JPH0781970A - Optical fiber cutting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable even an unskilled person to easily set and stably cut an optical fiber of a small diameter with the cutting machine for the optical fiber. CONSTITUTION:This optical fiber cutting machine fixes both ends of the optical fiber and cuts the optical fiber by sliding a blade between these ends. A clamping base for fixing the coating length of the optical fiber is provided with a guide groove 3 having a square or U shape in section. The unskilled person is able to surely touch and support the optical fiber with the base of the guide groove even if this person sets the optical fiber. Since the height position thereof is stabilized, the cutting characteristics are stabilized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cutting machine for optical fibers, and more particularly to a cutting machine suitable for cutting thin optical fibers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When optical fibers are butted to each other for fusion splicing, the end faces of the optical fibers are required to be cut at right angles to the axial direction and to have a smooth surface. Conventionally, as a tool for performing such a cutting, a bare fiber portion from which the coating on one end of the optical fiber has been removed and the remaining coating portion of the coating are fixed, and a blade is slid in the direction perpendicular to the optical fiber between them, Some are scratched and cut.
The means for fixing the coating portion of the optical fiber in such a cutting machine is to insert the optical fiber into the guide groove and press it down with a clamp. by the way,
The guide groove has a V-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 5, and when the optical fiber 10 is fitted into both inner walls of the guide groove 3 as shown in FIG. The optical fiber has no misalignment and the most stable fixing is possible.

[0003]

However, particularly in the case of a small diameter optical fiber (having a coating diameter of 0.25 or 0.4 mmφ),
Particularly for unskilled persons, it is difficult to fit the optical fiber as described in (A). Probably because the optical fiber has a weak rigidity, it is pressed against one of the inner walls of the guide groove as shown in (B), and the position of the optical fiber is not stable, but this causes a problem that the cutting characteristics are not stable. .

[0004]

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and is characterized in that a guide having a square or U-shaped cross section is guided to a clamp base for fixing a coating portion of an optical fiber. There is a groove.

[0005]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show a cutting machine of the present invention, and are a plan view, a front view, and a left side view, respectively. (Structure) As shown in the figure, the cutting machine of the present invention has a coating portion clamp base 1 for fixing the coating portion of the optical fiber 1, a blade 6 for cutting the optical fiber, and a clamp base 4 for fixing the bare fiber portion.
And the like are mounted on the base 8. First, the cover clamp base 1 fixes the cover of the optical fiber.
A guide groove 3 which is located at one end of the base body and into which an optical fiber is fitted is formed on the upper surface thereof. As shown in FIG. 4, the guide groove 3 has a rectangular cross section, the width thereof is slightly larger than the coating diameter of the optical fiber 10, and the depth thereof is slightly smaller. In this example, the rectangular groove for the coating diameter of 0.25 mmφ and the same 0.9 mm
V-shaped grooves for φ are provided in parallel. When fixing the optical fiber, the optical fiber is pressed and fixed by closing the cover clamp 2 hinged on the table.

Further, the covering portion clamp base 1 can apply a predetermined tension to the set optical fiber in cooperation with the bare fiber clamp base described below. That is, this clamp base is always in a predetermined position, but at the time of cutting, it can be slid in a direction close to the blade 6 (optical fiber axis direction), and can be returned to a normal position by an elastic body (not shown). Is configured to. At the time of cutting, if the coating portion is clamped and the clamp base 1 is slid to a position close to the blade 6 to fix the bare fiber portion, the coating portion clamp base 1 tries to return to a predetermined position at all times, and thus the optical fiber Can be tensioned.

On the other hand, the bare fiber part clamp base 4 is for fixing the bare fiber part from which the coating of the optical fiber has been removed. It is fixed to the other end of the base body and the bare fiber part clamp 5 is hinged. . The optical fiber is fixed by sandwiching the optical fiber between the clamp 5 and the clamp base 4. In addition, the contact portion 2 between the clamps 2 and 5 and the optical fiber
a and 5a are made of rubber or the like.

A blade 6 is provided between the clamp bases 1.4. This blade 6 has a disk shape,
It is fixed to the slider 7 on the base and can slide in the direction orthogonal to the optical fiber (vertical direction in FIG. 1). When the optical fiber is set, the blade 6 is located below the bare fiber, but its height can be finely adjusted so that the amount of lap between the blade and the optical fiber can be adjusted. In FIG. 1, the scale 9 is for setting the cutting length of the optical fiber.

(Cutting Method) First, as a pretreatment, the coating on one end of the optical fiber is peeled off, and the slider 7 is operated to set the blade so as to be located in the lower part of FIG. 1 (indicated by a broken line). Next, both clamps 2 and 5 are opened, the coating portion of the optical fiber is fitted into the guide groove 3, and the bare fiber portion is placed on the bare fiber portion clamp base. At this time, the optical fiber
As shown in FIG. 4, 10 is securely contacted with and supported by the bottom surface of the guide groove to stabilize its height position. Next, the cover clamp 2 is closed, and the cover clamp base 1 is closed.
By pushing in the direction close to the blade 6 and stopping at a predetermined position,
In this state, the bare fiber part clamp 5 is closed. At this time, the cover clamp base 1 tries to return to the direction away from the blade 6 by the built-in spring, so that a constant tension is applied to the optical fiber. Then, when the blade 6 is slid upward in FIG. 1 (direction orthogonal to the optical fiber) (depicted by a broken line), the optical fiber is damaged by hitting the bare fiber portion, and the damage expands due to the tension, leading to cutting.

As described above, by using the guide groove having a rectangular cross section, even an unskilled person can set the optical fiber at a stable height and can easily perform stable cutting. In the above example, the guide groove has a rectangular cross section,
If the optical fiber is supported by the bottom of the guide groove,
It may be trapezoidal or U-shaped.

When a rectangular guide groove is used, since the groove width is wider than that of the optical fiber, the deviation of the optical fiber in the horizontal direction may affect the cutting characteristics. However, this deviation can be minimized by making the groove width as close as possible to the coating diameter of the optical fiber. Also, FIG. 5 (B)
As shown in FIG. 5, even in the conventional V-shaped guide groove, a horizontal shift has occurred, and it is presumed that the cutting characteristics can be sufficiently improved by stabilizing the height of the optical fiber. Therefore,
For example, if the small-diameter guide groove of 0.25 mmφ is formed to have a width of about 0.3 mm and a depth of about 0.125 mm, the cutting characteristics can be improved.

[0012]

[Test Example] An unskilled person fitted an optical fiber with a coating diameter of 0.25 mmφ into the guide groove of the above cutting machine, and measured the amount of lap between the optical fiber and the blade at that time. For comparison, the amount of lap when the same optical fiber was fitted in the conventional V-shaped guide groove was also measured. The results are shown in Table 1.

[0013]

[Table 1]

As shown in the table, the V-shaped guide groove has a large variation in the amount of wrapping, whereas the rectangular guide groove has a smaller amount of lap, confirming the effectiveness of the present invention.

[0015]

As described above, according to the cutting machine of the present invention, the cross-sectional shape of the guide groove is made into a square or the like, and the height of the optical fiber when set in the cutting machine is stabilized so that the cutting characteristics are constant. Can be done easily. Particularly, even an unskilled person can easily and surely set the optical fiber in the guide groove, so that the working efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a cutting machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the cutting machine of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the cutting machine of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a state in which an optical fiber is fitted in a guide groove of the cutting machine of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where an optical fiber is fitted in a guide groove of a conventional cutting machine, (A) shows a case where fitting is normal, and (B) shows a case where fitting is misaligned.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cover Clamp Base 2 Cover Clamp 2a Abutment 3 Guide Groove 4 Bare Fiber Clamp 5 Bare Fiber Clamp 5a Abutment 6 Blade 7 Slider 8 Base 9 Scale 10 Optical Fiber

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Ogawa 2-3-25 Yumikicho, Nada-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber cutting machine for fixing a coating portion of an optical fiber terminal and a bare fiber portion from which the coating is removed, and sliding a blade between them to cut the bare fiber portion,
An optical fiber cutting machine, wherein a guide groove having a square or U-shaped cross section is provided on a clamp table for fixing a coating portion of the optical fiber.