JPH04324806A - Manufacture of optical fiber cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To collect coated optical fibers in a spacer having a spiral groove. CONSTITUTION:A spacer 1 with a spiral groove formed thereon is pulled out from a feeding pan 10 which can rotate in the horizontal direction on a floor, multiple coated optical fibers 6 are contained inside the spiral groove of the spacer 1 in a collection head part 15. The collected optical fiber units are taken up while being rotated by means of a cable taking up machine 17 whose rotary shaft is aligned with the progressing direction of the cable, and, the cable is taken up as the twist of the cable can be eliminated, by a taking up pan 20 which can rotate in the horizontal direction on the floor.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical fiber cable in which a fiber is inserted into a spiral grooved spacer which is inserted into a multi-core, long optical cable.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Optical cables that collect a plurality of optical fibers and simultaneously transmit information on a plurality of channels include those that use grooved spacers as cable cores to protect the fragile optical fiber cores. FIG. 3 shows an example of such a cable core, and numeral 1 indicates a spacer made of polyethylene or the like on which a plurality of spiral grooves 1A are formed at a predetermined pitch p. As described later, an optical fiber core is embedded and held to form an optical fiber cable.

Conventionally, when manufacturing such an optical fiber cable core, as shown in FIG.
The spacer 1 is pulled out via a tension caterpillar 2A from a spacer supply drum device 2 in which the spacer is wound on a drum, and is supplied to a twisting machine 3.

[0004] The twisting machine 3 (collecting machine) has a plurality of drums 4a, 4a, . . . around which the optical fibers are wound.
・A gathering portion 3A is provided in which a plurality of optical fiber core wires 4b, 4b, .
The optical fibers 4b, 4b, . . . are housed in the optical fibers. The optical fiber cable pulled out from the collecting section 3 is wound up in a winding drum device 5 via a taping head 4 that wraps a protective tape around its outer peripheral surface. Note that 5A indicates a caterpillar for pulling the cable.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the case of such an optical fiber cable manufacturing apparatus, the optical fiber core wire is inserted into the spiral groove of the advancing spacer 1 as shown in FIG. In order to sequentially store the spacers, the spacer supply drum device 2 and the winding drum device 5 themselves are rotated as shown by arrow A, and the spacers 1 are supplied to the twisting machine 3 while being rotated in the direction of travel. It becomes necessary to do so.

However, the spacer supply drum device 2
Rotating the drum and the winding drum device 5 in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the drum means that when manufacturing a long optical cable, the winding drum device 5 becomes large, and this large winding drum device 5 becomes extremely difficult to control rotation on two axes, making it impossible to manufacture long cables. In addition, the control system and mechanical system for rotating both the spacer supply drum device and the spacer take-up drum device in the axial direction of the cable in synchronization are large-scale, which increases the equipment cost for manufacturing equipment. , there are problems such as making it difficult to realize.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made with the aim of solving the above problems, and is directed to a cable pull-out system that rotates an optical fiber cable core pulled out from a concentrator (twisting machine). Along with setting up a machine,
Instead of the conventional spacer supply drum device and take-up drum device that rotate on two axes, we use a pan that can accommodate long optical cables horizontally to the floor.
The rotation of this bread can be controlled on the factory floor.

[0008]

[Operation] Since the optical fiber is accommodated in the groove of the spacer 1 while being rotated by the cable pulling machine, the optical fiber is placed in the groove accurately. Furthermore, since a rotating pan installed on the floor is used as a spacer delivery and winding device, uniaxial rotation control is possible and the control system is simplified.

[0009]

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a diagram of an apparatus for explaining the method of manufacturing an optical fiber unit of the present invention, and numeral 10 indicates a spacer supplying pan in which the spacer 1 is housed in a wound state. , this bread 10 is placed on a turntable 10c rotatably placed on the floor of the factory. For example, as shown in the figure, the control motor 10A
While being rotated in the direction of the arrow by the transmission gear 10B, the spacer 1 is pulled up by the pulling roller 11A and further supplied to the collecting head section 12 via the guide rollers 11B and 11C.

The collecting head section 12 includes a plurality of drums 13A, 13B, etc. on which optical fiber tape cores are wound as will be described later, a spacer guide 14, and a groove in the spacer 1. A collecting head 15 is provided to guide the fiber tape core. Then, at this portion, the optical fiber ribbon is inserted and embedded in the spacer 1 with the spiral groove.

Reference numeral 16 denotes a tape supply for wrapping a tape 16a so as to cover the outer surface of the spacer 1 in which the optical fiber core is held in the groove, and 17 denotes an optical fiber cable having the optical fiber tape core integrated with the spacer. This cable pulling machine 17 pulls out the optical fiber cable using a caterpillar structure that pinches the cable, and rotates the optical fiber cable in synchronization with the advancing speed of the spiral groove pitch in a direction perpendicular to the cable pulling direction. is configured to give The optical fiber cable pulled out in the direction of the arrow by the cable pulling machine 17 is wound onto a winding pan 20 via guide rollers 18A, 18B and a pulling down roller 19.

Like the supply pan 10, this take-up pan 20 is also mounted on a rotary table 20C, and is configured to rotate in synchronization with the rotation of the delivery pan by a control motor 20A and a drive gear 20B. Ru. In the optical fiber cable manufacturing method of the present invention, as described above, when the spacer 1 is pulled out from the supply pan 10, the pan 10 is rotated, so that the spacer 1 pulled out from the pan 10 is not twisted. brought out in a state.

[0013] Then, this spacer 1 forms a gathering head part 1.
2, and the optical fiber ribbon is accommodated in the groove of the spacer 1. At this time, the spacer 1 is rotated by the take-up machine 17 in synchronization with the advancing speed of the pitch P of the grooved spacer. For example, when the spacer 1 advances by the groove pitch P, the take-up machine 17
When the groove is controlled so that it rotates once, the position of the groove is controlled to always be in a constant direction at the position of the collecting head 15. Therefore, the drum 13A around which the optical fiber is wound
, 13B, etc. are fixed, if the spacer 1 is pulled out while rotating in the opposite direction to the spiral groove, the optical fiber core will be securely inserted into the groove of the spacer 1 at the position of the collecting head 15. be accommodated in. When the spacer rotated by the cable pulling machine 17 is dropped into the winding pan 20, the spacer can be dropped into the pan 20 without twisting because the pan 20 is also rotated in synchronization with the cable pulling machine 17. Can be done.

The rotational speed n of the cable pulling machine 17 in the cable axial direction is set to n=v/p, where p is the pitch of the spacer grooves 1A and v is the pulling speed of the spacer 1. Further, if the spacer 1 rotates while advancing at this rotational speed n, twisting force will be accumulated in the spacer 1 at the supply pan 10 and the winding pan 20, which is not preferable.

Therefore, in the optical fiber cable manufacturing method of the present invention, the spacer is fed out and wound up while giving horizontal rotation to the pans 10 and 20. By the way, if pan 10 is stopped, pan 1
When the length of the spacer 1 wound around the bread 10 is pulled out, one twist occurs, and this twisting direction is the same as the winding direction of the spacer 1 wound around the bread 10 ( (clockwise or counterclockwise).

Therefore, if the winding radius of the spacer pulled out from the pan 10 is r1, then if the rotation speed N of the pan 10 is controlled to be N=v/p±v/2πr1, the cable pulling machine The twist caused by the rotation of the spacer caused by the spacer 17 can be eliminated in the pan 10. Note that ± is determined by the winding direction of the spacer that is initially wound around the bread 10;
If it is set so that the twist when the spacer is pulled out from the pan 10 is opposite to the direction of rotation of the spacer, then N=v/
It can be p−v/2πr1.

In this case, in general, n=v/p>v/2πr
1, so N<n, and the number of revolutions of the pan 10 is r
The larger 1 is, the smaller it can be. Also, the winding radius r
1 is a function that varies periodically, so the rotation of the bread 10 is controlled using this winding radius r1 as a function. Although the bread 10 on the supply side has been described above, the bread 20 on the take-up side is also naturally twisted when the spacer is wound up.

Therefore, similarly to the bread 10, the rotation of the bread 20 is controlled as described above using the current winding radius r2 of the bread 20 as a function. In this case as well, it is preferable that the twisting caused by rotating the spacer 1 be canceled by changing the winding direction of the bread 20. Note that by providing a spacer guide 14 in the collecting head section 12 so that the protrusion 14A of this spacer guide 14 regulates the groove of the spacer 1 just before it enters the collecting head 15, the optical fiber core wire can be more reliably fixed. The gathering position of the grooves can be made to match the position of the grooves.

FIG. 2 shows a specific example of an optical fiber ribbon, with a width of 1.1 mm and a height of 0.4 mm.
Four optical fiber cores 7 are embedded in a tape-shaped elastic band 6 made of resin. Then, five layers of such optical fiber ribbons are stacked and fitted into one spiral groove. Therefore, by twisting such optical fibers around a spacer in which four grooves are spirally formed, a transmission path of 80 fibers can be constructed using one optical fiber unit.

[0020]

Effects of the Invention As explained above, the method for manufacturing an optical fiber unit of the present invention involves drawing out and winding a spacer using a pan that is rotatably arranged about a vertical axis. When twisting optical fiber cores into spacers with shaped grooves, only the pulling machine that pulls out the spacers rotates around the direction in which the cables travel, which reduces the manufacturing equipment compared to conventional equipment. This has the effect that it is possible to simplify the process and at the same time manufacture a heavy long cable. Furthermore, since the control for matching the position of the groove of the spacer and the position where the optical fiber cores are collected becomes easy, there is an effect that a highly reliable optical fiber unit can be manufactured.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an optical fiber unit manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a coated optical fiber.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a spacer serving as a cable core.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional method of manufacturing an optical fiber unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Spacer with spiral groove 6 Optical fiber core 10 Supply bread 12 Collecting head part 15 Collecting head 17 Cable pulling machine 20 Rolling pan

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A spacer with a spiral groove supplied from one rotatable pan is supplied to a gathering section to which a plurality of optical fibers are supplied, and the optical fibers are connected to the optical fibers at the gathering section. The spacer is housed in a groove of a spirally grooved spacer, and the spacer with the optical fibers twisted therein is pulled out by a cable pulling machine that rotates around the advancing direction of the spacer, and rotates synchronously in the opposite direction to the one pan. 1. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber cable, comprising winding the cable using the other pan.