JPH02264908A - Method for wiping off adhesive agent of ferrule for optical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To mechane the wiping work and to improve quality and productivity by running a wiping member in a state that a long-sized wiping member and an adhesive agent of a rear end part side of a ferrule are brought into contact with each other, and wiping off the adhesive agent of the rear end part side of the ferrule. CONSTITUTION:When an end part of a covered optical fiber brought to terminal treat ment is inserted through the inside of a ferrule containing an adhesive agent 8, a surplus adhesive agent 8 flows out to the rear end part and the tip part of the ferrule 4. The covered optical fiber 1 with this ferrule 4 is fitted into holding parts 15, 16 of a supporting base 11, the supporting base 11 is allowed to descend to a prescribed level and the lower part of an unhardened adhesive agent 8 existing in the rear end part side of the ferrule is brought into contact with a wiping member 17 extending from a supply system 18 to a receiving system 21. In this state, the receiving system 21 is driven, and when the wiping member 17 is received through receiving rollers 22, 23, the wiping member 17 runs, while coming into contact with the lower part of the adhesive agent 8 and wipes off the adhesive agent 8, and the adhesive agent 8 of a prescribed quantity is eliminated from the rear end part side of the ferrule 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method of wiping adhesive from a 7-erule for optical connectors.

“Conventional Technology J As is well known, when connecting optical fibers with reproducibility,
Optical connectors are widely used.

Such an optical connector consists of ferrules that are attached to the ends of a pair of optical fibers, and an adapter that maintains these ferrules in a mutually abutted state.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show the procedure for attaching a ferrule to the end of an optical fiber.

In FIGS. 2 to 4, a coated optical fiber 1, which is an optical fiber core, is subjected to terminal treatments such as peeling off the coating and removing coating residue, and a bare optical fiber 3 is exposed from the end of the coating layer 2. The axial center of the ferrule 4, which is exposed and made of plastic or metal, extends from the rear end side to the tip side,
A through hole 5 with a large diameter corresponding to the coating layer 2 and a through hole 6 with a small diameter corresponding to the optical fiber 3 are formed to communicate with each other.

In particular, the through hole 6 is precisely and firmly formed by embedding a ceramic capillary tube 7 within the tip of the ferrule 4.

When attaching the ferrule 4 to the end of the coated optical fiber l that has been terminal-treated as described above, the through hole 5.6 of the ferrule 4 is first filled with a fluid, uncured adhesive 8. (See Figure 2), then the tip of the coated optical fiber 1 is inserted into the double-way hole 5.8 of the ferrule 4 (see Figure 2).
After that, when the adhesive 8 hardens, the ferrule 4 is fixed to the end of the coated optical fiber 1 (see FIG. 3).
(see figure).

By the way, the adhesive 8 can be room temperature curable, photocurable,
Synthetic resin materials such as thermosetting ones are used.

In the above, when the tip of the coated optical fiber 1 is inserted into the two-way holes 5 and B of the ferrule 4, as shown in FIG. Excess adhesive 8 flows out.

In the case of adhesive 8 flowing out to the tip side of ferrule 4,
Even if this hardens, it can be easily removed when polishing the tip of the ferrule 4 afterwards.

On the other hand, the adhesive 8 that has flowed out toward the rear end of the ferrule 4 is troublesome to remove after curing.

In particular, the adhesive 8 on the rear end side of the ferrule hangs down in its uncured state, and since it protrudes to the outer periphery of the ferrule 4 and hardens, it becomes difficult to butt the ferrules together using the adapter described above. Since the adhesive 8 cured in such a shape applies non-uniform stress to the bonded portion, it causes strength problems and also impairs the accuracy of the alignment between the optical fiber 3 and the ferrule 4.

In order to deal with this problem, at present, a worker manually wipes off the adhesive 8 on the rear end side of the ferrule to prevent the adhesive 8 from dripping or from curing in an uneven shape.

``Problem to be Solved by the Invention J'' In the case of the above-mentioned prior art, workers try to improve the adhesion between the optical fiber and the ferrule by wiping off the adhesive, but there are differences in the skills of individual workers. This causes variations in the amount of adhesive wiped off, making it difficult to stabilize the state of attachment of the ferrule to the optical fiber, that is, the quality.

Of course, if we relied on the manual labor of workers, it would be impossible to automate a series of tasks, from processing the end of coated optical fibers to attaching ferrules. There is no hope for improvement.

In view of these problems, the present invention provides a method for wiping adhesive on a ferrule for an optical connector, which can effectively wipe off the adhesive part 1 on the rear end side of the ferrule and mechanize the wiping operation. That is.

``Means for Solving the Problems J'' In order to achieve the intended purpose, the present invention aims to wipe off the adhesive flowing out from the rear end of the ferrule after inserting the end of the optical fiber into a ferrule containing adhesive. The method of wiping with a member is characterized in that the elongated wiping member and the adhesive on the rear end side of the ferrule are brought into contact with each other, and the wiping member is run while maintaining the contact state.

Effect 1 In the method of the present invention, the wiping member is run in a state where the wiping member and the adhesive flowing out from the rear end of the ferrule are in contact with each other, so the adhesive on the rear end of the ferrule is It is wiped off by applying it to the wiping member.

The amount of adhesive wiped at this time is proportional to the length of the wiping member that has traveled in contact with the adhesive.

Therefore, by running the wiping member for a predetermined length, the amount of vC adhesive wiped becomes constant, and the wiped adhesive assumes a desired constant shape due to its own surface tension.

Moreover, since such a wiping means simply moves the wiping member in contact with the adhesive, mechanization of the wiping operation can be easily realized.

Example of implementation Examples of the method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, the support stand 11 includes a substrate 12 and side plates 13.14 rising from both ends of the substrate 12. At the upper ends of both side plates 13.14,
．． 1B are formed respectively.

The support stand 11 is supported so as to be able to move up and down via a known lifting machine (not shown).

In FIG. 1, the elongated wiping member 17 is made of a thread-like or string-like linear body.

The wiping member 17 may be made of vegetable fiber, animal fiber, mineral mis, artificial 1ara, synthetic fiber, or the like.

It can be made of any material, and more specifically, cotton thread, nylon thread, silk thread, paper twisted thread, etc. are used.

The supply system 18 of the wiping member 17 includes a bobbin 19, six shafts 20 that rotatably support the bobbin 19, and the six shafts 20.
A publicly known or well-known bearing stand (not shown) that supports the
A wiping member 17 is unwound around the outer periphery of the bobbin 19.

The take-up system 21 of the wiping member 17 includes a pair of take-off rollers 22 and 23 in contact with each other, and these take-off rollers 22 and 23.
bearings (not shown), and a prime mover (not shown) connected to at least one of these take-up rollers 22, 23.

In FIG. 1, a support stand 11, a supply system 18, a take-off system 21
The supply system 18, the support stand 11. The wiping member 17 is disposed relative to the take-off system 21 in the order of the take-off system 21 , and the wiping member 17 unwound from the bobbin 18 of the supply system 18 passes through the guide sheave 24 , the support base 11° and the guide sheave 25 to both take-off rollers 22 of the take-off system 21 .
．． 23.

Furthermore, a receiving box 2B for accommodating the used wiping member 17 is arranged adjacent to the receiving system 21 side.

In the wiping device having such a configuration, the support stand 1! The line segment connecting both the holding parts 15 and 16, and the supply system 1st to the receiving system 21
The wiping members 17 that span the width of the wiping members 17 intersect perpendicularly to each other at predetermined positions, which will be described later.

When the adhesive on the rear end side of the ferrule is wiped using the method of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 1, the following occurs.

That is, the end of the coated optical fiber l that has been terminal-treated is
When inserted into the ferrule 4 containing the adhesive 8, excess adhesive 8 flows out to the rear end and tip of the ferrule 4, as described with reference to FIG.

The coated optical fiber 1 with the ferrule 4 is placed on a support stand 11.
When the support base 11 is lowered to a predetermined level via a lifting machine (not shown), the lower part of the uncured adhesive 8 on the rear end side of the ferrule is lowered as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.

In this state, the Yumitori system 21 is
When the wiping member 17 is pulled out via both take-up rollers 22 and 23, the wiping member 17 wipes off the adhesive 8 while traveling in a predetermined direction while contacting the lower part of the adhesive 8, and removes the adhesive. The wiping member 17 after wiping off the agent is housed in the receiving box 26.

In this way, when a predetermined amount of adhesive 8 is removed from the rear end side of the errule 4, the support stand 11 is raised again via the lifting machine, the prime mover of the take-up system 21 is stopped, and the wiping member 17 stops.

Adhesive 8 on the rear end side of the ferrule wiped off as above
is settled by its own surface tension and hardens into the desired shape as shown in FIG.

Effects of the Invention 1 As explained above, the method of the present invention brings the elongated wiping member and the adhesive on the rear end side of the ferrule into contact with each other, and
Since the wiping member is run while maintaining the contact state and removes the excess adhesive, it is possible to adhere the optical fibers and ferrules to each other with high yield and high efficiency by relying on the mechanical operation. In addition, such mechanization can contribute to the automation of a series of operations including processing the end of the coated optical fiber to attaching the ferrule.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure WS1 is a perspective view schematically showing an embodiment of the method of the present invention, and Figures 2, 3, and 4 are sectional views showing each step in attaching a ferrule to the end of an optical fiber. 1...Coated optical fiber 2...Coating layer 3...Optical fiber 4...0 Ferrule 5...φΦI/ferrule through hole 8... ... Ferrule through hole 7 ... Capillary tube 8 ... Adhesive 11 ... Support stand 12 ... Support stand substrate 13 ... - Support stand side plate 14...Support stand side plate 15...Ferrule holding part IB...Optical fiber holding part 17...Wiping member 18. ... Wiping member supply system 19 ... Wiping member pobbin 20 ... Bobbin 6 shafts 21 ... Wiping member take-up system 22 ...・Take-up roller 23... Take-up roller 24... Sheave 25... Sheave 26... Receiving box

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a method in which the end of an optical fiber is inserted into a ferrule containing adhesive and the adhesive flowing out from the rear end of the ferrule is wiped off with a wiping member, the adhesive between the long wiping member and the rear end of the ferrule is 1. A method of wiping adhesive from a ferrule for an optical connector, characterized by bringing adhesives into contact with each other and running a wiping member while maintaining the contact state.