JPH0345937Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Summary of the invention] After coating the linear body of a continuously running optical fiber or optical fiber bare wire with an ultraviolet curable resin, the ultraviolet ray irradiation part for curing the ultraviolet curable resin is applied to the filament. A cylindrical tube that passes through the irradiation source that irradiates the body with ultraviolet rays and the continuously running striatum, and slides parallel to the direction of movement of the striatum into a position that blocks the ultraviolet rays emitted from the ultraviolet irradiation source when not irradiated. The structure includes a shutter and, if necessary, a quartz pipe placed outside the cylindrical shutter in a position to enclose the cylindrical shutter while the cylindrical shutter is in a shielding position from the ultraviolet irradiation source. By sliding only the cylindrical shutter of the non-curing course to the shielding position against the ultraviolet irradiation source for each course of the striatum, it is possible to cure the coating resin of the striatum for each course. The quartz pipes arranged according to An optical fiber manufacturing device that can uniformly, stably, and quickly cure the ultraviolet resin coating of the filament, improving the effective manufacturing speed and ensuring a high yield rate.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing optical fiber strands and core wires, and more particularly to the structure of an ultraviolet irradiation section for curing an ultraviolet curable resin coating.

[Conventional technology]

In order to popularize optical fiber cables, it is urgently necessary to manufacture low-cost optical fiber cables. Technological development studies for this purpose are currently underway, but it is necessary to achieve both high-speed manufacturing technology and high-yield manufacturing technology. As a typical example, for optical fibers in which ultraviolet curable resin (hereinafter referred to as UV resin) is used for the strands, it is important to improve the yield in proportion to the number of strands. On the other hand, as the speed of manufacturing increases, the current trend is that as the speed increases, the yield tends to decrease due to adjustment of irradiation conditions in the high-speed and low-speed manufacturing processes.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating an example of conventional UV resin curing.

Figures 6A and B are for single optical fiber strands.
This is an example in which the wiring path 21 of the UV resin-coated optical fiber is irradiated from an irradiation source consisting of an ultraviolet lamp 5, a main mirror 40, and an auxiliary mirror 50, and detailed explanation will be omitted.
As shown in the figure, while the wire passing path 21 is traveling, it is irradiated from one side, and then it is irradiated from the other side.

Figures 7A and 7B show that in the conventional UV resin curing technology, when the curing process line is stopped, the object to be cured, for example, in the present invention, an optical fiber strand or a core wire is present in the irradiator. In order to prevent burnout of the object to be cured, or to prevent overheating of the irradiation surface when the object to be cured is not flowing, the ultraviolet ray irradiation from the ultraviolet lamp 5 is blocked. This is an example of the shutter mechanism used (for example, UV/EB curing technology: Sogo Gijutsu Center Co., Ltd., October 30, 1980, pages 181 and 187).

FIG. 7A shows an example of the slide shutter 22.
FIG. B shows an example of the rotary shutter 23. In both shutter mechanisms, the irradiation source consists of an ultraviolet lamp 5, a main mirror 40, and an auxiliary mirror (not shown) facing the main mirror 40. The ultraviolet rays are irradiated all around the striatum, and when not irradiated, the ultraviolet lamp is turned off. Since it takes time to start the lighting, the structure is such that the slide shutter 22 or the rotary shutter 23 is moved to the position indicated by the dotted line and the irradiation to the object to be irradiated is cut off, without turning off the light each time.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

Conventional equipment for manufacturing optical fibers and core wires using this type of UV resin curing has poor irradiation efficiency because the UV irradiation section is configured to irradiate sequentially from one direction, and multiple curing processes require separate courses for each course. It is necessary to adjust conditions and check the quality for each treatment, but since the shutter mechanism in conventional striatal coating does not have a shutter function for each course, it is not possible to pass multiple lines through one UV irradiation unit. A single manufacturing device equipped with this type of UV irradiation unit can effectively operate multiple lines.
That is, there was a problem in increasing the effective manufacturing speed and further improving the yield by adjusting the low speed conditions.

[Means for solving problems]

This invention solves the problems of the conventional method, and aims to increase the effective production speed of multiple lines using one manufacturing device, and to improve the yield by adjusting low-speed conditions. In an apparatus for manufacturing an optical fiber or a cored optical fiber by coating a plurality of filaments of a fiber with an ultraviolet curable resin and then curing the ultraviolet curable resin by irradiating the ultraviolet rays in an ultraviolet irradiation section. , the ultraviolet irradiation section inserts an ultraviolet element irradiation source that irradiates the striatum with ultraviolet rays and the plurality of continuously running striatum, respectively, for each course, and irradiates the ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet irradiation source for each course. A cylindrical shutter is provided at a position where each of the plurality of striatum is shielded during non-irradiation, and slides in parallel with the running direction of each of the plurality of striatum, enclosing the striatum for each course. It is characterized by its structure.

[Effect]

This invention uses a cylindrical shutter that slides parallel to the running direction of the continuously running striatum.
In addition to uniformly and effectively curing the UV resin by irradiating the entire surface, it is also possible to cure the UV resin coating of multiple filaments using the UV irradiation section in one device, and the irradiation speed conditions can be adjusted for each course. is possible,
Even if the effective manufacturing speed increases, a high yield rate of optical fiber strands and core wires can be ensured. Examples will be described below based on the drawings.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of main parts of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the arrangement of main parts of an embodiment of the invention from above. 1 is an optical fiber wire, 1' is a UV resin coated optical fiber, 2 is a cylindrical shutter according to the present invention, 3 is a quartz pipe, 4
1 and 42 are quartz plates, 51 and 52 are ultraviolet lamps,
6 is a slide guide portion for sliding the cylindrical shutter 2 in parallel to the running direction of the optical fiber 1;
7 is a cylindrical shutter 2 that becomes extremely hot when exposed to ultraviolet rays.
9 and 91 are cooling air inlet ports for cooling the quartz pipe 3 when closed; Cooling air intake and exhaust ports of conductor lamps 51 and 52, 10
13 to 13 are main mirrors, and 14 to 17 are auxiliary mirrors.

3A and 3B are diagrams for explaining the operating state of the ultraviolet irradiation section according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a slide mechanism that constitutes the slide guide section of the cylindrical shutter according to the present invention. be. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same parts.

Figure 3A shows the striatum, in this example, the optical fiber strand 1
is not running, and the cylindrical shutter 2 is normally closed. As the UV resin curing process for the optical fiber starts, the cylindrical shutter 2 is connected to the air cylinder 31 by driving the electromagnetic valve 32 and slid downward by the slide mechanism illustrated in FIG. 4, for example. However, the ultraviolet rays are the UV of the striatum.
A resin-coated optical fiber is irradiated. Reference numeral 33 indicates a control air source for the air cylinder 31. If a stationary ray body is continuously irradiated with ultraviolet rays, the ray body will become hot due to the radiant heat from the irradiation source and will melt or burn out, making it impossible to continue working with a high-power UV lamp. . This invention is shown in Figure 3 A and B.
Furthermore, by the sliding mechanism of the cylindrical shutter illustrated in FIG. 4, high-speed, high-yield coating of the filament body can be realized using a powerful light source, in the present invention, an ultraviolet lamp.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, a single striatum was explained as an example to explain the gist of the present invention, but in a specific embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of striatum are treated in one course with one irradiation part of one coating device. Even if they are run simultaneously, the irradiation conditions for curing each striatum can be checked by operating a cylindrical shutter that slides parallel to each striatum. The coating curing conditions can be confirmed, and a high-speed, high-yield multi-strip coating curing process line can be realized with one irradiation section of one coating device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the main part configuration and operating state of an embodiment of coating irradiation during simultaneous running of multi-filament bodies according to the present invention.

Note that the irradiation source in this embodiment is an example in which a plurality of ultraviolet lamps 51 and 52 are arranged in parallel in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the optical fiber element 1 of the striatum, but the arrangement of the irradiation source is It is not particularly limited. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same parts. 5
3 and 54 indicate mirrors for converging irradiated light. As is clear from this example, by adopting a sliding cylindrical shutter configuration for each course, the inefficiency of the conventional method of running one course of the linear body for each ultraviolet lamp unit as an irradiation source can be eliminated, and multiple lines can be can be irradiated with one irradiation device.

Originally, ultraviolet curing technology is a low-energy process, and compared to energy costs, improving yields actually results in energy savings. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is also possible to select the number of courses commensurate with the production volume. Furthermore, the running cost of the irradiation equipment is also cheaper for one irradiation device.

In addition, since the shutter itself for light-shielding control is not made of a so-called optical material that is translucent, conventional shutters cause stains on the quartz pipe (Fig. 1, 3) due to adhesion of UV resin when the wire is passed through the wire. The problem was eventually solved by the present invention, which has a cylindrical shutter structure that slides in parallel to the running direction of the filament.

Furthermore, by arbitrarily or automatically opening and closing the cylindrical shutters for each course, it is possible to sequentially draw out the running rays for each irradiated ray, thereby improving the yield of the rays.

[Effect of idea]

As described in detail above, the present invention uses a cylindrical shutter structure that slides in parallel to the running direction of the filamentous bodies in the ultraviolet irradiation section, so that a plurality of filamentous bodies can be irradiated with one irradiation device according to the irradiation conditions. A high-speed, high-yield multi-strip coating line manufacturing device has been realized, and its effects are significant.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the main parts of an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic top view of the arrangement of essential parts of an embodiment of the present invention, Figs. 3 A and B are diagrams illustrating the operating state of the ultraviolet irradiation section according to the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a cylindrical shape according to the present invention. An example of a slide mechanism for a shutter; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the main part configuration and operating state of another embodiment of the ultraviolet irradiation unit according to the present invention; FIGS. 6A and B are explanatory diagrams of a conventional UV resin curing example; FIGS. 7A and 7B show examples of conventional shutter mechanisms. 1... Optical fiber wire, 1'... UV resin coated optical fiber, 2... Cylindrical shutter, 3... Quartz pipe, 41, 42... Quartz plate, 51, 52... Ultraviolet lamp, 6... Slide guide part, 7...Cooling air inlet, 80... _N2 purge inlet, 81
... _N2 purge outlet, 9...Lamp cooling air intake, 91...Lamp cooling air exhaust port, 10,1
1, 12, 13...Lord Mira, 14, 15, 16,
17...Auxiliary mirror, 31...Air cylinder, 32
... Solenoid valve, 33 ... Air source, 5 ... Ultraviolet lamp, 21 ... Wiring path, 40 ... Main mirror, 50 ...
...Auxiliary mirror, 22...Slide shutter, 23...
...Rotating shutter.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] After coating a continuously running optical fiber or multiple strands of optical fiber with an ultraviolet curable resin, the ultraviolet curable resin is cured by irradiating it with ultraviolet rays in an ultraviolet irradiation section. In an apparatus for manufacturing an optical fiber raw wire or an optical fiber core wire, the ultraviolet irradiation section includes: an ultraviolet irradiation source that irradiates the striae with ultraviolet rays; and a plurality of continuously running striae, each of which is irradiated with ultraviolet light by a course. A line is inserted in parallel to the running direction of each of the plurality of striated bodies at a position where the ultraviolet rays irradiated from the ultraviolet ray irradiation source are shielded for each course when each of the plurality of striated bodies is not irradiated. An apparatus for producing optical fibers and core wires, comprising a cylindrical shutter 2 that slides while enclosing a strip.