JP6015152B2 - Apparatus and method for manufacturing intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon in which intermittent cuts are made in the longitudinal direction between adjacent optical fiber cores of the optical fiber ribbon.

  In an optical fiber ribbon integrated with a plurality of optical fiber cores arranged in a parallel row, it is easy to separate the optical fiber cores into a single core, and the parallel state of the tape core wires is maintained. An optical fiber ribbon that can be maintained and used for multi-fiber batch fusion connection or the like is known. In this optical fiber ribbon, a plurality of optical fibers are arranged in a parallel line, and coupling portions and non-coupling portions are alternately formed in the longitudinal direction, and adjacent optical fiber cores are intermittently connected to each other. Various shapes and manufacturing methods have been proposed.

For example, Patent Document 1 does not have a bonding portion to which an adhesive resin or coating resin is applied for a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction between adjacent optical fiber core wires, and an adhesive resin or coating resin for a predetermined distance. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon in which unbonded portions are alternately formed is disclosed.
Further, in Patent Document 2, after UV (ultraviolet curable) resin is applied to the entire length of a plurality of optical fiber cores, UV irradiation is intermittently performed in the longitudinal direction, and a cured portion (non-bonded portion) of the UV resin is obtained. And a method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon in which uncured portions (bonded portions) are alternately formed.
In addition, Patent Document 3 discloses the production of an optical fiber ribbon in which a cut is formed by a cutting roller having a cutting blade in the longitudinal direction of the common coating of the optical fiber ribbon, and a coupling portion and a non-coupling portion are alternately formed. A method is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-232297 JP 2010-2743 A JP 2005-62427 A

  As disclosed in Patent Document 1, the method of intermittently applying an adhesive resin or the like between adjacent optical fiber lines has a problem that the resin application control is not easy and it is difficult to increase the production line speed. Further, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, the method of intermittently irradiating UV is not easy to control the driving of the light-shielding shutter that forms the uncured portion, and the light-shielded portion is uncured with a target size. Probability is low, and it is also difficult to increase the production line speed.

  On the other hand, the method using the cutting roller as in Patent Document 3 can form the coupling portion and the non-coupling portion at a constant ratio by controlling the rotation speed of the cutting roller according to the manufacturing linear velocity. it can. However, in the method using this cutting roller, it is necessary to accurately cut between the optical fiber cores of the optical fiber tape. For this, it is important to position the traveling optical fiber tape in the width direction. Become.

  On the other hand, when the cutting blade of the cutting roller is inserted in order to make a cut between the optical fiber cores of the optical fiber tape core, an amount equivalent to the thickness of the cutting blade protrudes in the tape width direction. Clearance is required. However, when this clearance is large, the positioning accuracy in the tape width direction is deteriorated, the cutting position of the cutting blade is fluctuated, and the optical fiber core wire may be damaged.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described actual situation, and positioning of the optical fiber ribbon in the width direction when cutting is intermittently made between the optical fibers of the optical fiber ribbon using a cutting roller. An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method of an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon that allows the tape blade to project in the tape width direction by cutting with a cutting blade.

An apparatus and a method for manufacturing an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention includes a plurality of optical fiber cores arranged in a parallel row and integrated with a common coating, and adjacent optical fiber cores. It is a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method of an intermittently cut optical fiber tape core wire in which intermittent cuts are made in the longitudinal direction. This manufacturing apparatus has a flange part integrated with the body part for positioning the width direction of the optical fiber ribbon on both sides of the body part, and has a non-cut region and a disk shape in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of the body part. A cutting roller having a cutting region having a cutting blade that is detachably attached so as to protrude on the outer peripheral surface of the roller, and rotating the cutting roller while pressing it against the optical fiber ribbon. It is characterized by.

Intervals of the flange portion is a notch regions Haisetsu the cutting blade, which is preferably wider than the non-cut region by the thickness equivalent of the cutting blade. The cutting blade is detachably attached so as to protrude onto the outer peripheral surface of the roller in a disk shape. In addition, a plurality of the above-described cutting mechanisms are installed in the manufacturing line direction in accordance with the number of optical fiber ribbons. Moreover, you may make it make the moving speed of the outer peripheral surface of the trunk | drum of a cutting roller smaller than the traveling speed of an optical fiber tape core wire.

According to the present invention, the cutting roller provided with the cutting blade for cutting between the optical fiber cores is integrally provided with the flange portion for guiding the optical fiber tape core and positioning in the width direction. The cutting position of the cutting blade with respect to the fiber ribbon can be set with high accuracy. As a result, intermittent cuts can be formed with high accuracy in the traveling optical fiber ribbon.

It is a figure which shows the example of the intermittent cut optical fiber tape core wire manufactured by this invention. It is a figure explaining the state which positions the width direction of the running optical fiber tape core wire in this invention, and makes a cut. It is a schematic diagram explaining an example of the cutting roller which has a cutting blade used by this invention. It is a schematic diagram explaining the example of installation of the cutting mechanism which forms intermittent cutting in the optical fiber tape cable core in this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 (A) to 1 (C) show an example of an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon manufactured by using the manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention. In the drawings, 1a to 1c are intermittently cut optical fiber ribbons. (Intermittent cutting tape core wire), 2 is an optical fiber core wire, 3a to 3c are common coatings, 4 is a cut portion, and 5 is a non-cut portion.

The optical fiber core wire 2 in the present invention is, for example, an optical fiber strand obtained by coating a glass fiber having an outer diameter of 125 μm with a fiber coating having a coating diameter of about 250 μm. A single-core optical fiber including a colored layer on the outer surface of the optical fiber.
Also, the intermittently cut optical fiber ribbons (hereinafter referred to as intermittently cut tape cores) 1a to 1c are tapes in which three or more optical fiber cores 2 are arranged in parallel and integrated by common coatings 3a to 3c. The common coatings 3a to 3c are of a form in which cut portions 4 and non-cut portions 5 having a predetermined length are alternately formed between adjacent optical fiber core wires 2.

  The intermittent cut tape core wire 1a shows an example in which the tape surface of the common coating 3a is flat, and the intermittent cut tape core wire 1b has a wave shape in which the tape surface of the common coating 3b follows the arrangement surface of the optical fiber core wires 2. An example is shown. Further, the intermittently cut tape core wire 1c is an example in which the optical fiber core wires 2 are arranged at intervals, and the common coating 3c covers the entire circumference of each of the optical fiber core wires 2 via the connecting portion 3c ′. An example of connection is shown. Since the intermittent cutting tape cores 1b and 1c have a shape having a valley between the optical fiber cores, it is easy to position the cutting blade at this valley, and the cutting part 4 can be formed more accurately. it can.

  The cut portions 4 inserted into the common coatings 3a to 3c of the intermittent cut tape cores 1a to 1c are formed so as to penetrate the upper and lower surfaces of the tape core wires, and the cut portions 4 are adjacent to each other. The optical fiber core wires are separated from each other and pulled in a direction in which they are separated from each other (a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction), thereby forming a non-coupled portion that can be bent and separated. On the other hand, in the non-cut portion 5 where no cut is made, adjacent optical fiber cores are integrated with each other by the common coating 3 to form a coupling portion that maintains the tape state.

The cut portion 4 and the non-cut portion 5 can be formed in various forms (patterns). The example of FIG. 1A is an example in which adjacent cut portions 4 are all formed at the same position, and all the optical fiber core wires are connected at intermittent positions where the non-cut portions 5 are orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. ing. The example of FIG. 1B is an example in which the positions of the adjacent cut portions 4 are made different so that the positions of the cut portions one distance away from each other coincide. In addition, it can be formed in an arbitrary pattern such as changing the ratio of the cut portion 4 and the non-cut portion 5.
In FIG. 1C, the cut portion 4 and the non-cut portion 5 are not shown hidden, but are formed in the same pattern as in FIG. 1A or FIG.

  FIG. 2 shows a state in which the optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention is positioned and a state in which cutting is made with a cutting blade, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of a cutting roller. 2 and 3, 10 is a cutting roller, 11 is a trunk portion, 12 is a collar portion, 13 is a guide groove, 13a is an inclined surface, 14 is a roller shaft portion, and 15 is a disk-shaped cutting blade.

  As shown in FIG. 3 (A), the cutting roller 10 has flanges 12 on both sides of the body 11 and is provided in a predetermined circumferential region at a predetermined axial position on the outer peripheral surface of the body 11. The cutting blade 15 is disposed so as to protrude from the outer peripheral surface, and is supported rotatably about the roller shaft portion 14 as a support shaft. The optical fiber tape core wire (hereinafter referred to as a tape core wire) 1 before being intermittently cut is guided while being pressed so that the tape surface is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 11 of the cutting roller 10. .

  As shown in FIG. 2 (A), the tape core wire 1 is positioned in the width direction by the groove width Wa corresponding to the tape width by the guide groove 13 formed by the flange portion 12 of the cutting roller 10. It travels on the outer peripheral surface. The wall surface of the guide groove 13 is preferably formed by an inclined surface 13a so as to allow the overhang of the tape core wire 1 as will be described later. Note that the cutting blade 15 has a predetermined length of the cutting roller 10 as shown in FIGS. 2 (B), 2 (C) and 3 (A) so that a cut can be made between the predetermined optical fiber cores 2. It is disposed at an axial position.

  That is, the positioning of the tape core wire 1 in the width direction is performed by the guide groove 13 of the flange portion 12, and the cutting blade 15 is located at a predetermined position on the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 11 that is the bottom portion of the guide groove 13. is set up. For this reason, the relative positional relationship of the cutting blade 15 with respect to the width direction of the tape core wire 1 is uniquely determined, and a cut can be made at an accurate position. However, when the cutting blade 15 cuts between the optical fiber cores for cutting, a portion corresponding to the thickness D of the cutting blade 15 protrudes in the width direction from the tape core wire 1.

  FIG. 2B shows a case where the groove width Wa of the guide groove 13 in the region where the cutting is made by the cutting blade 15 is the same width as the region where the cutting is not made as shown in FIG. An example in which the groove width Wa of the groove 13 is uniform over the entire circumference is shown. In this case, by making the wall surface of the guide groove 13 the inclined surface 13a as described above, the protruding portion of the tape core wire 1 is allowed to run on the inclined surface 13a and escape as shown in FIG. can do.

  FIG. 2C shows an example in which the groove width Wb of the guide groove 13 in the region where the cutting blade 15 makes a cut is made wider than the groove width Wa of the other part by the thickness D of the cutting blade 15. That is, the groove width of the guide groove 13 of the cutting roll 10 is made different between the groove width Wb in the region where the cutting blade is disposed and the region Wa where the cutting blade is not disposed. Further, in this case, it is preferable to change the left and right groove widths of the cutting blade 15 depending on the installation position of the cutting blade (position between the optical fiber core wires into which the cutting is made). For example, when the cutting blade 15 is cut between the second and third cores of a four-core ribbon, it may be evenly spread on both the left and right sides of the cutting blade as shown in FIG. When the cutting blade 15 is cut between the first and second centers, or between the third and fourth centers, the groove width on either the left or right side of the cutting blade 15 is increased. .

As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 3, the cutting blade 15 is disposed so as to protrude at a predetermined cutting region Lb on the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 11 of the cutting roller 10 using a plurality of disk-shaped cutting blades. The For example, if the diameter of the trunk portion 11 is 63.7 mm, the circumferential length of the trunk portion 11 is 200 mm. Here, if the ratio of the length of the cut portion 4 in FIG. 1 is 6 (for example, 60 mm) and the ratio of the length of the non-cut portion 5 is 4 (for example, 40 mm), the cutting region Lb of the cutting roller 10 is 60 mm. The cutting blade 15 is disposed so that the non-cutting region La is 40 mm.
In addition, the ratio of the length of the cut part 4 and the non-cut part 5 can be changed suitably by changing the ratio of the length of the non-cut area | region La and the cut area Lb.

  For example, it is preferable to use a cutting blade 15 having a disk shape with a diameter of 18 mm and a thickness of 0.3 mm. In the cutting roller 10, three cutting blades 15 may be used. The disc-shaped blade has an advantage that it is easy to easily enter the tape surface, is less likely to cause cutting residue, and is commercially available. The disc-shaped cutting blade 15 is preferably detachable so that the service life can be extended by changing the rotational position of replacement or arrangement. For this reason, the body 11 of the cutting roller 10 is formed of a disk-shaped laminate, and the cutting blade 15 is sandwiched and held and fixed.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an installation example of a cutting mechanism in which a cut portion 4 is inserted into the tape core wire 1 to form intermittent cut tape core wires 1a to 1c. As shown in the figure, for example, the tape core wire 1 is assumed to run from the right direction to the left direction on the paper surface, and a plurality of tape core wires 1 corresponding to the number of the optical fiber core wires with respect to the tape core wire 1 are provided. The cutting mechanisms 7a to 7c (three cutting mechanisms when the number of optical fiber cores is 4) are shifted in position in the production line direction (longitudinal direction of the tape core).

  The cutting mechanisms 7a to 7c are configured such that the cutting rollers 10a to 10c described in FIG. 3 are rotated by driving bodies 9a to 9c such as a driving motor. Controlled by rotation speed. The cutting blades 15a to 15c of the cutting rollers 10a to 10c are arranged with different cutting positions in the tape width direction, and the cutting rollers 10a to 10c are intermittently provided only between predetermined optical fiber cores. Make a notch 4.

  Each of the cutting rollers 10 a to 10 c is in contact with one surface of the tape core wire 1 and presses this surface to guide the travel of the tape core wire 1. ˜8d is arranged so that the tape core wire 1 is not separated from the outer peripheral surfaces of the cutting rollers 10a to 10c. The running rollers 8a to 8d may be provided with a flange portion that suppresses the movement of the tape core wire 1 in the width direction. However, the running rollers 8a to 8d do not have a positioning guide groove on the cutting rollers 10a to 10c side. May be.

   The cutting rollers 10a to 10c are rotated in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the tape core wire 1, for example. In this case, the cutting blades 15a to 15c move so as to slide on the tape core wire 1 and are cut with an arcuate blade so that a reliable cut can be formed. Can also be suppressed. Further, by changing the rotational speed (moving speed) of the cutting blades 15a to 15c of the cutting rollers 10a to 10c and the running speed of the tape core wire 1, the ratio of the lengths of the cut portion 4 and the non-cut portion 5 can be obtained. You can change the length in the same way.

Further, the cutting can be made even if the rotation direction of the cutting rollers 10a to 10c is the same as the traveling direction of the tape core wire 1. Also in this case, the lengths of the cut portion 4 and the non-cut portion 5 can be determined by making the rotational speed (moving speed) of the cutting blades 15a to 15c of the cutting rollers 10a to 10c different from the running speed of the tape core wire 1. The length can be changed by making the ratio the same. Further, by making the rotational speed of the cutting blades 15a to 15c slower than the running speed of the tape core wire 1, the cutting blades 15a to 15c move and cut so as to slide on the tape core wire 1 in the same manner as described above. It can be in the form.
In addition, when the moving speed of the cutting blades 15a to 15c is the same as the moving speed of the tape core wire 1 and the moving direction is the same, the cutting blade is pushed into the tape core wire 1 from the surface direction, and the cutting is insufficient. It may become.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical fiber tape core wire (tape core wire), 1a-1c ... Intermittent cutting optical fiber tape core wire (intermittent cutting tape core wire), 2 ... Optical fiber core wire, 3a-3c ... Common coating | cover, 4 ... Cutting part 5 ... Non-cutting portion, 7a-7c ... Cutting mechanism, 8a-8d ... Traveling roller, 9a-9c ... Driving body, 10, 10a-10c ... Cutting roller, 11 ... Trunk, 12 ... Gutter, 13 ... Guide groove, 13a ... inclined surface, 14 ... roller shaft, 15, 15a-15c ... cutting blade.

Claims (5)

An intermittently cut optical fiber in which intermittent cuts are made in the longitudinal direction between adjacent optical fiber cores of an optical fiber ribbon in which a plurality of optical fiber cores are arranged in parallel and integrated by a common coating An apparatus for manufacturing a tape core,
Has the body portion and the flange portion integral positioning the width direction of the optical fiber ribbon on both sides of the barrel, provided the non-cut region and the cutting blade in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of the barrel A cutting roller having a cutting area, and a cutting mechanism that rotates the cutting roller while pressing it against the optical fiber ribbon ,
The said cutting blade is a disk shape, and is attached so that attachment or detachment is possible so that it may protrude on the outer peripheral surface of the said roller, The manufacturing apparatus of the intermittent cutting optical fiber tape core characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The intermittent cutting light according to claim 1, wherein the interval between the flanges is formed to be wider by an amount corresponding to the thickness of the cutting blade than the non-cutting region in a cutting region where the cutting blade is disposed. Fiber tape core manufacturing equipment. 3. The intermittent cutting optical fiber ribbon according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the cutting mechanisms are installed in the manufacturing line direction in accordance with the number of cores of the optical fiber ribbon. 4. Manufacturing equipment. An intermittently cut optical fiber in which a plurality of optical fiber cores are arranged in parallel and integrated with a common coating, and an intermittent cut is made in the longitudinal direction between adjacent optical fiber cores of the optical fiber ribbon. A method of manufacturing a tape core,
Has the body portion and the flange portion integral positioning the width direction of the optical fiber ribbon on both sides of the body portion, and a non-cut region in the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface of the barrel, the discoid A cutting roller having a cutting region provided with a cutting blade removably attached so as to protrude on the outer peripheral surface of the roller, and rotating and cutting while pressing against the optical fiber ribbon. A method for manufacturing an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon. 5. The method of manufacturing an intermittently cut optical fiber ribbon according to claim 4 , wherein the moving speed of the outer peripheral surface of the body portion of the cutting roller is lower than the traveling speed of the optical fiber ribbon.

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