member is inserted from the front end portion of the cylindrical first member and pulled out to the rear end side to be connected. It is not necessary to open the front end portion of the second member and cover the rear end portion of the first member, and can be assembled easily. In addition, even if a bending force acts on the boot, the front end portion of the soft second member is inside the first member, so that it has the effect of preventing turning up and floating as in the prior art, It is useful as an optical connector provided with a boot for protecting the optical fiber core wire at the rear.

It is a side view of the partial cross section which shows one Embodiment which concerns on the optical connector of this invention. (A) is sectional drawing which shows the 1st member of the boot attached to an optical connector, (B) is sectional drawing which shows the 2nd member of a boot. (A)-(D) are assembly process drawings of a boot. (A) is a table showing the loss due to the static bending test of the optical connector of the present invention using an optical fiber core of φ0.25 mm, and (B) is the present invention using an optical fiber core of φ0.5 mm. It is a table | surface which shows the loss by the static bending test of optical connector of. It is a table | surface which shows the loss by the dynamic bending test of the optical connector of this invention which uses the optical fiber core wire of (phi) 0.25 mm and (phi) 0.5 mm. It is explanatory drawing of a static bending test. It is explanatory drawing of a dynamic bending test. It is sectional drawing which shows the boot of the conventional optical connector.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Optical connector 11 Optical fiber core wire 12 Optical connector plug 20 Boot 21 1st member 22 2nd member 23 Connection protrusion 24 Locking part 25 1st protrusion part 25a Inclined surface 26 2nd protrusion part D Outer diameter

Claims (5)

An optical connector having a boot for protecting an optical fiber core,
The boot includes a cylindrical first member and a cylindrical second member fitted inside the first member, and the first member can be fitted to the optical connector plug and protrudes inward. An optical connector comprising: a protrusion, wherein the second member is formed of a softer material than the first member, and has an engaging portion that the connection protrusion engages with an inner peripheral portion of the first member. .   The locking portion is formed by inserting the second member from the front end portion of the first member and pulling it out from the rear end portion of the first member. The optical connector according to claim 1, wherein the optical connector is formed of a second protrusion that prevents passage.   The optical connector according to claim 2, wherein a side surface on the rear end portion side of the first projecting portion is formed on an inclined surface that facilitates passage of the connection protrusion.   The optical connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second member has an outer diameter that is thinner and thinner toward a rear end side. 5. The optical connector according to claim 1, wherein the second member is made of silicon rubber having a hardness of 30 to 50 according to JIS K 6253. 6.

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