JP3383907B2 - Optical fiber holder - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber holder for holding a multi-core optical fiber mainly formed by coating a plurality of optical fiber elemental wire portions to form a tape fiber. Removal of coating,
The present invention relates to an optical fiber holder used for stress cutting and fusion splicing of each optical fiber element wire portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional optical fiber holder of this type is shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 shows a perspective view of a state in which the base 31 is held, and the base 31 which is the main part thereof is shown in FIG.
An example of such a structure is shown as a plan view from above with the state removed.

This optical fiber holder has a base 3 in which a magnet is embedded and a tape fiber guide groove 31a for guiding and mounting the tape fiber 14 is provided.
On the other hand, two iron holding plates 32 of the same shape, on which a rubber pad 33 as a pressing member for elastically pressing the tape fiber 14 arranged in the tape fiber guide groove 31a is arranged, are magnetically fixed. By doing so, it is configured as one tape fiber holder 30.

Of these, the base 31 has two recesses for receiving two rubber pads 33 attached to two holding plates 32 on both sides of the base 31 along the length direction of the tape fiber guide groove 31a. 31b and 31c are formed symmetrically from the central portion with a depth shallower than the tape fiber guide groove 31a. That is, each recess 31c
Are located outside each recess 31b, and
A part is exposed from the opposite short side.

As shown in FIG. 11, the optical fiber holder (tape fiber holder 30) having such a structure peels off the coating of the tape fiber 14 using the fusion machine 40 while holding the tape fiber 14. After that, it is subjected to fusion splicing with respect to each optical fiber element wire portion 15 forming the multi-core.

As a procedure for fusion splicing, first, as shown in FIG. 9, the tape fiber 14 is attached to the tape fiber holder 3 as shown in FIG.
Tape fiber holder 3
0 is mounted on a hot stripper (not shown), and in this state, the coating of the tape fiber 14 is peeled off and removed.

Next, the tape fiber holder 30 is detached from the hot stripper and mounted on a stress cutter (not shown). In this state, each optical fiber element wire portion 15 is stress-cut and the portion exposed from the coating of the tape fiber 14 is exposed. To a predetermined length.

Finally, the fusion machine 4 as shown in FIG.
After each optical fiber element wire portion 15 laid on the aligning member 41 having a V-shaped groove of 0 is pressed and fixed by the pressing plate 42, the fusion machine 40 is operated to perform fusion splicing.

[0009]

In the case of the above-mentioned optical fiber holder, since it has the function of holding and fixing only the tape fiber coated on each of the optical fiber element wires forming the multicore,
Due to various points described below, it is difficult to perform fusion splicing easily and accurately.

Specifically, when the tape fiber is mounted and fixed at the initial stage of fusion splicing, the width of the tape fiber is generally the number of cores (generally 2, 4, 5, 8, 12 cores are commercially available. ), It is necessary to prepare different types of tape fiber holders for different widths of tape fiber, which not only makes it difficult to select each tape fiber holder, but also to manufacture and manage them. It will hang.

Further, when the tape fiber holder is mounted on the stress cutter to stress-cut each optical fiber element wire portion after the coating of the tape fiber is removed, the stress cutter does not have a centering structure. As shown in FIG. 12, when the optical fiber element wire portions 15 exposed from the tape fiber 14 are overlapped with each other depending on the state when the coating is removed, there is a possibility that the stress cutting cannot be performed.

Further, when the stress-cut optical fiber element wires are laid on the aligning member of the fusion machine and fixed by the holding plate, the tape fiber holder does not have the aligning function. The tip of each optical fiber element wire portion easily expands as the number of the optical fiber element increases, and for example, as shown in FIG. 13, the tip of each optical fiber element wire element expands and exceeds the width dimension d of the centering member of the fusion machine. In this state, each optical fiber element 15 is placed on the aligning member.
It becomes difficult to crawl.

In addition, since the tape fiber holder has a function of holding and fixing only the tape fiber at the time of fusion-splicing each optical fiber element wire portion fixed by the fusion machine, each optical fiber element wire portion moves. This is easy, and if the connection end face becomes unstable due to the movement of each optical fiber element, the fusion splicing may fail.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and its technical problem is to simplify fusion splicing regardless of the number of cores of an optical fiber element wire portion coated as a tape fiber. It is to provide an optical fiber holder that can be accurately performed.

[0015]

According to the present invention, a tape for an optical fiber holder for holding a multi-core optical fiber formed by covering a plurality of optical fiber wire portions to form a tape fiber is provided. The tape fiber holder for holding the fiber and the optical fiber element wire holder for holding each of the plurality of optical fiber element wire portions have a separate structure, and the tape fiber holder and the optical fiber element wire holder are fitted to each other. A detachable optical fiber holder is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-mentioned optical fiber holder, the optical fiber element wire holder is provided with a positioning convex portion which can be inserted into and removed from the positioning concave portion provided in the tape fiber holder. An optical fiber holder is obtained. Further, in this optical fiber holder, it is preferable that the positioning convex portion is a pin implanted in the optical fiber element holder and the positioning concave portion is a pin hole provided in the tape fiber holder.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, in any one of the optical fiber holders described above, the optical fiber element wire holder has an alignment member for aligning a plurality of optical fiber element wire portions. Is obtained. In this optical fiber holder, it is preferable that the alignment member has a plurality of guide grooves provided at predetermined intervals for individually guiding and positioning the plurality of optical fiber element wire portions.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, in any one of the optical fiber holders described above, the tape fiber holder is a tape fiber guide for sliding the tape fiber according to the width of the tape fiber to sandwich and fix the tape fiber. An optical fiber holder having is obtained.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The optical fiber holder of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external structure of an optical fiber holder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
4 shows a state in which the optical fiber bare wire holder 20 is disassembled while holding No. 4, and FIG.
The tape fiber 14 is held, the optical fiber element wire holder 20 holds the optical fiber element wire portions 15, and then the holders are fitted together. Further, FIG. 2 shows the basic structure of this optical fiber holder by holding plates 12, 22 of the tape fiber holder 10 and the optical fiber element wire holder 20.
It is shown as a plan view seen from the upper surface in a state where the is removed.

That is, this optical fiber holder is one tape fiber holder 1 for holding the tape fiber 14.
0 and another 1 for holding each optical fiber strand 15
The optical fiber element wire holder 20 and the individual optical fiber element wire holders 20 form a separate structure, and the tape fiber holder 10 and the optical fiber element wire holder 20 can be fitted and separated from each other.

Specifically, the tape fiber holder 1
0 is a tape fiber guide groove 1 for a base 11 in which a magnet is embedded and a tape fiber guide groove 11a for guiding and mounting the tape fiber 14 is provided.
9a is formed by magnetically fixing two iron pressing plates 12 of different shapes, each of which is provided with a rubber pad 13 as a pressing member for elastically pressing the tape fiber 14 provided in 1a. The tape fiber 1 is similar in appearance to the conventional tape fiber holder 30 shown in FIG.
The axial dimension of 4 is shortened to have a compact structure.

The optical fiber bare wire holder 20 has an end in contact with the end of the tape fiber 14 in a tape fiber guide groove 21a for guiding and mounting the tape fiber 14 provided in a base 21 in which a magnet is embedded. An alignment member 24 for aligning the respective optical fiber element wires 15 is provided so as to be in contact with each other, and on the alignment member 24 of the tape fiber 14 provided in the tape fiber guide groove 21a with respect to the base 21. A rubber pad 2 as a pressing member for elastically pressing each aligned optical fiber element 15
One iron holding plate 22 on which 3 is arranged is magnetically fixed.

Further, in this optical fiber holder, the base 21 of the optical fiber bare wire holder 20 can be inserted into and removed from the pin hole 11d as a positioning recess provided in the base 11 of the tape fiber holder 10. Pins 25 as positioning protrusions are implanted.

Further, referring to FIG. 2, the base 11 has two pieces for receiving the convex portions of the two holding plates 12 having different shapes on both sides thereof along the length direction of the tape fiber guide groove 11a. The recesses 11b ₁ and 11b ₂ and the two rubber pad guide grooves 11c for receiving the two rubber pads 13 are formed asymmetrically at a depth shallower than the tape fiber guide groove 11a. That is, the recess 1
The length of 1b ₁ is shorter than the length of the concave portion 11b ₂ , and the shape of the convex portion of each holding plate 12 also corresponds to this.
Here again, each rubber pad guide groove 11c is
It is located outside b ₁ and 11 b ₂ , and a part of it is exposed from the opposing short sides of the base 11.

In addition, referring to FIG. 3, a pair of slide type tape fiber guides 16a for sliding and fixing the tape fiber 14 to a predetermined position on the base 11 by sandwiching the tape fiber 14 are provided. 16b
(Not shown schematically in FIG. 2) are provided.

FIG. 4 is shown for explaining the procedure for fusion-splicing each optical fiber element wire portion 15 after stripping the coating of the tape fiber 14 using the optical fiber holder and the fusion splicer 40. It is a side sectional view of each part.

As the procedure for fusion splicing, first, the tape fiber 14 is mounted on the tape fiber holder 10 as shown in FIG. 1A, held and fixed, and then the tape fiber holder 10 is mounted on a hot stripper (not shown). Then, in this state, the coating of the tape fiber 14 is peeled off and removed.

Here, when the tape fiber 14 is mounted and fixed at the initial stage of fusion splicing, even if the width of the tape fiber 14 differs depending on the number of cores, the tape fiber holder 1
0 can be fixedly held by sliding the pair of slide type tape fiber guides 16a and 16b provided according to the width of the tape fiber 14 and sandwiching the tape fiber 14, so that only one kind of tape fiber holder 10 can be used for the number of cores. The tape fibers 14 having different widths can be fixed and held.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the local portion E2 of each optical fiber element wire portion 15 exposed from the tape fiber 14 of the tape fiber holder 10 removed from the hot stripper is aligned with the aligning member in the optical fiber element wire holder 20. Holding plate 2 with rubber pad 23 laid on top of 24
2 is magnetically fixed and held, and then the tape fiber holder 1
0 and the optical fiber element wire holder 20 are fitted and then mounted on a stress cutter (not shown).
Each optical fiber element 1 is provided on the aligning member 41 having the V-shaped groove.
In order to crawl 5, the respective optical fiber wire portions 15 are stress-cut so that the local portion E1 remains, and the portion exposed from the coating of the tape fiber 14 is made to have a predetermined length.

Here, when the tape fiber holder 10 and the optical fiber element wire holder 20 are mounted on a stress cutter and each optical fiber element wire portion 15 after the coating of the tape fiber 14 is removed is stress-cut. Since the local portion E2 of the optical fiber bare wire portion 15 is held and fixed, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, the optical fiber bare wire portions 15 exposed from the tape fiber 14 are less likely to overlap with each other when the coating is removed. ,
It is possible to perform stress cutting stably and accurately. or,
When the stress-cut optical fiber strands 15 are laid on the aligning member 41 of the fusion splicer 40 and fixed by the pressing plate 42, the aligning member 24 of the optical fiber strand holder 20 performs the aligning function. Therefore, even if the number of cores is increased, it is difficult for the tip of each optical fiber element wire portion 15 to spread. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the tip of each optical fiber element wire portion 15 expands to adjust the fusion machine 40. The state in which the width dimension d of the core member 41 is not exceeded is reached, and the respective optical fiber element portions 15 can be easily laid on the alignment member 41.

Finally, the optical fiber element portions 15 which have been stress-cut and laid on the aligning member 41 of the fusion bonding machine 40 are fixed by pressing them with the pressing plate 42, and then the fusion bonding machine 40 is operated. Connect by fusion.

Here, the tape fiber holder 10 holds and fixes the tape fiber 14 at the time of fusion-splicing each optical fiber element wire portion 15 fixed by the fusion machine 40.
Since the optical fiber element wire holder 20 has a function of holding and fixing each optical fiber element wire portion 15, each optical fiber element wire portion 1
5 (particularly, the holding and fixed area E located on the side of the fusion machine 40 as shown in FIG. 4) is hard to move, and the connection end face of each optical fiber element wire portion 15 is stabilized to facilitate fusion splicing. Can be done accurately.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the basic structure of an optical fiber holder according to another embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from above with the holding plates of the tape fiber holder 10 and the optical fiber element wire holder 20 'removed. It is shown as.

In the case of this optical fiber holder, the alignment member 24 'of the optical fiber element wire holder 20' separately guides and positions each optical fiber element wire portion 15 as compared with the one in the previous embodiment. Therefore, it is different in that it has a plurality of guide grooves provided at predetermined intervals.

As each of these guide grooves, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the slit-shaped guide groove 2 is formed on the alignment member 24 '.
There may be a case where 12 pieces of 4a are provided at intervals of 0.25 mm, or a case where 12 pieces of V-shaped guide grooves 24b are similarly provided at intervals of 0.25 mm on the alignment member 24 'as shown in FIG. . Here, the slit-shaped guide groove 24a and V
The reason why twelve character-shaped guide grooves 24b are provided is that the tape fiber 14 having the largest number of cores is twelve in the commercially available tape fiber 14 as described above, which enables the application of such a widest range. This is to make it possible to apply all types of tape fibers 14 including narrow ones having a small number of cores.

[0037]

As described above, according to the optical fiber holder of the present invention, in addition to the tape fiber holder for holding the tape fiber, the optical fiber element holders for holding the respective optical fiber element parts are provided. In addition to having a separate structure, the tape fiber holder and the optical fiber element wire holder are configured so that they can be fitted and removed from each other, and the optical fiber element wire portions are aligned with the optical fiber element wire holder. Alignment member is provided, and the tape fiber holder is provided with a tape fiber guide for sandwiching and fixing the tape fiber by sliding according to the width of the tape fiber. The fusion splicing can be performed easily and accurately regardless of the number of cores and the width of the tape fiber.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of an optical fiber holder according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a state in which a tape fiber is held by a tape fiber holder and the optical fiber bare wire holder is disassembled. (B) relates to a state in which the tape fiber is held by the tape fiber holder, the optical fiber element wire holder is held by the optical fiber element wire holder, and then each holder is fitted.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the basic configuration of the optical fiber holder shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from above with the holding plates of the tape fiber holder and the optical fiber element wire holder removed.

3 is an enlarged side view of a main part shown for explaining a slide type tape fiber guide applied to the tape fiber holder of the optical fiber holder shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a procedure for fusion-splicing each optical fiber element wire portion after stripping the coating of the tape fiber using the optical fiber holder and the fusion machine shown in FIG. It is a side sectional view.

5 is a local portion of each optical fiber element wire portion when fusion-splicing each optical fiber element wire portion after stripping the coating of the tape fiber using the optical fiber holder and the fusion machine shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view shown for explaining the role (action) in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the basic structure of an optical fiber holder according to another embodiment of the present invention as viewed from above with the holding plates of the tape fiber holder and the optical fiber element wire holder removed. .

FIG. 7 is a local view showing a state in which each guide groove according to one form of an alignment member provided in the optical fiber element wire holder of the optical fiber holder shown in FIG. 6 aligns and holds each optical fiber element wire portion. FIG.

8 illustrates a state in which each guide groove according to another embodiment of the alignment member provided in the optical fiber element wire holder of the optical fiber holder illustrated in FIG. 6 aligns and holds each optical fiber element wire portion. It is an enlarged side view of a local part.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of a conventional optical fiber holder while holding a tape fiber.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the base, which is a main part of the optical fiber holder shown in FIG. 9, as seen from above with the holding plate and the tape fiber removed.

FIG. 11 is a view showing a procedure of fusion-splicing each optical fiber bare wire portion after stripping the coating of the tape fiber using the optical fiber holder and the fusion splicer shown in FIG. It is a side sectional view.

FIG. 12 is a plan view showing a state of overlap occurring at the time of stress cutting of each optical fiber element wire portion required for fusion splicing using the optical fiber holder and the fusion machine described in FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is light generated when the stress-cut optical fiber element wire portions required for fusion splicing using the optical fiber holder and the fusion machine described in FIG. 11 are laid on the aligning member of the fusion machine. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing how the tip end of the fiber strand part spreads.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 30 Tape fiber holders 11, 21, 31 Bases 11a, 21a, 31a Tape fiber guide grooves 11b ₁ , 11b ₂ , 31b Recesses 11c, 31c Rubber pad guide grooves 11d Pin holes 12, 22, 32, 42 Holding plate 13, 23, 33 rubber pad 14 tape fiber 15 optical fiber element 16a, 16b slide type tape fiber guide 20, 20 'optical fiber element holder 24, 24' alignment member 24a slit-shaped guide groove 24b V-shaped guide groove 40 fusion bonding Machine 41 Aligning member

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical fiber holder for holding a multi-core optical fiber formed by covering a plurality of optical fiber strands as a tape fiber, and a tape fiber holder for holding the tape fiber, An optical fiber element wire holder that holds each of the plurality of optical fiber element wire portions is formed as a separate structure, and further, the tape fiber holder and the optical fiber element wire holder are
An optical fiber holder, which can be fitted and removed from each other. 2. The optical fiber holder according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber element wire holder is provided with a positioning protrusion that can be inserted into and removed from a positioning recess provided in the tape fiber holder. An optical fiber holder characterized by the above. 3. The optical fiber holder according to claim 2, wherein the positioning projection is a pin implanted in the optical fiber strand holder, and the positioning recess is provided in the tape fiber holder. An optical fiber holder, which is a pin hole. 4. The optical fiber holder according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber element wire holder has alignment members for aligning the plurality of optical fiber element wire portions, respectively. An optical fiber holder characterized by the above. 5. The optical fiber holder according to claim 4, wherein the alignment member is provided with a plurality of guides provided at predetermined intervals for individually guiding and positioning the plurality of optical fiber element wire portions. An optical fiber holder having a groove. 6. The optical fiber holder according to claim 1, wherein the tape fiber holder slides according to the width of the tape fiber to sandwich and fix the tape fiber. An optical fiber holder having the tape fiber guide described in 1.