JP5150169B2 - Optical fiber coil and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention saves space for use in fiber gyros, sensors, optical amplifiers, lasers, dispersion compensators, nonlinear optical devices, delay circuits, dummy circuits, other long optical fiber application parts, extra length processing tools, etc. The present invention relates to a low-tension optical fiber coil and a method for manufacturing the same.

Optical fiber type devices using optical fibers as devices are widely used in applications such as sensors. Further, an optical fiber type device is attracting attention as an optical fiber amplifier doped with erbium, thulium, praseodymium, etc., a dispersion compensator using a dispersion compensating optical fiber, or a nonlinear optical device.
Since an optical fiber type device is composed of an optical fiber, it has a good coupling property with a transmission line and other devices, is resistant to external noise and has stable characteristics, and is known as an excellent device.
However, if the required optical fiber length is long, there is a drawback that it becomes bulky. In order to avoid this drawback, it is used in a form called an optical fiber coil wound around a small-diameter bobbin or the like.
In a general manufacturing method of an optical fiber coil, first, in the first step, an adhesive is applied to a part or the entire surface of a single long single core wire to form an adhesive layer. The adhesive layer is provided on at least a part of the surface of the single core wire so that adjacent optical fibers are bonded and fixed to each other when the coil is wound.
In the next step, a single core wire provided with an adhesive layer is coiled using a winding machine on a bobbin having a predetermined diameter. At this time, in order to narrow the space between the single core wires and make the entire coil compact, the single core wires are wound in a stressed state.
Then, the adhesive layer is dried or cured using an appropriate method to produce an optical fiber coil having a predetermined winding diameter, winding width, and winding length (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

FIG. 8 shows a cross-sectional view of a conventional optical fiber coil.
1 is a single core wire, 5 is a bobbin, 100 is a conventional optical fiber coil, and H is a central hole.
As shown in FIG. 8, in the conventional optical fiber coil 100, the single core wire 1 is wound around the bobbin 5 as it is.

However, the conventional optical fiber coil as described above has a problem.
That is, since the single core wire is exposed on the surface, light transmission loss is likely to occur due to slight stress and temperature change, and it takes time and labor for adjustment etc. to try to coil the coil precisely to prevent it, The cost was increasing.
If the coil winding density is too high, unnecessarily stress is applied to the single core wire, which causes optical transmission loss.

JP 2003-107250 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems as described above, and an object of the present invention is an optical fiber coil which is less likely to cause an optical transmission loss due to stress or temperature change and can also reduce costs. And providing a manufacturing method thereof.

  The present invention has solved the above problems by the following technical configuration.

(1) a plurality of single fibers are arranged in parallel, the optical fiber coil coiled optical fiber ribbon which is integrally parallel arrangements in the form by removing the bobbin by the single core wire coating portion, An optical fiber coil formed by dip- coating with a coating portion covering the vicinity of the surface of the optical fiber coil except for both ends of the optical fiber ribbon portion (claim 1).
(2) The optical fiber coil according to (1), wherein the coat portion is made of silicone rubber.
(3) The optical fiber coil according to (1), wherein the coat portion is made of flame-retardant silicone rubber or chloroprene rubber.
(4) are arranged a plurality of parallel the single fibers were removed and a step of an optical fiber ribbon and integrally parallel arrangements by the coating unit the single-core wire, the optical fiber ribbon a bobbin form And winding the coil to obtain an optical fiber coil, and excluding both ends of the optical fiber ribbon portion of the optical fiber coil, and forming a coating portion covering the optical fiber coil surface by dip coating. An optical fiber coil manufacturing method characterized by the above (claim 4).

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an optical fiber coil that can hardly cause an optical transmission loss due to a stress or a temperature change, and that can suppress the cost, and a manufacturing method thereof.
That is, by using an optical fiber ribbon in which a plurality of single-core wires are arranged in parallel and are integrally formed by a covering portion, exposure of the single-core wires is prevented and optical transmission loss due to stress and temperature changes is less likely to occur. can do. In addition, it is possible to reduce the labor of applying the adhesive by eliminating or reducing the adhesive. Therefore, the optical fiber coil can be easily manufactured and the cost can be reduced.
In particular, by providing a coating coat portion, there is a feature that insertion loss due to temperature cycle evaluation is small, and it does not take much time for manufacturing an optical fiber coil.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the inventor of the present application uses an optical fiber ribbon in which a plurality of single core wires are arranged in parallel and is integrally formed in a tape shape by a covering portion, so that an optical fiber coil can be easily formed. As a result, the present invention has been found.

The first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a front view of an optical fiber coil according to Embodiment 1, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.
1 is a single core wire, 11 is an optical fiber ribbon of 8 cores, 101 is an optical fiber coil of Embodiment 1, H is a center hole, S is a covering portion, and T is a band for maintaining the coil shape.
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the optical fiber coil 101 of Embodiment 1 does not coil the single core wire 1 as it is in the prior art, but arranges eight single core wires 1 in parallel in advance. Thus, the optical fiber ribbon 11 is integrally formed in a tape shape by the covering portion S, and the optical fiber ribbon 11 is coiled. And if necessary, the optical fiber ribbon 11 is fixed by the band T, and the coil shape is maintained. In place of the band T, a thread or a wire may be used.

With such a configuration, since the single core wire 1 is not exposed to the surface by the covering portion S, it is possible to make it difficult to cause an optical transmission loss due to stress or temperature change. Moreover, since the bundled optical fiber ribbons 11 are wound instead of every single core wire 1, the coil winding time can be shortened, and the adhesive is unnecessary if the coil shape can be maintained by the weight of the optical fiber ribbon 11 itself. Alternatively, since the single-core wires 1 are already integrated, the amount of application can be reduced only between the optical fiber ribbons 11 and the labor of applying the adhesive can be reduced. Therefore, the optical fiber coil can be easily manufactured, and the time or economical cost can be reduced.
And at both ends of the optical fiber ribbon, the single core wire 1 can be used individually by tearing the covering portion S, and can be freely wired in various circuits.

The covering portion S may cover both surfaces of the single core wire 1 or may cover only one surface. However, as shown in FIG. Is more preferable.
The thickness of the covering portion is preferably 500 μm or less. More preferably, it is 250 μm or less. If it exceeds 500 μm, the flexibility is not sufficient.

  The material of the covering portion S is thermoplastic adhesive to urethane, acrylic, epoxy, nylon, phenol, polyimide, vinyl, silicone, rubber, fluorinated epoxy, fluorinated acrylic, etc. Various materials including a heat-sensitive adhesive, a thermosetting adhesive, a room temperature curable adhesive, an ultraviolet curable adhesive, an electron beam curable adhesive, and the like can be used. Among the materials of the covering portion S, acrylic and flexible silicone resins having high versatility, particularly silicone rubber are particularly preferable.

The silicone rubber preferably has a hardness described below of 20 to 90 and a tensile strength of 15 to 80 kgf / cm ² . More preferably, the hardness is 25 to 75 and the tensile strength is 15 to 60 kgf / cm ² , and still more preferably the hardness is 30 to 65 and the tensile strength is 15 to 50 kgf / cm ² . Is.
When the hardness of the silicone rubber is lower than 20 and the tensile strength is lower than 15 kgf / cm ² , the resulting optical fiber ribbon 1 has insufficient strength against side pressure, twist, etc., and a little distortion occurs during operation. In contrast, the optical fiber ribbon 1 is easily broken.
On the other hand, when the hardness is higher than 90 and the tensile strength is higher than 80 kgf / cm ² , the flexibility is not sufficient and coil winding is difficult.

  In addition, "hardness" here means "durometer hardness" measured based on the method prescribed | regulated to JISK6249. That is, a test piece having a thickness of 6 mm is prepared using silicone rubber, and measured by pressing a durometer push needle so that no impact is applied from the vertical upper surface of the test piece and reading the scale with a type A durometer. Value. The durometer is a testing machine that obtains the hardness from the pressing depth of the pressing needle when pressed through a spring.

  As the adhesive, any adhesive can be used as long as it has an adhesive force that maintains the coil shape against the tension generated by winding the optical fiber ribbon 11. For example, urethane, acrylic, epoxy, nylon, phenol, polyimide, vinyl, silicone, rubber, fluorinated epoxy, fluorinated acrylic resin, etc. A variety of materials including an adhesive, a room temperature curable adhesive, an ultraviolet curable adhesive, an electron beam curable adhesive, and the like can be used.

Next, Embodiment 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the optical fiber coil of the second embodiment. The front view is the same as FIG.
Reference numeral 12 denotes a four-fiber optical fiber ribbon, and reference numeral 102 denotes an optical fiber coil according to the second embodiment.
Unlike the optical fiber coil 101 of the first embodiment, the optical fiber coil 102 of the second embodiment is configured by winding a coil in a plurality of rows.
That is, as shown in FIG. 3, four single-core wires 1 are arranged in parallel in advance and are integrally formed as an optical fiber ribbon 12 by a covering portion S, and this optical fiber ribbon 12 is coiled in three rows. It becomes.
Thus, the optical fiber coil of the present invention can be wound in a plurality of rows.

Next, Reference Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.
4 is a front view of the optical fiber coil of Reference Embodiment 1 , and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.
6 is a bobbin, 61 is a strip-shaped take-out hole, and 103 is an optical fiber coil according to the first embodiment .
As shown in FIG. 4, the optical fiber coil 103 of Reference Embodiment 1 is configured by winding an optical fiber ribbon 11 around a bobbin 6.
Thus, the optical fiber coil of the present invention can be wound around a bobbin.
As the bobbin 6 used when winding the coil, a material made of metal such as iron or aluminum, plastic, glass, or the like can be appropriately selected and used. In order to reduce the influence of dimensional changes due to temperature changes and humidity changes, metals, glass, plastics mixed with glass fibers and fillers, and the like are preferable. Further, the size of the bobbin 6 is not particularly limited, and can be selected according to the bending characteristics of the optical fiber and the bobbin installation space.
Further, the bobbin 6 may be any of a bobbin without a heel, a bobbin having a heel on one side, and a bobbin having a heel on both sides, but in order to maintain the coil shape, a bobbin having a heel on both sides as shown in FIG. preferable.
Then, if necessary, the tip of the optical fiber ribbon 11 can be taken out by providing a take-out hole 61 in the bobbin 6. The take-out hole 61 can be formed in a shape such as a strip shape or an oval shape so that the optical fiber ribbon 11 can be easily taken out.

Next, Embodiment 3 will be described with reference to FIGS.
6 is a front view of the optical fiber coil according to the third embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line CC of FIG.
Reference numeral 7 denotes a coating portion made of silicone rubber, naphtha rubber, or the like, and 104 denotes an optical fiber coil according to the third embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 6, the optical fiber coil 104 according to the third embodiment is configured by covering the optical fiber coil with a coating portion 7 except for both ends of the optical fiber ribbon 11.
By covering with the coat portion 7, the coil shape can be fixed and the optical transmission loss can be reduced. Further, at both ends of the optical fiber ribbon 11 not covered with the coat portion 7, the single core wire 1 can be used individually by tearing the cover portion S and can be freely wired in various circuits. .
For the coat portion 7, a general resin such as natural rubber, naphtha rubber, butadiene rubber, or the like can be used. However, a rubber-based material that has weather resistance and flexibility that is difficult to apply stress to the optical fiber ribbon 11 is preferable. Examples thereof include silicone rubber, chloroprene rubber, butyl rubber, and hydrogenated nitrile rubber. In addition, if a rubber with a platinum compound added to the coat part or a rubber with titanium oxide, iron oxide, carbon, metal carbonate, etc. added as a flame retardant aid, such as a flame retardant silicone rubber or chloroprene rubber, an optical fiber can be used. A coil becomes flame-retardant and is more preferable.

Next, the manufacturing method of the optical fiber coil of this invention is demonstrated.
The method of manufacturing an optical fiber coil according to the present invention includes a step of arranging a plurality of single core wires in parallel and integrally forming the coating portion S to form an optical fiber ribbon, and a step of coiling the optical fiber ribbon. It is characterized by having.

First, a plurality of single-core wires are arranged in parallel and are integrally configured by the covering portion S to form an optical fiber ribbon.
The coating method is not particularly limited. For example, as in the method described in JP-A-2004-240152, a coating material is applied onto a plurality of single-core wires arranged on a plane. Thereafter, a method of forming a coating material using a forming jig is preferably used in the present invention.
In addition, although the coating | coated part S may be provided in both surfaces of a single core wire, or it may be provided only in one surface, it is preferable to provide in both surfaces at the point which does not produce an optical transmission loss with respect to stress or a temperature change.

And the optical fiber coil of this invention is manufactured by coiling the optical fiber ribbon.
When winding the coil, the bobbin may or may not be used, but it is preferable to use the bobbin because the shape can be easily maintained.
Further, when winding the coil, it is also possible to employ a method in which an adhesive is applied to the optical fiber ribbon 11 and the adjacent optical fiber ribbons 11 are bonded and fixed to each other.

Furthermore, the optical fiber coil is dipped in a liquid rubber-based material or resin, excluding both ends of the optical fiber ribbon, pulled up, dried, and cured, thereby forming a coat portion 7 that covers the optical fiber coil. can do.
Coat section 7 in that durability is excellent very against stress, it is preferable to form.

  As described above, according to the method of manufacturing an optical fiber coil of the present invention, the winding time can be shortened compared to the conventional method of winding the single core wire 1 on a bobbin or the like using an adhesive, It is possible to reduce the labor of applying the adhesive by eliminating or reducing the adhesive. Therefore, the optical fiber coil can be easily manufactured, and the time or economical cost can be reduced.

< Reference Example 1>
As the single core wire 1, eight single core wires (manufactured by Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., quartz single-mode optical fiber, outer diameter 0.25 mm) were used.

Then, on the flat surface, a normal temperature curable silicone rubber (product name: TSE392, hardness 26, tensile strength 16 kgf / cm ^2, manufactured by GE Toshiba Silicones) before curing, which is a material of the covering portion S, is applied, and eight parallel After the single-core wire 1 is disposed on the single-core wire 1 and the room temperature curable silicone rubber is applied onto the single-core wire 1, a coating material is formed using a forming jig and cured by drying to form an optical fiber ribbon 11. Obtained. The thickness of the covering portion S was 10 μm.

And the optical fiber ribbon 11 was coiled using the winding machine.
The winding machine is composed of a cylindrical iron core that rotates at a constant speed and two disk-shaped flanges that can be fixed by being fitted to the iron core. The outer diameter of the iron core is 30 mm, The outer diameter of the part was 60 mm, and the distance between the two collar parts was 12 mm.
The position of 1 m from the tip of the optical fiber ribbon 11 is fixed to an iron core, and is wound into a coil shape by rotating the iron core. A fiber coil was produced. And before removing a collar part and extracting from an iron core, eight places were wound and fixed with the wire at equal intervals.
Thus, the optical fiber coil of Reference Example 1 was produced.

<Example 1 >
About the optical fiber coil of the reference example 1, the both ends of the optical fiber ribbon 11 were remove | excluded, and the coating part which coat | covers this optical fiber coil was formed.
Specifically, after producing the optical fiber coil of Reference Example 1, the both ends of the optical fiber ribbon 11 are removed and immersed in silicone rubber (trade name: TSE3250, manufactured by GE Toshiba Silicone Co., Ltd.). The coat portion 7 was formed by drying and curing at 100 ° C. for 2 hours.
The optical fiber coil of Example 1 was produced by the above.

<Example 2 >
About the optical fiber coil of Reference Example 1, except for both ends of the optical fiber ribbon 11, it is immersed in a flame retardant silicone rubber (trade name KE4890 manufactured by Shin-Etsu Silicone), pulled up, dried and cured overnight at room temperature. Thereby, the coat part 7 was formed.
Thus, an optical fiber coil of Example 2 was produced.

<Comparative Example 1>
As a comparative example, a single optical fiber 1 (Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., silica-based single mode optical fiber, outer diameter 0.25 mm) was coiled as it was to produce an optical fiber coil.
First, an adhesive (ultraviolet curable resin: trade name Viscotac PM-654 manufactured by Osaka Organic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.) was applied to the entire surface of the single core wire 1 to form an adhesive layer.
Next, the single core wire 1 provided with the adhesive layer was coiled using the winding machine.
At this time, the single core wire 1 was sandwiched between two rubber sheets so that no slack occurred, and the coil was wound in a stressed state.
Then, the adhesive layer was cured by an ultraviolet irradiation device with an irradiation intensity of 20 mW / cm ^{2 and an} irradiation time of 10 seconds, and an optical fiber coil of Comparative Example 1 was produced.

(Evaluation method)
The optical fiber coils of Examples and Comparative Examples were evaluated by the following methods.

<Insertion loss>
For each optical fiber coil, insertion loss was measured using an optical multi-power meter. About the optical fiber coil of the reference example 1 and Example 1 , what averaged the value of the eight single core wires 1 was measured.

<Temperature cycle evaluation>
About each optical fiber coil, the cycle of -40 degreeC-75 degreeC was subjected to the temperature cycle test to 10 cycles, and the maximum value of insertion loss was measured.

<Time for optical fiber coil production>
The time for producing each optical fiber coil was measured. In addition, although the work time of the setting and adjustment of the single core wire 1 was also included, the hardening time of the coat part 7 without a human work time was not included.

  The evaluation results are shown in Table 1.

Front view of optical fiber coil of Embodiment 1 AA line sectional view of FIG. Sectional drawing of the optical fiber coil of Embodiment 2. Front view of optical fiber coil of reference form 1 BB sectional view of FIG. Front view of optical fiber coil of Embodiment 3 CC sectional view of FIG. Sectional view of a conventional optical fiber coil

Front view of optical fiber coil of Embodiment 1 AA line sectional view of FIG. Sectional drawing of the optical fiber coil of Embodiment 2. Front view of optical fiber coil of Embodiment 3 BB sectional view of FIG. Front view of optical fiber coil of Embodiment 4 CC sectional view of FIG. Sectional view of a conventional optical fiber coil

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Single core wire 5 and 6 Bobbin 7 Coat part 11 Eight optical fiber ribbons 12 Four optical fiber ribbons 61 Outgoing hole 100 Conventional optical fiber coils 101-104 Optical fiber coil H Center hole S Covering part T band

Claims (4)

An optical fiber coil in which a plurality of single-core wires are arranged in parallel and an optical fiber ribbon in which the single-core wires are integrally arranged in parallel by a covering portion is wound in a form in which a bobbin is removed, An optical fiber coil , wherein the optical fiber coil is formed by dip- coating with a coating portion that covers the vicinity of the surface of the optical fiber coil except for both ends of the ribbon portion .   The optical fiber coil according to claim 1, wherein the coat portion is made of silicone rubber.   The optical fiber coil according to claim 1, wherein the coat portion is made of flame retardant silicone rubber or chloroprene rubber. By arranging in parallel plural of single fibers, a step of an optical fiber ribbon and integrally parallel arrangements by the coating unit the single-core wire, coiling the optical fiber ribbons in the form of removal of the bobbin A step of obtaining an optical fiber coil, and a step of forming a coating portion covering the vicinity of the optical fiber coil surface by dip coating except for both ends of the optical fiber ribbon portion of the optical fiber coil. An optical fiber coil manufacturing method.

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