JPH0426803A - Cutting device for optical fiber and capillary inserting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form connection end surfaces of many optical fibers in a short time at a time with high accuracy to inserting them into capillaries in a short time at a time by pressing and fixing an optical fiber, which is wound around in the arrangement groove of a sample holder, on the sample holder and grinding, and sending a cutting grindstone at right angles to the center axis of the optical fiber so as to grind and cut the optical fiber. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with the sample holder 13 where the spiral arrangement groove 24 for arranging the optical fiber 11 is formed, a mechanism which presses and fixes the optical fiber 11 wound in the arrangement groove 24 of the sample holder 13, and a mechanism which sends the cutting grinding wheel 12 at right angles to the center axis of the optical fiber 11 and grinds and cuts the optical fiber. Namely, the optical fiber 11 is wound spirally around the sample holder 13 and cut with the cutting grindstone 12 at a time, so many optical fibers 11 which are uniform in length are easily manufactured at a time. Consequently, the connection end surfaces of many optical fibers can be formed in a short time as a time with high accuracy and then the optical fibers having the formed connection end surfaces can easily be inserted into the capillaries in a short time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an optical fiber cutting device and a capillary insertion method, and more specifically to a method for forming multiple optical fiber connection end faces at once with high precision using a cutting grindstone. This invention relates to an optical fiber cutting device and a method for inserting a large number of optical fibers into a capillary in a short time.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, optical fibers have been produced using a device that scratches the optical fiber with a sharp knife and then applies tensile stress to the optical fiber to break it using the scratch as a starting point, or an optical fiber 11 as shown in FIG. is fixed to a fixing substrate 19 with an adhesive 15, and then cut using a cutting whetstone 12 to form a connection end surface. Further, the optical fibers having connection end faces are inserted one by one into a capillary that protects the optical fibers, and the end faces of the optical fibers are connected to each other.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Conventional optical fiber cutting devices have a problem in that connection end faces of a large number of optical fibers cannot be formed all at once with high precision in a short time.

With the cutting method using tensile stress and the conventional grinding method using a cutting wheel, it takes a long time to align a large number of optical fibers to the desired length, so it is possible to form the connection end face of optical fibers in a short time. It was difficult to do so.

In addition, with conventional grinding and cutting technology, as shown in Figure 3,
There is a problem in that the optical fiber 11 undergoes elastic deformation due to the cutting resistance that is applied during cutting, and eventually cracks occur and a lip 22 is left on the connection end surface 21. When the lip 22 occurs, the connection end surfaces 21 are prevented from coming into close contact with each other, and the connection loss of the optical fiber 11 increases, making it impossible to form highly accurate connection end surfaces with good reproducibility. lip 22
This occurs because the adhesive layer used for fixing the optical fiber 11 to the fixing substrate 19 is easily elastically deformed due to cutting resistance.

Furthermore, there is a problem in that it takes a long time to insert the optical fiber into the optical fiber fixing capillary that protects the optical fiber, holds and fixes the optical fiber, and connects the end faces to each other.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber cutting device that solves the problems of the prior art and can form connection end faces of a large number of optical fibers at once with high precision in a short time, and to connect a large number of optical fibers to a capillary in a short time. The purpose is to provide a method for bulk insertion.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A first invention provides an optical fiber cutting device that includes a sample holder having a spiral arrangement groove for arranging an optical fiber, and a sample holder that is wound around the arrangement groove of the sample holder. The present invention is characterized by having a mechanism for pressurizing and fixing the optical fiber to the sample holder, and a mechanism for grinding and cutting the optical fiber by sending a cutting wheel in a direction perpendicular to the central axis of the optical fiber.

A second invention is a method for inserting an optical fiber into a capillary, which includes: a first step of grinding and cutting the optical fiber using the above-mentioned cutting device; a second step of releasing only the vicinity of the cut end surface of the optical fiber from the sample holder; The present invention is characterized in that it includes a third step of collectively inserting the cut end surfaces of the plurality of optical fibers into a plurality of capillaries arranged at equal intervals to the arrangement groove formed in the sample holder.

(Function) In the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention, as shown in FIG. Many optical fibers with uniform characteristics 11
can be easily manufactured in bulk.

Further, the optical fiber cutting apparatus of the present invention is provided with a mechanism for pressing and fixing the optical fiber 11 into the placement groove 24 formed in the sample holder 13 using a holding substrate 16, as shown in FIG. Adhesive 15 around the optical fiber 11
is applied and the holding substrate 1 is held until the adhesive 15 is cured.
6 in the direction of the sample holder 13, the layer of adhesive 15 between the optical fiber 11, the holding substrate 16, and the arrangement groove 24 can be thinned, and the elastic deformation of the optical fiber 11 due to the elastic deformation of the adhesive 15 can be reduced. can be suppressed. With the above-described pressure mechanism, the optical fiber 11 can be fixed with high rigidity in both the cutting direction and the cutting feed direction. Here, the arrangement grooves 24 shown in FIG. 2(a) have the function of restraining the elastic deformation of the optical fibers 11, as well as the function of aligning the optical fibers 11 at desired intervals. In experiments conducted by the present inventor, it was confirmed that by fixing the optical fiber 11 with high rigidity and restraining its elastic displacement, it is possible to prevent the lip 22 from occurring on the connection end surface 21.

Next, the operation of the second invention will be explained using FIG. 1(b). In the present invention, a large number of optical fibers 11 can be inserted at once, whereas in the prior art, optical fibers 11 were inserted into the capillary 20 one by one.

That is, by melting and removing only the adhesive 15 on the upper part 14 of the holder after cutting, the connecting end surfaces 21 of the optical fibers 11 can be removed from the sample holder 13 while remaining aligned at the desired spacing, as shown in FIG. 1(b). can be released.

Therefore, a large number of optical fibers 1 are placed in the capillaries 20 that are aligned in advance at equal intervals with the arrangement grooves of the optical fibers 11.
1 can be easily inserted all at once.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1(a) and 1(b) are respectively a perspective view showing an embodiment of the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention and a perspective view showing a method of inserting the cut optical fiber into a capillary. Figures (a) and (b) respectively show an enlarged front view and side view of the processed part.

First, as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 2(a), the single mode optical fiber 11 is placed in the spiral arrangement groove 24 formed at a pitch of approximately 0.5 mm in the sample holder 13.
Wrapped 0 times. The sample holder 13 has an upper part 14 and a lower part 18 which are flat surfaces, and wiring grooves are dug therein. Next, the optical fiber 11 is fixed to the lower part 18 of the holder using adhesive, and then the sample holder 13 is transferred to the table 1.
It was fixed at 7. Next, as shown in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), adhesive 15 is applied around the aligned optical fibers 11 on the holder upper part 14, and a 500 g
/cm2 from above the optical fiber 11. Here, the presser base plate 16 has a structure as shown in FIG.
A relief portion 23 of the cutting wheel 12 is provided. Then, until the adhesive 15 hardens, pressure is applied to the holding substrate 16 to thin the adhesive 15 between the optical fiber 11, the holding substrate 16, and the arrangement groove 24, thereby restraining the elastic deformation of the optical fiber 11. Note that by making the length of the outer circumference of the sample holder 13 equal to the length of the desired optical fiber, the optical fiber 11 can be cut to an arbitrary length.

Next, the optical fibers 11 are aligned using the cutting wheel 12.
The region of the relief portion 23 was ground and cut. The cutting wheel 12 uses metal bond mesh 4000 diamond abrasive grains. After cutting the optical fiber 11, the adhesive 15 on the holder upper part 14 is melted and removed, and the connection end surfaces 21 are aligned as shown in FIG. 1(b). The holder was released from the upper part 14 in this state. After that, a large number of optical fibers 11 are placed in the groove 24 in advance.
They were inserted all at once into capillaries 20 arranged at equal intervals.

As described above, the connection end faces 21 of 50 optical fibers 11 of the same length can be formed at once on a high-precision surface without a lip 22, and the optical fibers 11 can be connected to the capillary 2 in a short time.
I was able to insert it into 0. The time required to line up and cut 50 optical fibers 11 is reduced to less than 115 times compared to cutting using conventional grinding and cutting techniques, and the time required to insert 50 optical fibers 11 into the capillary 20 is reduced to 1. Compared to the conventional technology that inserts one book at a time, the number can be reduced to 1110 or less.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention has the effect of being able to collectively form connection end faces of a large number of optical fibers in a short time and with high precision.Furthermore, the capillary insertion method of the present invention This has the effect that the optical fiber after forming the connection end face can be easily inserted into the capillary in a short time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1(a) and 1(b) are respectively a perspective view showing an embodiment of the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention and a perspective view showing a method of inserting the cut optical fiber into a capillary. Figures (a) and (b) respectively show an enlarged front view and side view of the processed part. FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of a processed part by conventional grinding and cutting technology. In the figure, 11...optical fiber, 12...cutting wheel, 13...
...Sample holder, 14...Holder upper part, 15...Adhesive, 1609. Presser board, 17... feed table,
18... Holder lower part, 19... Fixing board, 20...
. . . Capillary, 21 . . . Connection end face, 22 . . . Lip, 23 .

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A sample holder in which a spiral arrangement groove for arranging an optical fiber is formed, and a mechanism for pressurizing and fixing the optical fiber wound around the arrangement groove of the sample holder to the sample holder. An optical fiber cutting device comprising: a mechanism for grinding and cutting the optical fiber by sending a cutting grindstone in a direction perpendicular to the central axis of the optical fiber. 2. A first step of grinding and cutting the optical fiber using the cutting device according to claim 1; a second step of releasing only the vicinity of the cut end surface of the optical fiber from the sample holder; and a placement groove formed in the sample holder. A method for inserting an optical fiber into a capillary, the method comprising: a third step of collectively inserting the cut end surfaces of the plurality of optical fibers into a plurality of capillaries arranged at equal intervals.