JP3497602B2 - Optical fiber termination tool - 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 end treatment tool used in optical fiber connection work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In constructing a subscriber optical communication network, work is performed to connect a wiring cable and an optical fiber drop line to a subscriber's house. There are various methods of connection such as fusion splicing, mechanical splicing, connector connection, and a connection method combining these, but all of these connections are performed on a pillar. At this time, the laying operator has tools for removing the coating of the wiring cable, the tool for assembling the outdoor wire storage box, the coating remover for removing the coating of the optical fiber (optical fiber core wire), and the removal of coating waste. Alcohol and gauze used in, cutting equipment to cut the bare optical fiber, etc., there are various tools used.

In the optical fiber terminal treatment step of connection work, first, the coating of the optical fiber core wire is removed by using a coating remover. Next, the gauze is soaked with alcohol, and the gauze is used to remove the coating debris left on the optical fiber core wire. Finally, the cutter is used to cut the bare optical fiber.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional optical fiber terminal treatment, coating removal, bare core wire cleaning,
Each process of cutting bare core wires was performed using a single tool. Considering the work of pulling down the optical fiber from the pillar to the subscriber's house on the optical subscriber line, the number of tools has a great influence on work efficiency and work safety. In other words, if the number of tools is large, the number of times of replacement will be large, but it is not easy to replace tools in a place where the work environment is regulated, such as on a pillar, and if the number of replacements increases, a tool will be dropped due to a work error. The risk also increases.

[0005]

The optical fiber terminal treatment tool of the present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and includes a frame body and a frame fixed to the frame body, which is provided near the tip of the optical fiber. The optical fiber pressing means for pressing and the optical fiber pressed by the pressing means are attached to the frame slidably in the longitudinal direction, and when advanced from the standby position, reach the tip of the optical fiber and cover and cover the tip. By removing the debris to expose the bare optical fiber of the optical fiber, and the cover removing means is attached to the frame slidably in a direction substantially perpendicular to the sliding direction of the cover removing means, and by advancing from the standby position, A bare core wire cutting means for reaching the bare core wire at the tip of the optical fiber and cutting the bare core wire is provided, and the coating removing means is
Remove the coating by holding the coating at the tip of the optical fiber and then retracting it to remove the coating.The coating stripping section and the optical fiber from which the coating has been stripped are sandwiched with a wiping strip and retracted to leave the coating on the surface. And a first rotation position at which the coating peeling portion faces the tip portion of the optical fiber and which is rotatable about an axis parallel to the sliding direction at the standby position. It is capable of sliding at the second rotation position where it is rotated 180 degrees from the one rotation position and the coating dust wiping portion faces the optical fiber tip portion.

[0006]

[0007]

First, the coating removing means and the bare core wire cutting means are retracted to the standby position. Next, the optical fiber is clamped by the optical fiber pressing means, the coating removing means is advanced, the optical fiber is bitten at the coating peeling portion, and the optical fiber is retracted to pull out the coating. After that, the coating removing means is moved forward again, and this time, the coating dust wiping section retracts while wiping the bare optical fiber, and wipes the coating dust. Next, the bare fiber cutting means is advanced to cut the bare fiber of the optical fiber 10.
As a result, the optical fiber is cut with the end face having high flatness.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this optical fiber end treatment tool 1, an optical fiber pressing means 3, a coating removing means 20 and a bare core wire cutting means 30 are provided on a frame body 2 made by casting aluminum.

The optical fiber pressing means 3 is fixed to the front end portion of the frame body 2. An optical fiber (optical fiber core wire) 1 is provided on the upper part of the front end surface and the rear part of the upper surface of the pressing means 3, respectively.
Guide pieces 4 and 5 that restrict the movement of 0 to the left and right are provided. Further, the pressing means 3 has a lid 6 that is open on one side,
A material having elasticity and a high coefficient of friction such as rubber is attached to the inner surface thereof. A ferromagnetic piece 7 such as iron is provided at the open end of the lid 6 so as to face the magnet 8 embedded in the upper surface of the pressing means 3 when closed. Therefore, when the lid 6 is closed after the optical fiber 10 is placed on the upper surface of the main body of the pressing means 3 along the guide pieces 4 and 5, the magnet 8 magnetically attracts the ferromagnetic piece 7, whereby the lid 6 is closed. The optical fiber 10 is pressed against the upper surface of the main body to fix the optical fiber 10.

The coating removing means 20 has an external structure as shown in FIG. The base portion 53 is provided with sliding blades 25 on the left and right, and the sliding blades 25 are guided by the bottomed guide grooves 12 provided on the inner wall surface of the frame body 2 so that the coating removing means 20 moves to the frame body 2. It can be moved back and forth inside. Movable members 21 and 22 are vertically symmetrically provided on the base portion 53. The movable member 21 pivots upward about a pivot shaft 28 located at the rear of the base 53, and the movable member 22 pivots downward similarly. The movable members 21 and 22 are biased upward and downward by a coil spring (not shown) provided inside the base portion 53, respectively. Further, the rotation angles of the movable members 21 and 22 are regulated, and the rotation is stopped at an angle of about 10 degrees open vertically. FIG. 2 shows the state at this time.

The coating removing means 20 has a structure in which the right and left sides have different functions. In FIG. 2, the left side is a coating peeling section 50 and the right side is a coating debris wiping section 51. In the coating peeling section 50, the movable members 21 and 2
Blades 26 and 27 for peeling off the coating are attached to the front ends of the two. The blades 26 and 27 have a V-shaped notch as shown in the drawing, and when the optical fiber 10 is sandwiched between the notches, the blades 26 and 27 can damage the coating of the optical fiber 10. At this time, the bare core wire of the optical fiber 10 can escape to the quadrangular gap created by the V-shaped notch when the blades 26 and 27 are engaged, and in this state,
When the coating removing means 20 is pulled with the pressing means 3 fixed, the coating comes off like a sheath and the bare core wire is exposed.

In the covering dust wiping portion 51, deer skins 23 and 24 are stretched on the inner side surfaces of the movable members 21 and 22, respectively. On one of the movable members 21, a tank 54 for storing the cleaning liquid is provided behind the deer skin 23. The tank 54 can be opened with the screw lid 29 to be filled with the cleaning liquid, and the cleaning liquid in the tank 54 oozes out to the deer skin 23 by utilizing the capillary phenomenon. Is always wet with the cleaning liquid. The coating debris wiping unit 51 removes the coating debris left on the bare fiber after the coating stripping unit 50 strips the coating of the optical fiber. The bare fiber is sandwiched between the deer skins 23 and 24, and the optical fiber is removed. When the coating removing means 20 is pulled with 10 fixed, the coating waste can be wiped from the bare core wire.

In this embodiment, the cleaning liquid supply device including the tank 54 is not provided on the other movable member 22. This is because the deer skins 23 and 24 come into pressure contact with each other during the operation of wiping the covering debris, and the cleaning liquid impregnated in the deer skin 23 is transferred to the deer skin 24, so that the one-sided arrangement has a sufficient cleaning effect. A cleaning liquid supply device may be provided on each of the movable members. Further, although deer skin is used as the wiping off piece, other skins or cloths may be used as long as they can moisten the cleaning liquid and have a high wiping effect for covering dust.

The coating removing means 20 thus configured
The sliding blade 25 is engaged with the bottomed groove 12 of the frame body 20, so that the sliding blade is slidably attached to the frame body 20.
The sliding direction is the front-back direction, that is, the longitudinal direction of the optical fiber 10 fixed to the optical fiber pressing means 3. A rotary knob 14 is provided outside the rear end wall of the frame body 2.
The rotary knob 14 has a boss (not shown) that penetrates the rear end wall of the frame body 2 and projects inward, and two pressing plates 15 fixed to the boss and facing each other via the boss. A deep hole for receiving this boss is opened at the rear end of the base portion 53 of the coating removing means 20, and when the rotating members 21 and 22 are closed and the coating removing means 20 is retracted, the boss is inserted into the deep hole of the base portion 53. It will be in a state of being.

Movable members 21 and 2 of the coating removing means 20
2 is urged to open by the coil spring as described above, but the entire coating removing means 20 is retracted to the position shown in FIG.
When it is at the position (shown below as the standby position), the turning range is restricted by the pressing plate 15,
It is closed with a slight gap.

When the coating removing means 20 is in the standby position (in the state shown in FIG. 1), by rotating the rotary knob 14, the pressing plate 15 fixed thereto is rotated, and further the pressing plate 15 is rotated. The coating removing means 20 sandwiched by 15 rotates coaxially. At this time, since the boss is fitted in the deep hole of the base portion 53 of the coating removing unit 20, even if the pressing plate 15 is rotated 90 degrees from the state of FIG. 1 and is in a position parallel to the side wall of the frame body 2. The coating removing means 20 does not slide down. At the rear end of the guide groove 12, escape grooves 16 and 17 for releasing the sliding blade 25 from the guide groove 12 when the coating removing means 20 rotates are formed.

In the state of FIG. 1, the coating peeling section 50 faces the tip of the optical fiber 10 fixed to the pressing means 3, but the coating removing means 20 is rotated by rotating the rotary knob 14 180 degrees. Is upside down, and the coating dust wiping portion 51 faces the tip of the optical fiber 10.
This is because the rotation axis of the coating removing means 20 and the optical axis of the optical fiber 10 fixed by the pressing means 3 are substantially parallel but decentered. When the coating removing means 20 is rotated 180 degrees from the state of FIG. 1, the left and right sliding wings 25 are engaged with the guide grooves on the opposite sides, respectively, and slide in the longitudinal direction of the optical fiber 10 as before rotation. It will be possible.

Next, the bare core wire cutting means 30 will be described. The bare core wire cutting means 30 slides on a guide rail 19 extending from one side wall of the frame body 2 to cross the other side wall. The guide rail 19 has a bottomless guide groove 13
Is provided, and the bare core wire cutting means 30 is stopped from the back side of the guide groove 13 so as not to separate from the guide rail 19.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic structure of a cutting portion of the bare core wire cutting means 30, and the cutting operation will be described with reference to this figure and FIG. The bare core wire cutting means 30 shown in FIG. 1 is in the standby position. The lid 37 has a number on the rear side so that the front side is opened, and the lid 37 is provided with a cutting blade 31. When the bare core wire is cut, when the lid 37 is opened and the wire is moved forward, it is placed on the optical fiber mounting bases 32 and 33 provided on the main body side of the cutting means 30 as shown in FIG. here,
When the lid 37 is closed, a pressing member (not shown) provided on the lid 37 causes the bare optical fibers 40 to be placed on the mounting tables 32 and 33.
Press and clamp. Like the lid 6 of the optical fiber pressing means 3, the lid 37 is kept closed by magnetic force. At this time, the blade 31 is biased upward by a spring (not shown) so as not to touch the bare core wire 40.

When the button 36 is pushed down in this state, the pushing force is transmitted to the blade 31 as it is, and the blade 31 contacts the bare core wire 40 against the spring. The moving range of the blade 31 is regulated, and the blade 31 stops at a position where the upper part of the bare core wire 40 is slightly scratched. When the button 36 is released after the bare core wire 40 is scratched, the blade 31 is pulled upward by the spring force. Next, when the lever 38 is pushed down, the cutting head 34 provided in front of the rotation fulcrum of the lever 38 is pushed up. The cutting head 34 is a member having a U-shaped cross section in which rubber 35 is embedded, and pushes up the bare optical fiber 40 on both sides of the scratch formed by the blade 31. Since the bare core wire 40 is clamped by the mounting tables 32 and 33, when it is pushed up by the cutting head 34, the bare core wire 40 is split from the wound portion.

Next, a description will be given of an optical fiber end treatment process using the optical fiber end treatment tool constructed as described above. First, the coating removing means 20 and the bare core wire cutting means 3
Move 0 back to the standby position. At this time, the coating removing means 20 is arranged so that the coating peeling portion 50 is on the left side as shown in FIG. If it is on the right side, rotate the rotary knob 14 180 degrees to the left side. Then, the lid 6 of the optical fiber pressing means 3 is opened, and the optical fiber 10 to be terminated is placed so as to cross the front of the bare core wire cutting means 30 as shown in FIG. 1, and then the lid 6 is closed. From this state, while inserting the optical fiber 10 between the movable members 21 and 22 of the coating removing means 20, the coating removing means 20 is slid forward until it comes into contact with the optical fiber pressing means 3. Then, the open coating removing means 20 is closed with the index finger and the thumb, and the optical fiber 10 is bitten at the V groove portions of the blades 26 and 27. The bare wire is exposed.

Next, the coating removing means 20 is rotated 180 degrees, and then the coating removing means 20 is inserted while inserting the bare core wire of the optical fiber 10 between the movable members 21 and 22 of the coating removing means 20. When it is slid forward and comes into contact with the optical fiber pressing means 3, the bare optical fiber is moved to the movable member 2.
It is sandwiched between 1 and 22 and retracted to the standby position. As a result, the coating debris left on the surface of the bare core wire 40 can be wiped off with the deer skins 23 and 24 wet with the cleaning liquid.

Next, the bare core wire cutting means 30 is moved forward with the lid 37 opened, and when the position where the bare core wire of the optical fiber 10 can be sandwiched is reached, the lid 37 is closed. Then, the button 36 is pressed to damage the bare core wire, and then the button 36 is released. Then, the lever 38 is pushed down to break the bare core wire. With the above, an end face having high flatness can be formed.

[0024]

As described above, according to the optical fiber terminal treatment tool of the present invention, the optical fiber terminal treatment including the coating removal, the bare core wire cleaning, and the bare core wire cutting can be performed by one tool. . Therefore, workability and safety are improved as compared with the conventional case where a plurality of tools are used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an optical fiber terminal treatment tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a coating removing means of the optical fiber end treatment tool shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic structure of a bare core wire cutting means of the optical fiber terminal treatment tool shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical fiber end processing tool, 2 ... Frame body, 3 ... Optical fiber holding means, 10 ... Optical fiber, 12, 13 ... Guide groove, 20 ... Coating removal means, 25 ... Sliding blade, 30 ... Bare core wire cutting Means, 40 ... Bare wire, 50 ... Coating peeling portion, 5
Reference numeral 1 ... Coated dust wiping section, 54 ... Cleaning liquid tank.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Yu Nozawa Yu 1-chome, 1-6 Uchiyuki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (56) Reference JP-A-5-307114 (JP, A) JP-A 57-8503 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02B 6/00 H02G 1/12

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A frame body, an optical fiber holding means fixed to the frame body for holding near the tip of the optical fiber, and a frame body slidable in the longitudinal direction of the optical fiber held by the holding means. A coating removing unit that is attached to the optical fiber, advances to the front end of the optical fiber, and removes coating and debris from the optical fiber to expose the bare core of the optical fiber. And a bare-cord cutting means that is slidably mounted in a direction substantially perpendicular to the sliding direction of the coating removing means, and that advances from a standby position to reach the bare core of the optical fiber tip and cut the bare core. The coating removing means includes a coating peeling portion for peeling the coating by retracting after holding the coating of the tip end portion of the optical fiber, and an optical fiber from which the coating is peeled off. And having a coating debris wiping unit wiping the coated scrap remaining on the surface by retracting across at take pieces, about an axis parallel to the sliding direction at the standby position
It is rotatable and the coating peeling part is
The first rotational position facing the tip of the bar and the first rotational position
180 degrees from the place where the covering dust wiping part is
At a second rotational position facing the fiber tip,
Optical fiber end treatment tool that can slide . 2. The optical fiber terminal treatment tool according to claim 1 , wherein the coating dust wiping unit includes a tank for storing a cleaning liquid, and means for automatically supplying the cleaning liquid to the wiping piece from the tank. 3. The optical fiber end treatment tool according to claim 2 , wherein the wiping piece is deer bark.