JPH06118240A - Manufacture of illuminating plastic optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a plastic optical fiber having a small transmission loss, satisfactorily transmitting the light in a core material, capable of extending the practical fiber length, and effectively allowing a light leak from the side face of the optical fiber. CONSTITUTION:An illuminating plastic optical fiber is constituted of a transparent core material and a sheath material and allows a light leak from the whole side face or the desired portion of the optical fiber, and the whole optical fiber or the desired portion for a light leak is drawn at the extension magnifying power generating double refraction by molecular orientation on the core material.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing a plastic optical fiber which leaks light from all or a desired portion of the side surface of an optical fiber, and more specifically, a plastic optical fiber which is drawn at a specific draw ratio to produce an illuminated plastic optical fiber. It relates to a method of manufacturing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Illuminated plastic optical fibers that leak light from the side are used for lighting, decoration, designs, displays and the like. For illuminated plastic optical fiber,
Conventionally, various fiber structures and manufactures have been proposed.

For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-42534 discloses a light-illuminating optical fiber. This invention selectively destroys the total internal reflection of an optical fiber mechanically or thermally to cause light leakage, and uses this optical fiber in a textile product. In addition to the above-mentioned conventional technology, the light leakage technology for leaking transmitted light from the side is characterized by the material and structure of the optical fiber, in which transparent particles are dispersed inside the optical fiber (Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-29951). And using an elastomer as the sheath (cladding) material
No.) and a diffusion center such as a translucent or opaque material such as glass particles or bubbles in the core of the optical fiber, and preferably the diffusion center density is increased with increasing distance from the end of the optical fiber to achieve a uniform distribution. What obtains illumination
63-247705).

Further, the one in which a cut is formed on the surface of the optical fiber with a blade or the like, the one in which the rotating optical fiber is cut with a blade (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 50-83044) and the optical fiber having a specific shape are used. There are those formed on the surface (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-253903) and those forming scratches at specific positions (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 04-18801).

Further, for forming a rough surface or strain on the surface of the optical fiber by heat treatment, a spirally wound synthetic fiber around the optical fiber is used to shrink the heat (Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-325).
No. 82) and a heated projection are pressed against the optical fiber to form light leakage concave portions at predetermined intervals (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-159707).
And a heated rough plate pressed against an optical fiber to form fine irregularities on the surface (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-293505,
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-318502 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 01-3803).

Those which twist or mechanically press down an optical fiber to form a strain include those which twist the optical fiber to leave the strain (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 50-83049) and fine protrusions. An optical fiber is formed between rollers having a groove to form fine irregularities on the surface (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 01-273007), and a member around a tension member is twisted with an optical fiber (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
-108007, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-108008) and a device for forming scratches / strains at predetermined intervals by passing an optical fiber between gears (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No.
-123302 and JP-A-04-66904).

[0007]

Various prior arts have been implemented and proposed, but these have a large amount of light leakage from the side surface of the optical fiber but have a large transmission loss, which shortens the practical fiber length or the transmission. Light is transmitted satisfactorily in the core material with a small loss, but light is not effectively leaked from the side surface of the optical fiber. The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned background, and an object of the present invention is to effectively transmit light in a core material with a small transmission loss and to lengthen a practical fiber length. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an illuminated plastic optical fiber that can leak light from the side surface of the optical fiber.

[0008]

The above problems can be solved by the method for producing an illuminated plastic optical fiber according to the present invention. That is, the method for producing an illuminated plastic optical fiber according to the present invention is a method for producing a plastic optical fiber, which comprises a core material and a sheath material made of a transparent material and leaks light from all or a desired side surface of the optical fiber. The optical fiber in a desired portion to be leaked is stretched at a stretching ratio that causes birefringence due to molecular orientation.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the portion farther from the incident end of the optical fiber is subjected to a stronger drawing treatment.

The optical fiber used in the present invention is of a plastic type having a clad (sheath) and a core (core), and its structure is a step index type multimode light whose refractive index changes stepwise. There are a fiber, a step index type single mode optical fiber having a single mode in which the refractive index changes stepwise, and a graded index type multimode optical fiber that propagates different modes. As a material constituting the core material, polymethylmethacrylate resin (PMMA, including homopolymer and copolymer of methyl methacrylate in the present specification), deuterated PMMA, polystyrene-based polymer, poly- 4-Methylpentene-1, a silicon-based polymer or the like can be used.

The clad (sheath) material has a smaller refractive index than the core material, and is, for example, a fluoropolymer, for example, a vinylidene fluoride polymer (in this specification,
Including a copolymer, for example, vinylidene fluoride-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (for example, vinylidene fluoride 50 wt% or more, preferably 70 wt% or more 90 wt%
Included below), vinylidene fluoride-propylene hexafluoride copolymer, vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoroacetone copolymer, vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene copolymer, vinylidene fluoride ternary or more (Including copolymers), perfluoroalkyl methacrylate-based polymers, methacrylic acid ester-based polymers, and the like.

In the stretching treatment in the present invention, the core material is stretched at a specific stretching ratio in a temperature range near the glass transition temperature (Tg). By this treatment, molecular orientation occurs in the core material,
Causes birefringence. The draw ratio can be appropriately changed depending on the material such as the core material and the sheath material. For example, when PMMA is used as the core material and a vinylidene fluoride polymer is used as the sheath material, the stretching temperature is 5 ° C. higher than the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the core material and 25 ° C. higher than Tg. When the temperature range is set between them, the draw ratio is set to 1.5 times to 4.0 times. This is because if the upper limit of the magnification range is exceeded, the optical fiber is cut without being stretched by the stretching treatment, and if it is less than the lower limit of the magnification range, the side light leakage is small even if the stretching treatment is possible. Because. The part of the optical fiber to be stretched is the whole part of the optical fiber or a desired part to be leaked, and it can be applied to any part. In addition, the sideways light can be uniformly obtained in the entire optical fiber by subjecting the optical fiber as a whole to a further extension process in a portion farther from the incident end where light is incident from the light source.

[0013]

The method of manufacturing the illuminated plastic optical fiber according to the present invention having the above-described structure operates and operates as follows. When all or a desired portion of a plastic optical fiber composed of a core material and a sheath material of a transparent substance is stretched at a stretching ratio according to the present invention, this treatment causes molecular orientation in the core material and causes birefringence. As a result, scattering loss increases and light leaks from the side surface of the optical fiber.

[0014]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be specifically described below based on examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples as long as the gist thereof is not exceeded.

[Example 1] PMMA (Tg =
111 ° C.), vinylidene fluoride as a sheath material 80 mol% /
Using a tetrafluoroethylene 20 mol% copolymer, after melting and solidifying, it was stretched twice in a hot air stretching furnace at 120 ° C. to obtain a plastic optical fiber having an outer diameter of 1000 μm and a sheath thickness of 10 μm. When white light was made to enter from both end faces of the obtained plastic optical fiber of 50 m, side light was brightly leaked over the entire optical fiber of about 50 m.

Example 2 A plastic optical fiber was divided into both end portions, a central portion and an intermediate portion between them, and the plastic optical fiber was placed in a hot air drawing furnace at 120 ° C., and both end portions were drawn at a draw ratio of 1.5 times. The middle part was drawn at a draw ratio of _ and the center part was drawn at a draw ratio of 3.5. As a result, an optical fiber having different degrees of molecular orientation at both end portions, the central portion, and the middle portion thereof was obtained.

When white light is made incident from both end faces of the stretched 50 m optical fiber, both ends have low birefringence but a large amount of transmitted light, and conversely, the central part has a high birefringence but an amount of transmitted light. Since the number was small, the side surface was leaked brightly and uniformly over the entire length of the optical fiber from about both ends to the middle and central portions over about 50 m.

Comparative Example 1 A plastic optical fiber was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the draw ratio was 1.3 times. When white light was made incident from both end faces of the obtained plastic optical fiber, almost no light leaked from the side faces of the optical fiber.

[0019]

As demonstrated by the above embodiments, in the illuminated plastic optical fiber according to the present invention, the transmission loss is small, the light is well transmitted in the core material, and the practical fiber length can be increased. Light can be effectively leaked from the side surface of the optical fiber. Further, in a preferred aspect of the present invention, the optical fiber that is more distant from the incident end and is subjected to a stronger drawing treatment to make the optical fiber as a whole have side light leakage uniformly.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kikue Irie 20-1 Miyukicho, Otake City, Hiroshima Prefecture Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. Central Research Laboratory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for producing a plastic optical fiber, which comprises a transparent core material and a sheath material and leaks light from all or a desired portion of the side surface of the optical fiber, wherein the optical fiber is the entire or a desired portion to be leaked. Is subjected to a stretching treatment at a stretching ratio that causes birefringence due to molecular orientation in the core material, to produce an illuminated plastic optical fiber. 2. A portion farther from the incident end of the optical fiber,
The method for producing an illuminated plastic optical fiber according to claim 1, wherein the drawing treatment is performed more strongly.