JP4544086B2 - Molding method of optical connection parts - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a molding how optical connection component including an optical fiber insertion holes for positioning the distal portion of the plurality of optical fibers when connecting butt optical fibers mutually.

  In recent years, with the development of broadband, video transmission services and IP phones have become widespread, and it has become necessary to increase the capacity of information communication traffic. In order to significantly increase the processing capacity of routers / switches on network nodes, Opticalization of the backplane is under consideration. In order to design a compact and efficient optical backplane, it is important to take measures against small-diameter fiber bending in the backplane and high-density connection between the backplane and the board. Pitch high density connectors become important.

Most of conventional connectors (for example, Patent Document 1) have a fiber diameter of 0.125 mm and an arrangement pitch of 0.25 mm. Regarding the manufacture of optical fiber positioning components (ferrules) which are basic components, as shown in FIG. A mold 100 is used.
The mold 100 includes an upper mold 101 and a lower mold 102, and a cavity 103 is provided between the upper and lower molds 101, 102. Further, a slide core 104 to be inserted between the upper and lower molds 101 and 102 is provided, and a core pin 105 for forming a hole for an optical fiber to be inserted into a connector to be a molded product at the tip of the slide core 104 and A slide pin 106 that forms an alignment hole for alignment is provided.
A predetermined number of V grooves 107 for positioning the core pins 105 are formed at a predetermined pitch in front of the cavity 103 in the lower mold 102. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the core pin 105 is positioned by the outer peripheral surface of the core pin 105 coming into contact with the inner surface 107a of the V groove 107 at two points.
JP-A-8-179161

However, in recent years, narrow pitch connectors for small diameter fibers have been studied and used to position the core pin 105 for forming a fiber hole so far as the diameter is decreased or the pitch is decreased. There is a limit to the precision machining of the V-groove 107 that has been made. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the smaller the diameter (for example, φ0.08 mm) and the narrower the pitch (for example, 0.08 mm), the hills between the V grooves 107 inevitably become smaller, and the core pin 105 is near the top of the hill. Positioning comes into contact with the adjacent core pin 105.
Therefore, in the vicinity of the top of an unstable mountain that may be deformed during grinding of the V-groove 107, it is difficult to accurately position the pin.

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 connection capable of accurately molding an optical fiber positioning component even in a narrow pitch in which fiber holes are arranged adjacent to each other. It is to provide a molded how the parts.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the first feature of the optical connecting component molding method according to the present invention is an optical connecting component molding method including an optical fiber insertion hole into which a plurality of optical fiber tip portions are inserted. In order to form the optical fiber insertion hole, a plurality of core pins that are gripped by a slide core and are slidable in the upper and lower molds are juxtaposed between adjacent pins, and a plurality of juxtaposed The purpose is to form and mold a groove having a flat bottom surface for regulating the position of the tip of the core pin in the mold.

  In the method of forming an optical connection component configured as described above, the core pins provided in the slide core for forming the optical fiber insertion hole are juxtaposed in close contact with each other and provided in the mold. Since the bottom surface is positioned by the flat groove, it is possible to accurately manufacture a positioning component for an optical fiber having a narrow pitch.

  A second feature of the method for forming an optical connecting component according to the present invention is that the mold member constituting the bottom surface of the groove has a nested structure in the first feature of the present invention.

  In the optical connecting component molding method configured as described above, when the core pin is positioned, the tip of the core pin is positioned by the groove by sliding the slide core. By inserting and removing the core pin, the bottom surface of the groove having a flat bottom surface is formed. When worn, the bottom surface of the groove configured as a nested structure can be easily replaced.

  According to the present invention, the core pins provided in the slide core for forming the optical fiber insertion hole are juxtaposed in close contact with each other, and the bottom surface provided in the mold is positioned by the flat groove. Therefore, there is no manufacturing error in the position of the groove for positioning the core pin as in the conventional case, and the effect that the optical fiber positioning component with a narrow pitch can be manufactured with high accuracy is obtained.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a mold for carrying out the optical connecting component molding method according to the present invention, FIG. 2A is a perspective view showing a groove portion for positioning a tip portion of a core pin, and FIG. FIG. 3B is a perspective view showing a state where the core pin is positioned by a groove having a flat bottom surface, FIG. 3A is a perspective view of the optical connection component formed by the optical connection component molding method of the present invention, and FIG. These are the end views seen from B direction in Drawing 3 (A).

  As shown in FIG. 1, the mold 10 particularly manufactures an optical connector 30 (see FIG. 3) for wiring an optical fiber having a small diameter (for example, φ0.08 mm) at a narrow pitch (for example, 0.08 mm). And a cavity 13 for forming an optical connector 30 as an optical connecting component when the upper and lower molds 11 and 12 are combined. Is to be provided. A slide core 14 is provided so as to be able to enter along the party lines of the upper and lower molds 11 and 12.

The slide core 14 is provided with a plurality of core pins 14a for forming an optical fiber insertion hole 31 (see FIG. 3) in the optical connector 30, and is attached to the slide core 14 by a support portion 14c. In addition, guide pins (not shown) that serve as guides for inserting the slide core 14 into the mold 10 and align with the counterpart optical connector in the molded product are provided on the left and right outer sides of the core pin 14a. A slide pin 14b for forming an alignment hole to be inserted is provided.
For example, in order to form the optical fiber insertion holes 31 in the optical connector 30 for wiring an optical fiber having a diameter of 0.08 mm at a pitch of 0.08 mm, the core pin 14a is provided in contact with the adjacent core pin 14a. Become.
The tips of the core pin 14a and the slide pin 14b are tapered so that they can be easily inserted into the mold.

As shown in FIG. 1, a portion corresponding to the cavity 13 described above is provided in the center on the upper surface of the lower mold 12, and a slide core 14 is positioned in front of the cavity 13 (leftward in FIG. 1). A guide groove 15 made of, for example, a V-groove for guiding the slide pin 14b and a trapezoidal groove 20 having a flat bottom surface for positioning the tip end portion thereof is provided. Further, at the back of the cavity 13 (to the right in FIG. 1), a rectangular groove 16 through which the support portion 14c supporting the core pin 14a can be inserted, and a guide groove 17 through which the slide pin 14b can be inserted on both the left and right sides of the rectangular groove 16 are provided. Is provided.
In addition, the convex part 18 is provided in the center part of the cavity 13 in the lower mold 12, and an adhesive injection port 35 for injecting an adhesive for fixing the optical fiber 32 to the manufactured optical connector 30 (FIG. 3 (A)).

As described above, the trapezoidal groove 20 is provided in the center in the front of the cavity 13 of the lower mold 12, and the guide grooves 15 are provided on the left and right sides thereof. As shown in FIG. 2A, the trapezoidal groove 20 includes a bottom surface 21 and left and right inclined surfaces 22 and 23.
As a method for forming the trapezoidal groove 20, grinding may be performed with a grindstone. However, when the number of arranged cores is large, the amount of grinding is large, so that the processing accuracy may be deteriorated due to wear of the grindstone. In such a case, the mold member constituting the bottom surface 21 can have a nested structure. In this case, it is possible to finely adjust the vertical position of the core pin 14a by grinding or lapping the upper surface of the nest to increase the flatness and adjusting the height of the nest to adjust the press margin of the forming pin. it can. Further, when the bottom surface 21 of the trapezoidal groove 20 is worn due to the insertion / removal of the core pin 14a, it can be easily replaced.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2B, for example, when forming an optical connector 30 in which an optical fiber having a diameter of 0.08 mm is wired at a pitch of 0.08 mm, the core pin 14a is in contact with the adjacent core pin 14a. It is placed on the bottom surface 21 of the trapezoidal groove 20, and the left and right core pins 14 a are positioned in contact with the inclined surfaces 22 and 23 of the trapezoidal groove 20. Therefore, as in the case of forming the conventional V-groove, it is not affected by the pitch accuracy of the individual V-grooves, and only the accuracy of the entire width of the trapezoidal groove 20 needs to be noted. Easy positioning with high accuracy.

Next, a method for forming an optical connection component according to the present invention will be described.
This forming method is a method for forming an optical connector 30 having an optical fiber insertion hole 31 into which a plurality of optical fiber tip portions are inserted. In order to form the optical fiber insertion hole 31, the optical fiber insertion hole 31 is gripped by the slide core 14 and vertically The plurality of core pins 14a that are slidable in the molds 11 and 12 are juxtaposed in close contact with each other adjacent to the core pins 14a, and the positions of the tips of the juxtaposed core pins 14a are regulated in the width direction. A trapezoidal groove 20 having a flat bottom surface is formed in the upper and lower molds 11 and 12 to perform molding.
That is, the upper and lower molds 11 and 12 are combined, and the resin is injected into the cavity 13 with the slide core 14 inserted therein, and the optical connector 30 is manufactured by curing the resin.
In addition, the trapezoidal groove 20 may generate more flashes as the resin flows between the core pins 14a than the conventional V-groove, but in the case of the narrow pitch of the small-diameter optical fiber targeted by the present invention. It can be said that it is so small that flash does not become a problem.

3A and 3B show an optical connector 30 manufactured by the above-described molding method of the optical connecting component using the above-described mold 10.
The optical connector 30 has a substantially rectangular main body 33 formed by pouring resin into the cavity 13 portion of the mold 10. The optical connector 30 is formed on the front end surface 33 a of the main body 33 by the core pins 14 a of the mold 10. An optical fiber insertion hole 31 is provided therethrough. Each optical fiber insertion hole 31 realizes a narrow pitch continuously with the adjacent optical fiber insertion hole 31 at the center. That is, a hole connected to the adjacent optical fiber insertion hole 31 is formed. Further, on both the left and right sides of the optical fiber insertion hole 31, an alignment hole 34 into which the mating guide pin is inserted when the mating optical connector is abutted and aligned is formed.

  The main body 33 has an internal space (not shown) formed by the support portion 14c of the mold 10 so as to be continuous with the optical fiber insertion hole 31, and accommodates the tape-shaped optical fiber 32. It can be done. An adhesive injection port 35 is provided on the upper surface of the main body 33 (the upper surface in FIG. 3A), the optical fiber 32 is inserted into the main body 33, and the tip is inserted into the optical fiber insertion hole 31. The optical fiber 32 is fixed to the main body 33 of the optical connector 30 by injecting an adhesive from the adhesive injection port 35.

As described above, according to the optical connecting component molding method and the optical connecting component described above, the core pins 14a provided in the slide core 14 for forming the optical fiber insertion hole 31 are juxtaposed in close contact with each other, and Since the bottom surfaces provided in the molds 11 and 12 are positioned by the trapezoidal groove 20 having a flat surface, the optical fiber insertion holes 31 are not made into individual holes separated for each optical fiber, but are substantially integrated. The narrow pitch optical connector 30 can be accurately manufactured as one continuous hole.
Further, when the optical connector 30 is manufactured, the bottom surface 21 of the trapezoidal groove 20 for positioning the tip portion of the core pin 14a has a nested structure, so that when the bottom surface 21 is worn by the insertion / removal of the core pin 14a, repolishing is performed. It can be easily replaced.

Note that the optical connection component molding method and optical connection component of the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and appropriate modifications, improvements, and the like are possible.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case of φ0.08 mm as a small-diameter optical fiber and 0.08 mm as a narrow pitch is exemplified, but the method for forming an optical connection component and the optical connection component of the present invention are other small-diameter optical fibers. It is also applicable to a narrow pitch arrangement.
In the above-described embodiment, the tip of the slide core is positioned by the trapezoidal groove. However, the present invention is not limited to the trapezoidal groove as long as at least the bottom surface is formed as a flat groove.
In the above-described embodiment, the optical connector is exemplified as the optical connection component. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

  As described above, the optical connection component molding method and the optical connection component according to the present invention have the core pins provided on the slide core to form the optical fiber insertion holes juxtaposed in close contact with each other. Since positioning is performed by the trapezoidal groove provided in the mold, there is an effect that it is possible to accurately manufacture a positioning component of an optical fiber having a narrow pitch, and a plurality of optical fibers are used when butt-connecting optical fibers. It is useful as a method for forming an optical connection component having an optical fiber insertion hole for positioning the optical connection component, an optical connection component, and the like.

It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the metal mold | die for enforcing the shaping | molding method of the optical connection component concerning this invention. (A) is a perspective view which shows a trapezoid groove part, (B) is a perspective view which shows the state which positioned the core pin in the trapezoid groove. (A) is a perspective view of an optical connection component molded by the optical connection component molding method of the present invention, and (B) is an end view as viewed from the B direction in (A). It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the conventional metal mold | die for manufacturing an optical connection component. It is a perspective view which shows the shape of the V-groove which positions a core pin in order to form an optical fiber insertion hole with a pitch larger than the diameter of an optical fiber. It is a perspective view which shows the shape of the V groove in the case of positioning a core pin in order to form an optical fiber insertion hole with a narrow pitch.

Explanation of symbols

11 Upper mold 12 Lower mold 14 Slide core 14a Core pin 20 Trapezoidal groove 21 Bottom surface 30 Optical connector (optical connection component)
31 Optical fiber insertion hole (hole)
32 optical fiber

Claims (2)

A method of forming an optical connection component having an optical fiber insertion hole for inserting a plurality of optical fiber tips,
In order to form the optical fiber insertion hole, a plurality of core pins that are gripped by a slide core and are slidable in upper and lower molds are juxtaposed in close contact with each other, and a plurality of juxtaposed A method for forming an optical connection component, comprising forming a groove having a flat bottom surface for regulating a position of a tip portion of a core pin in a mold. Molding how optical connection component according to claim 1, wherein the mold member constituting the bottom surface of the groove are nested structure.

Images