JPH06109941A - Transporting and gripping method for fused and coated optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the slack of fused and coated optical fibers at the time of transporting the coated optical fibers from a fusing station to a reinforcing station. CONSTITUTION:The coated optical fibers 1a, 1b are gripped by fusing clamps 2a, 2b having corrugated gripping surfaces and and the bare optical fibers 3a, 3b are fused in the fusing station 4. The coated optical fibers 1a, 1b are gripped by a transporting clamp 5 in the position on the outer side of the fusing clamps 2a, 2b while the coated optical fibers 1a, 1b are held gripped by the fusing clamps 2a, 2b at the time of transporting the fused and coated optical fibers 1a, 1b to the reinforcing station 18 of the ensuing stage. The transporting clamp 5 is then moved in a tensing direction by rotating an eccentric shaft 8 by a prescribed amt. in the prescribed amt. simultaneously with opening of the fusing clamps 2a, 2b, by which the slack of the coated optical fibers 1a, 1b generated by the releasing of the gripping of the corrugated gripping surface 6 is eliminated and the fused and coated optical fibers 1a, 1b are transported in the tense state to the reinforcing station 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier grip for a fused optical fiber core, which removes slack by applying tension to the optical fiber core when transporting the optical fiber core from a fusion splicing station to a reinforcing station. It is about the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The present inventors have developed an automatic splicer for a single-fiber or multi-fiber optical fiber used for optical communication. In this automatic splicer, a plurality of optical fiber cores are set in a core cassette, attached to the main body of the apparatus, and the apparatus is driven and controlled, whereby the optical fiber cores set in the core cassette are determined one by one. The work was carried out, and the optical fiber core wire was peeled off, the end face of the bare optical fiber exposed by peeling, the fusion splicing, and the reinforcement of the splicing part were automatically performed in sequence, and the whole process was completed. The optical fiber core wire is taken out one after another.

In developing this automatic connecting machine, the inventors of the present invention faced the following problems. That is, (a) of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, when performing fusion splicing of the optical fiber cores, one side of the optical fiber cores 1a and 1b to be connected is gripped by the fusion clamp 2a and the other side is gripped by the fusion clamp 2b. The stripped bare optical fibers 3a and 3b are opposed to each other in an axially aligned state on the fusing station 4, and discharge energy is applied by an electrode (not shown) to fuse the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b together. When transporting the optical fiber core wires 1a and 1b which have been fusion-bonded to the next reinforcing station, the optical fiber core wires 1a and 1b are held by the transport clamps 5a and 5b, and then the fusion clamps 2a and 2b. Open and open the fused optical fiber cores 1a, 1b
After carrying out the delivery, the transfer clamps 5a and 5b are moved to the reinforcing station.

By the way, the gripping surfaces of the fusion clamps 2a and 2b have a corrugated shape in order to securely grip the optical fiber core wires 1a and 1b.
When 1b is released, the optical fiber cores 1a and 1b are loosened as shown in FIG. 2B, and the stress caused by the looseness acts on the fusion splicing portion of the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b having low strength. However, there is a problem that the bare optical fiber is broken.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to deliver a fused optical fiber core for carrying the fused optical fiber core to the next step. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for conveying and gripping a fusion spliced optical fiber without the problem of breakage of a bare optical fiber due to slack of the optical fiber.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is constructed as follows. That is, according to the first method of the present invention, an optical fiber core wire is gripped by a fusion clamp having a corrugated gripping surface to perform fusion splicing of optical fibers, and then the optical fiber core wire after fusion splicing is processed. When transporting to the reinforcement station at the work place where the fusion clamp is gripped by the transport clamp to reinforce the fusion splicing part, first hold the fusion spliced optical fiber core wire with the transport clamp, and then hold the fusion clamp Is released, and at the same time, the transport clamp is moved in the tension applying direction to remove the slack of the optical fiber core wire that occurs when the fusion clamp is released from the gripped state, and the second method of the present invention is , After performing the optical fiber fusion splicing by gripping the optical fiber core wire fed by the core wire supply roll with a fusion clamp having a corrugated gripping surface,
When the optical fiber core wire after fusion splicing is conveyed to the reinforcement station at the work place where the optical fiber core wire is grasped by the conveying clamp to reinforce the fusion splicing part, first, after the optical fiber fusion splicing, the grasping state of the fusion clamp When releasing, the slack of the optical fiber core generated when releasing the grip state of the fusion clamp is rotated by rotating the core supply roll in the reverse feed direction, and after that, the fusion splicing in which the slack is removed is removed. It is characterized in that the subsequent optical fiber core wire is gripped by a transport clamp.

[0007]

In the first method of the present invention, the fusion splicing of the optical fiber core wire is performed while the optical fiber core wire is gripped by the fusion clamp having the corrugated gripping surface. The fused optical fiber core wire is gripped by the carrier clamp, and then the carrier clamp is moved in the tension applying direction at the same time when the carrier clamp is gripped and released, so that the corrugated gripping surface of the fuse clamp is gripped. There is no slack in the core wire at the open portion, and the stress resulting from this slack does not act on the fusion spliced portion of the bare optical fiber having low strength.

Also, in the method of the second aspect of the invention, after the optical fiber core wire is gripped by the fusion clamp and the fusion splicing is performed, when the holding state of the fusion clamp is released, the optical fiber core wire Since the core wire supply roll is rotated in the reverse feed direction, the slack in the optical fiber core wire that occurs when gripping and releasing the fusion clamp is removed, and the stress resulting from this slack does not act on the fusion splice. .

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a part of a transfer device of a fusion splicer to which the method of the present invention is applied. This fusion splicer is similar to that shown in FIG. 2 and has a pair of fusion clamps 2 having corrugated gripping surfaces 6 formed on both left and right sides of the fusion station 4.
a and 2b are arranged, and a pair of left and right transfer devices 7 are provided in both outer regions, but since the pair of left and right transfer devices 7 have the same structure, only the right transfer device is provided for convenience of description. 7 is shown.

This transport device 7 has a transport main body 10 on an eccentric shaft 8.
It is configured to be slidably fitted. The pair of left and right transport main body portions (the left transport main body portion is not shown) 10 are reciprocally moved integrally along the eccentric shaft 8 by a transport mechanism such as a transport belt (not shown). The transport clamp 5 is attached to the transport body 10. The eccentric shaft 8 is connected to a rotary drive source (not shown).

The transport clamp 5 has a fixed clamp surface 11
And a movable side clamp surface 12 facing the fixed side clamp surface 11, and the opening / closing movement of the movable side clamp surface 12 is performed by a solenoid 13.

Optical fiber cores 1a and 1b, which are fusion-spliced by a core wire supply roll 14, are fed from the left and right sides to the fusion station 4, and these optical fiber cores 1a and 1b are fed out. After being gripped by the fusion clamps 2a and 2b, the covering material is peeled off and the end face of the bare optical fiber exposed by peeling is cut off (in the state of FIG. 1, the central work table 15 is fusion-bonded). This work table 15 is designed to be replaced with a work table for stripping and cutting the end faces of the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b using a mechanism (not shown). After that, by changing the work station, the work table 15 becomes a fusion station as shown in FIG. 1),
As shown in FIG. 1, the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b, which are stripped and end-cut, are set between the discharge electrodes 16 of the fusing station 4 in a butted state. Then, in this set state, discharge is performed between the discharge electrodes 16 to achieve fusion splicing of the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b. In addition,
In the figure, 18 is a reinforcement station for reinforcing the fusion splicing.

The transfer movement of the transfer main body 10 along the eccentric shaft 8, the clamp operation of the transfer clamp 5, the clamp operation of the fusion clamps 2a and 2b, and the rotational operation of the eccentric shaft 8 and their operations. The timing of is controlled by the control circuit 17.

The apparatus of the present embodiment is constructed as described above, and next, by using this apparatus, the optical fiber core wires 1a, 1
The operation of the carrying and gripping method when carrying b from the fusing station 4 to the reinforcing station 18 will be described. First, in the fusion station 4, after the fusion splicing of the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b is completed, the optical fiber cores 1a and 1b are held by the fusion clamps 2a and 2b, and the optical fiber cores 1a are held. , 1b are gripped by the transport clamp 5. Next, at the same time when the fusion clamps 2a and 2b are opened, the eccentric shaft 8 is rotated by a predetermined amount in the counterclockwise direction of the arrow on the right side and in the clockwise direction on the left side. Due to the rotation of the eccentric shaft 8, the left and right transport main body portions 10 are displaced by a predetermined amount in the tension applying direction of FIG. This transport body
The left and right transport clamps 5 also move in the tension applying direction of the optical fiber core wire 1b in association with the displacement of 10. By setting the eccentricity amount of the eccentric shaft 8 so that the movement amount of the transport clamp 5 matches the slack amount of the fusion clamp 2b when the fusion clamp 2b is gripped and released, the fusion clamps 2a and 2b are opened at the same time. Since the fiber core wires 1a and 1b are stretched, the fusion clamp 2
The slack caused by the corrugated gripping surfaces 6 of a and 2b will not occur. Therefore, the fusing clamps 2a, 2b
When released, the stress does not act on the fusion splicing portion of the bare optical fibers 3a and 3b having weak strength due to the slack, and thus the problem of breakage of the fusion splicing portion can be prevented. it can.

As described above, after the fused optical fibers 1a and 1b are transferred from the fused clamps 2a and 2b to the transport clamp 5, the transport main body 10 is moved along the eccentric shaft 8 and fused. The optical fiber core wires 1a and 1b are conveyed to the reinforcement station 18 for the next work step, and the reinforcement station 18
Then, the reinforcing work for covering the fusion spliced portion with the reinforcing material is performed.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various embodiments can be adopted. For example, in the above embodiment, the fusion clamps 2a and 2b are the optical fiber core wires 1
While the optical fibers 1a and 1b are held by the carrying clamps 5 at the outer positions while holding the a and 1b, the fusing clamps 2a and 2b are opened and the carrying clamp 5 is moved in the tension applying direction at the same time. Unlike this, the core wire supply roll 14 is opened at the same time when the fusion clamps 2a and 2b are opened after fusion connection.
In the direction opposite to the feeding direction, that is, the core wire supply roll 14 is reversely fed by a predetermined amount in the direction of the arrow of the broken line to remove the slack caused by the release of the corrugated gripping surface 6, and in this state, the transport clamp 5
Alternatively, the fused optical fibers 1a and 1b may be gripped and the fused optical fiber cores 1a and 1b may be conveyed to the next reinforcing station 18. Also in this case, the fusion clamps 2a and 2b
It is possible to remove the slack that occurs when the cord is opened by reverse feeding of the core wire supply roll 14, and thereby it is possible to effectively eliminate the problem of breakage of the fusion splicing portion due to the slack.

[0017]

According to the present invention, after the optical fiber core wire is gripped by the fusion clamp and the fusion splicing is performed, the fused optical fiber core wire is transferred to the transport clamp and transported to the next reinforcing station. When the fusion clamp is opened, the slack generated by the release of the corrugated gripping surface of the fusion clamp is removed. The problem of breakage of the weakly spliced joint is eliminated, and the reliability of the automatic splicer can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective configuration diagram of a carrying portion of a fusion splicer to which a method of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an optical fiber core wire conveying section of the fusion splicer previously proposed by the applicant.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b Optical fiber core wire 2a, 2b Fusion clamp 3a, 3b Bare optical fiber 4 Fusion station 5,5a, 5b Conveying clamp 6 Corrugated gripping surface 7 Conveying device 8 Eccentric shaft 18 Reinforcing station

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Yutaka Mie, 2-6-1, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Kazuo Hokari, 1-1-6, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber core wire is gripped by a fusion clamp having a corrugated gripping surface to perform optical fiber fusion splicing, and then the optical fiber core wire after fusion splicing is grasped by a transport clamp. When transporting the fusion spliced part to the reinforcing station at the work place, first hold the fusion spliced optical fiber core with the transport clamp, and then release the gripping state of the fusion clamp and at the same time transport clamp. A method for conveying and gripping a fused optical fiber core by removing the looseness of the optical fiber core caused when the gripping state of the fusion clamp is released by moving the grip in the tension applying direction. 2. The optical fiber core after being fused and spliced after the optical fiber fed from a core supply roll is held by a fusion clamp having a corrugated holding surface to perform the fusion splicing of the optical fibers. When gripping the wire with the transport clamp and transporting it to the reinforcement station at the work place that reinforces the fusion splicing part, first
After fusion splicing of the optical fibers, when the gripping state of the fusion clamp is released, the slack of the optical fiber core wire generated when the gripping state of the fusion clamp is released by rotating the core wire supply roll in the reverse feed direction. A method for transporting and gripping a fused optical fiber core wire, wherein the fused optical fiber core wire is removed, and then the loosened optical fiber core wire after fusion splicing is gripped by a transport clamp.