JPH0720352A - Ferrule cleaning device for optical fiber connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber connector capable of surely and easily cleaning a ferrule end face. CONSTITUTION:This ferrule cleaning device is composed of a guide jig 20 and a cleaning jig 40. This guide jig 20 has a guide hole 22. This guide hole 22 is a through-hole of a structure having a coupling part to a housing to be fitted onto the housing on one end side thereof and a guide part for mounting the cleaning jig 40 on the other end side. The cleaning jig 40 has an insertion part to be inserted into the guide part of the guide hole 22 and a cleaning hole 43 formed and penetrated to permit fitting of the bar-shaped cleaning means. The cleaning device is so formed that the central axes of the ferrule 11 and the cleaning hole 43 align approximately to each other and one end of the cleaning hole 43 faces the ferrule 11 when the guide jig 20 is fitted and coupled onto the housing and the cleaning jig 40 is mounted at the guide part of the guide jig 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber cable attached to an optical fiber connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When connecting optical fibers, if dust, oil, or the like is attached between the end faces of the optical fibers to be connected, the optical connection characteristics may be significantly deteriorated. Therefore, the end surface of the ferrule connected to the optical fiber is manually cleaned at appropriate times. Conventionally, the end faces of the optical fiber and the ferrule have been cleaned with alcohol and dust-free cleaning paper. Alternatively, the end face of the optical fiber along with the end face of the ferrule has been cleaned with a cleaning swab or the like.

[0003]

However, the optical fiber is extremely thin as compared with the ferrule. Moreover, the end face of the ferrule has a large chamfered taper shape, and even if the end face is intended to be cleaned with a cotton swab, it is often removed from the end face of the optical fiber to wipe the taper face. Therefore, this cleaning requires skill.

The present invention solves such conventional problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber connector, which can easily, reliably, and easily clean the end face of a ferrule.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided the above object of an optical connector comprising a ferrule having an optical fiber mounted therein, a plug containing the ferrule therein, and a housing containing the plug therein. In a ferrule cleaning device that cleans a ferrule with a cleaning tool having a substantially rod shape, the ferrule cleaning device includes a guide jig and a cleaning jig, the guide jig has a guide hole, and the guide hole is A through hole having a structure in which one end has a connecting portion with a housing for external fitting to the housing and the other end has a guide portion for mounting the cleaning jig, wherein the cleaning jig is The guide jig has an insertion portion to be inserted into the guide portion, and a penetrating cleaning hole formed so that the rod-shaped cleaning tool can be inserted therein. The guide jig is externally fitted to the housing. And the cleaning jig is attached to the guide portion of the guide jig, the ferrule and the central axis of the cleaning hole are substantially aligned with each other, and one end of the cleaning hole faces the ferrule. Be achieved by

[0006]

In the present invention having such a structure, first, the sleeve holder is pulled out from the ferrule using an appropriate jig, and the guide jig of the present invention is externally fitted to the housing of the connector. Further, if an extraction tool guided by this guide jig is used, the sleeve holder can be extracted at this time.

Then, a cleaning jig is inserted into the guide jig to a predetermined position. Then, the end of the ferrule that was exposed to the one end side of the guide hole of the guide jig enters the one end side of the cleaning hole of the cleaning jig.

Thereafter, a cleaning member such as a cleaning swab is inserted from the other end of the cleaning hole, and the tip is brought into contact with the ferrule end surface to clean the ferrule end surface. Thus,
The end face of the optical fiber is surely cleaned together with the end face of the ferrule.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the optical fiber connector, the guide jig and the cleaning jig of the present invention in a separated state, and FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a state in which these are assembled.

In the figure, reference numeral 10 is an optical fiber connector, to which two optical fiber cables are connected (only the left one is shown in FIG. 1). A ferrule 11 is attached to the optical fiber cable, and a sleeve holder 12 is fitted to the ferrule 11 at its front portion. The sleeve holder 12 has a flange portion 1 at the middle portion.
2A and a protruding wall portion 14 formed in the housing 13
The locking portion 14A at the tip of the sleeve is locked to the flange portion 12A to prevent the sleeve holder 12 from coming off.
When the sleeve holder 12 is inserted / removed, the projecting wall portions 14 are elastically deformed so as to widen the interval between the opposing projecting wall portions 14 on both sides of one sleeve holder 12 by using an appropriate tool so that the sleeve holder 12 can pass through. And

Reference numeral 20 is a guide jig. The guide jig 20 is formed with a guide hole 22 penetrating a cylindrical jig body 21 having a quadrangular cross section. The guide jig 20 is fitted into the housing of the connector 10 at the left end side of the guide hole 22. The guide jig 20 has a fixing device 23 at the left end.

The fixing device 23 has a tapered surface attached to the lower end of the shaft body 24 by rotating the handle 25 attached to the upper portion of the shaft body 24 penetrating the upper wall of the jig body 21 by a predetermined angle. The pressing piece 26 can be pressed against a part of the housing to fix the position with respect to the housing. A spring 28 is built in the handle 25 in an annular space closed by a washer 27 at the bottom, and urges the handle 25 and the shaft 24 upward. A disc 29 is attached to the lower end of the shaft 24, and the disc 2
A cam pin 30 is planted in the shaft 9 at a lateral position of the shaft body 24. On the back surface of the upper wall of the jig body 21, there is formed a spiral groove 31 for pressing the cam pin 30 so as to move the cam pin 30 in the axial direction when the shaft body 24 rotates around its axis. The above-mentioned pressing piece 26 is attached to the above-mentioned shaft body 24, and the shaft portion 26A facing upward to this pressing piece 26.
Is provided (see FIG. 2), and relative rotation with respect to the axis line 24 is possible around the axis line, and the pressing piece 26 is rotated by a predetermined angle around the axis line of the handle 25 to move up and down by a predetermined amount. Produces only movement.

The guide jig 20 is provided with a guide switching device 32 on the right end side of the guide hole 22. Jig body 2
In the inner surface of the upper wall of the guide groove 1, the guide groove 3
3 is formed, and a movable key 3 is provided on the right half of the width direction.
4 are arranged. The movable key 34 corresponds to the jig body 2
It is connected to a slide handle 35 that is movably provided on the outer surface of the upper wall 1 by selecting it in the left-right direction in the width direction. By moving the slide handle 35 left-right, the position of the key groove also moves. On the inner surface of the lower wall of the jig body 21, a groove 36 having the same width and depth as the guide groove 33 extends in the longitudinal direction of the jig body 21 to the same position as the guide groove 33.

The cleaning jig 40 has an insertion portion 41 and a flange portion 42, and the insertion portion 41 keeps contacting the guide jig 20 until the flange portion 42 contacts the right end surface of the guide jig 20. The guide hole 22 has a size such that the guide hole 22 can be smoothly inserted. When the cleaning jig 40 is inserted into the guide hole 22 of the guide jig 20 attached to the housing, the cleaning jig 40 is provided with two holes 43 and 44 having axes on the extension lines of the axes of the two ferrules of the connector. There is. Of the holes 43 and 44, one hole 43 is a cleaning hole, which is a through-hole that is opened at the flange portion 42 by forming a stepwise expanded portion at the intermediate portion. The other hole 44 is the insertion portion 4
It is closed at the middle part of 1. In addition, both holes 43,
44 has an inner diameter capable of accommodating the sleeve holder on the tip (counter flange) side.

The insert portion 41 has elastic leg portions 4 whose left and right end portions in the width direction of the upper and lower surfaces extend in the axial direction from the flange portion 42 side.
5, the leg portion 45 is provided with a protrusion 45 on the outside of its tip.
Have A. The half of the portion 46 in the width direction is the key portion 4 for making the insertion portion protruding in the thickness direction inversion asymmetric.
It is 7. In the case of the illustrated example, the key portion 47 is a key left in the left portion of the guide groove 33 when the movable key 34 of the guide jig 20 is in the guide groove 33 and is moving rightward in the width direction. It is formed at the position and dimensions to be inserted into the space. The key portion on the lower surface of the insertion portion, which is not shown in FIG. 1, is also formed on the same left portion. Therefore, the cleaning jig 40
When is turned upside down, the up / down key portion 47 comes to be located on the right side.

Cleaning of the ferrule using the apparatus of this embodiment is performed as follows.

First, the ferrule 11 using an appropriate tool
To the connector housing 13 from which the sleeve holder 12 on the right side in FIG. 1 is removed, as shown in FIG.
The guide jig 20 is fitted. After fitting, the handle 25 is rotated by a predetermined angle to lower the pressing piece 26, and the corresponding tapered surface of the housing is pressed by the taper surface of the guide jig 20.
Fix the position of.

The slide handle 35 of the guide jig 20
1 is moved to the right in FIG. 1 to move the movable key 34 to the right, and the left portion is left as a space in the guide groove 33.

It is confirmed that the key portion 47 of the cleaning jig 40 is on the left side, and the key portion 47 is inserted in the left space as the key groove of the guide groove 33, so that the cleaning jig 40
The insertion portion 41 of is inserted into the guide hole 22 until the flange portion 42 abuts. At that time, the elastic legs 45 of the cleaning jig 40
The protrusion 45A is elastically deformed by being pressed by the upper and lower inner surfaces of the guide hole 22, and a relatively large frictional force is generated between the protruding portion 45A and the upper and lower inner surfaces.
You will never get out of it.

Thus, the cleaning hole 4 on the right side as shown in FIG.
The ferrule on the right side will come into contact with 3. Further, the sleeve holder 1 not yet removed in the hole 44 on the left side.
Two are accommodated.

In such a state, a cleaning swab or the like is inserted from the cleaning hole 43, and the end of the ferrule and the end face of the optical fiber are cleaned at the tip thereof.

When it is desired to clean the left ferrule, the movable key 34 can be moved to the left and the cleaning jig 40 can be turned upside down to perform cleaning in the same manner.

In this embodiment, the guide jig 20 is used to
The sleeve holder insertion / extraction tool 50 as shown in FIG. 3 can also be guided. The insertion / removal tool 50 has a tubular portion 51 guided by the guide hole 22, an insertion / removal body 52 for inserting / removing the left sleeve holder is arranged in a left region inside thereof, and a right region is a space. Has become. Further, on the outer surface of the tubular portion 51, the key portion 5 corresponding to the key portion 47 of the cleaning jig 40 is provided.
3 is provided on the right side in the width direction. Therefore, when inserting / removing the left sleeve holder, the slide handle 35 of the guide jig is moved to the left to form a guide space in the right part of the guide groove 33 so that the key part 53 can be inserted therein. The insertion / extraction tool 50 is inserted into the guide hole 22, and the insertion / extraction body 52 inserts / extracts the left sleeve holder. To insert or remove the right sleeve holder, slide handle 35
Is moved to the right and the insertion / extraction tool may be turned upside down. Although the optical connector having the structure in which the sleeve holder is attached to the ferrule has been described in the present embodiment, it goes without saying that the present invention can be similarly applied to the connector having the structure in which the sleeve holder is not used.

The fixing device 23 and the guide switching device 32 are not essential to the guide jig. Fixing device 2
It is sufficient if the guide jig can be simply fitted into the housing even without 3, and without the guide switching device 32, as long as the two cleaning holes penetrate through the cleaning jig. By selecting, the predetermined ferrule can be cleaned sufficiently. Further, although the present embodiment has been described with respect to the optical connector having the cylindrical ferrule, it is needless to say that the present invention can be similarly applied to a multicore ferrule in which a multicore fiber is built in a ferrule having a rectangular cross section. Absent.

In this embodiment, an example of cleaning and inserting / removing an optical fiber when two sleeve holders are attached to the connector housing is shown. However, in the present embodiment, any number of optical fibers can be used. It is feasible. For example, in the case of eight, the tool corresponds to the sleeve holder that is fitted to the ferrules of a total of four optical fiber cables for every two lines.
If a total of four sleeve holder insertion / removal bodies are provided, a total of four sleeve holders can be inserted / removed at a time, and the remaining four remaining sleeve holders can be inserted / removed by reversing the tool. Similarly, the cleaning jig can be inverted to clean the four optical fiber cables. In the case of the above tool, each elastic locking member of the four sleeve holder insertion / extraction bodies must be interlockable.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the cleaning jig is inserted into the guide jig fitted in the connector housing, and the end face of the ferrule is cleaned by the cleaning member through the cleaning hole of the cleaning jig. Therefore, the ferrule end face, that is, the optical fiber end face can be reliably cleaned, and even if a jig is used to pull out the sleeve holder, the cleaning member can be easily positioned on the ferrule end face, and the ferrule end face can be cleaned reliably and easily. Get the effect that you can do it.
Also, by operating the key, the insertion direction of the cleaning jig can be regulated, and when cleaning only a predetermined ferrule of a multi-fiber optical connector having a large number of ferrules, so-called erroneous operation such as cleaning other than the predetermined ferrule. It is also possible to prevent

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a guide jig and a cleaning jig of an embodiment of the present invention together with a connector in a separated state.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the state of FIG. 1 assembled.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a sleeve holder insertion / extraction tool that can be used with the guide jig of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 optical fiber connector 11 ferrule 12 sleeve holder 20 guide jig 22 guide hole 33 key groove (guide groove) 40 cleaning jig 43 cleaning hole 47 key (key portion)

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Shinichi Iwano 1-6, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inawata Kazunori Kanayama 1-6-1, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Ando 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A ferrule cleaning device for cleaning the ferrule of an optical connector comprising a ferrule having an optical fiber mounted therein, a plug having the ferrule built therein, and a housing having the plug built therein by using a cleaning tool having a substantially rod shape. The ferrule cleaning device is composed of a guide jig and a cleaning jig, the guide jig has a guide hole, and the guide hole is provided at one end thereof with a housing for external fitting to the housing. The coupling portion is a through-hole having a structure having a guide portion for mounting the cleaning jig on the other end side, wherein the cleaning jig is an insertion portion inserted into the guide portion of the guide hole, And a cleaning hole penetrating through which the rod-shaped cleaning tool can be inserted. The guide jig is externally fitted and coupled to the housing, and the cleaning jig is attached to the guide jig. A ferrule cleaning for an optical fiber connector, wherein the ferrule and the cleaning hole are formed so that central axes thereof are substantially aligned with each other and one end of the cleaning hole faces the ferrule when the ferrule is mounted on the id part. apparatus. 2. A ferrule for cleaning the ferrule of a multi-fiber optical connector comprising a ferrule having an optical fiber mounted therein, a plug containing the ferrule therein, and a housing containing a plurality of the plugs therein with a cleaning tool having a substantially rod shape. In the cleaning device, the ferrule cleaning device is
The guide jig includes a guide jig and a cleaning jig, and the guide jig has a guide hole, and the guide hole has, at one end side thereof, a coupling portion with a housing for external fitting to the housing.
A through hole having a structure having a guide portion for mounting the cleaning jig on the other end side, wherein the cleaning jig includes an insertion portion to be inserted into the guide portion of the guide hole, and the rod-shaped cleaning tool. A plurality of penetrating cleaning holes that are formed so that they can be fitted, and when the guide jig is externally fitted and coupled to the housing and the cleaning jig is attached to the guide portion of the guide jig. An optical fiber, wherein the plurality of ferrules and the plurality of respective cleaning holes have central axes substantially aligned with each other, and one end of each of the cleaning holes faces the ferrule. Ferrule cleaning device for connectors. 3. A ferrule for cleaning the ferrule of a multi-fiber optical connector including a ferrule having an optical fiber mounted therein, a plug having the ferrule built therein, and a housing having a plurality of the plugs housed therein, with a cleaning tool having a substantially rod shape. In the cleaning device, the ferrule cleaning device is
The guide jig includes a guide jig and a cleaning jig, and the guide jig has a guide hole, and the guide hole has, at one end side thereof, a coupling portion with a housing for external fitting to the housing.
A through hole having a structure having a guide portion for mounting the cleaning jig on the other end side, wherein the cleaning jig includes an insertion portion to be inserted into the guide portion of the guide hole, and the rod-shaped cleaning tool. Has a predetermined number of penetrating cleaning holes formed therein so that they can be fitted, and the guide jig is externally fitted and coupled to the housing, and the cleaning jig is attached to the guide portion of the guide jig. When mounted, the predetermined ferrules of the plurality of ferrules and the predetermined number of the respective cleaning holes have central axes substantially aligned with each other, and one end of each of the cleaning holes is formed to face each ferrule. A ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber connector, characterized in that a predetermined ferrule can be cleaned by the presence of the ferrule. 4. The ferrule cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein both the insertion portion of the cleaning jig and the guide portion of the guide jig have a structure that is substantially inverted and symmetrical about a central axis thereof. A ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber connector, wherein the cleaning jig can be inserted into the guide jig by reversing the central axis. 5. The ferrule cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the guide portion of the guide jig has a structure that is substantially inversion symmetric with respect to a central axis of the guide jig, and a key is movable to the guide portion. The cleaning jig has a structure in which the insertion portion of the cleaning jig has a substantially inverted symmetrical shape about its central axis, and an inverted asymmetric portion is provided in a part of the insertion portion. The insertion direction of the cleaning jig to the guide jig is regulated by moving the cleaning jig to the position and interfering or non-interfering with the reverse asymmetric portion of the insertion portion of the cleaning jig and the key of the guide jig. A ferrule cleaning device for an optical fiber connector, characterized in that