JPH08146239A - Apparatus for producing optical fiber ribbon and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make it possible to easily and exactly change the fiber pitches of optical fiber ribbons inline and to make it possible to continuously, simply and easily produce a jumper tape for connecting both optical fiber ribbons by being interposed between the optical fiber ribbon of the large fiber pitch and the optical fiber ribbon of the small fiber pitch. CONSTITUTION: This process for producing the optical fiber ribbon comprises arranging a guide roller having many circumferential grooves on its outer periphery within a coating die 10, supporting this guide roller freely rotatably in a casing of this coating die 10, forming the grooves on the outer periphery of the guide roller to grooves 15 continuously changing from a position where the pitch between the grooves is max. to a position where the pitches between the grooves is min. to constitute a variable pitch roller 11 and positioning this variable pitch roller 11 opposite to nipples 13, 14 of the coating die 10 in such a manner that coated optical fibers (f) travel in a direction nearly tangent with the variable pitch roller 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus, and more specifically to an optical fiber tape capable of adjusting a pitch between optical fiber cores of the optical fiber tape (hereinafter referred to as "fiber pitch"). The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus, which can easily, easily, and accurately change the fiber pitch of an optical fiber tape in-line (while the manufacturing line is in operation). An optical fiber tape with a large fiber pitch and an optical fiber with a small fiber pitch Continuously manufactures a kind of jointing fiber tape (so-called jumper tape with different fiber pitches at both ends, hereinafter referred to as "jumper tape") for connecting both optical fiber tapes by interposing the tape. You can
In addition, various specifications can be changed easily and easily.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Optical fiber cords f are respectively fed from a large number of feeding devices 1 wound with optical fiber cords, which are gathered by a gathering section 3 in a state of being aligned in the same plane by a guide roller 2. This is pulled in from the inlet nipple of the coating die 4, the pitch between the optical fiber cores (fiber pitch) is made uniform in the coating die 4, and in this state it is pulled out from the outlet of the coating die. The optical fiber core wire is coated with an ultraviolet curable resin while passing through the coating die and is collected into a tape shape, and while passing through the ultraviolet irradiation device 5, the coating resin is cured to be processed into an optical fiber tape T. Dancer 6
After that, it is wound around the winding unit 7 at a constant speed (see FIG. 7). The above is the outline of the conventional optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus. The fiber pitch of the optical fiber tape manufactured by this is changed, and the jumper tape manufacturing apparatus can be manufactured by a dedicated jumper tape manufacturing apparatus. It has been done from the past. This conventional optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus changes the fiber pitch by exchanging the fiber pitch adjusting means in the coating die 4 or adjusting the pitch of a variable one. With respect to the jumper tape manufacturing apparatus, various methods such as replacing the molding die are adopted for each apparatus. In either case, the production line must be stopped to change the fiber pitch. Thus, when the fiber pitch adjusting means is replaced or the specifications of the jumper tape are changed, the manufacturing apparatus must be temporarily stopped because continuous processing of the optical fiber tape cannot be performed.
This reduces productivity and requires a lot of manpower for this adjustment work. For this reason, it is desired that the fiber pitch can be changed in-line easily, easily and steplessly.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to meet the above-mentioned demands, and to provide a coating die which can easily, easily and accurately adjust the fiber pitch in-line steplessly. The task is to devise a mechanism.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The measures taken for solving the above problems are constituted by the following elements (a) to (c). (A) A guide roller having a large number of circumferential grooves on the outer periphery is arranged in the coating die, and is rotatably supported by the casing of the coating die. (B) The groove on the outer periphery of the guide roller is The variable pitch roller is configured with a curved groove in which the pitch between the maximum position and the minimum position continuously changes, and (c) the optical fiber core wire is run in the tangential direction of the variable pitch roller, Positioning the variable pitch roller with respect to the nipple of the coating die.

[0005]

[Operation] A large number of optical fiber cores drawn from the entrance nipple of the coating die pass through the groove of the guide roller in the tangential direction of the guide roller and are drawn out from the exit nipple. When pulled out from the outlet nipple of the coating die, a large number of optical fiber cores are covered with a synthetic resin and bundled in a tape shape, but the pitch between the optical fiber cores is determined by the groove of the guide roller ( Hereinafter, the pitch will be the "guide groove") at the position where the optical fiber core wire passes (the position where the optical fiber core wire contacts the guide roller). When the guide roller (hereinafter referred to as "variable pitch roller") is rotated, the variable pitch roller continuously changes the pitch at the position where the optical fiber core wire of the guide groove passes. The pitch between the optical fibers is continuously changed by rotating the optical fiber. Since this fiber pitch is accurately determined by the rotation angle of the variable pitch roller, the fiber pitch can be accurately set by selecting the rotation angle of the variable pitch roller. Since the variable pitch roller can be rotated by the in-run, the fiber pitch can be easily, easily and accurately adjusted steplessly in-line. Even if the groove is not necessarily a curved groove, the above-mentioned action can be achieved and the above-mentioned problem of the present invention can be solved. However, a curved groove (which becomes a curved groove opened in the width direction of the guide roller) is an optical fiber core. The wire can be smoothly inserted into the guide groove while gradually contacting the side surface of the groove. Therefore, it is advantageous to form the guide groove into a curve in order to reliably guide the optical fiber core wire by the shallower guide groove and to prevent the optical fiber core wire from being subjected to an excessive force. Yes, it is practical.

[0006]

EXAMPLES Next, examples will be described with reference to FIGS. Variable pitch roll in the coating die 10.
La 11 is arranged at a right angle to the traveling F of the optical fiber core wire f and horizontally, and is rotatably applied to the coating die 10.
Is supported by the casing. Five optical fiber core wires f from the inlet nipple 13 of the coating die 10 filled with the coating resin supplied from the resin supply port 12
And pull out from the outlet nipple 14 and
Form a loop. The five-core tape T passes through the ultraviolet irradiation device 5 to cure the coating and is wound by a predetermined winding device. The large number of guide grooves 15 of the variable pitch roller 11 are curved grooves in which the pitch P between the guide grooves continuously changes from a minimum position A to a maximum position W. The radius r of the variable pitch roller 11 is 5 to 10 mm, and the depth h of the guide groove 15 varies depending on the diameter of the optical fiber core wire, but is about 0.5 to 1.
Since 5 times is suitable, since the optical fiber diameter d is 250 μm in this example, the depth h of the guide groove 15 is 216.
It has a V groove of μm. Also, the width b of the guide groove 15
Is 0.25 mm, but 1 to 2 times the optical fiber wire diameter d.
It is desirable to be doubled. This variable pitch roller is designed to reduce the frictional resistance of the optical fiber core wire to the inner surface of the groove as much as possible and to reduce the wear of the inner surface of the groove as much as possible.
Although it is made of fluoroethylene resin (trade name: Teflon), the outer peripheral surface of the variable pitch roller may be coated with tetrafluoroethylene resin. In this example, since the minimum pitch P between the guide grooves 15 is 0.25 mm and the maximum pitch P ₂ is 0.5 mm, the optical fiber tape T
The minimum fiber pitch P ₁ of the optical fiber cores is 0.25
mm, and the maximum fiber pitch P ₂ is 0.5 mm (see FIG. 6). The width B of these tapes T is 1.3 mm
And the thickness t is 0.4 mm, which is determined by the shape of the outlet nipple 14 of the coating die 10. Each optical fiber core wire f drawn from the inlet nipple travels approximately in the tangential direction to the variable pitch roller, and passes through each groove while being in contact with the outer circumference thereof. Therefore, the fiber pitch is equal to the pitch of the guide grooves 15 at the position where the optical fiber cores are in contact. The pitch of the guide groove 15 at the position where the optical fiber core is in contact can be easily and accurately changed steplessly by changing the rotation angle of the variable pitch roller 11 while the optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus is operating, that is, in-line. Therefore, the fiber pitch can be easily and accurately adjusted in-line by changing the rotation angle of the variable pitch roller 11. In this embodiment, the variable pitch rollers are individually arranged in the coating die, but the same variable pitch rollers are vertically stacked and the optical fiber core wire is guided by the grooves of both variable pitch rollers. You may let me. In this case, since the optical fiber core wire is guided by the upper and lower two grooves, it is necessary to rotate the upper and lower variable pitch rollers in synchronization. However, since the depth of the grooves of both variable pitch rollers can be made smaller than in the case of using one variable pitch roller, the guide for the optical fiber core wire by the grooves is smoother and therefore variable. The outer diameter of the pitch roller can be further increased. Therefore, the shape of the curved groove can be a gentle curve, and the difference between the maximum pitch and the minimum pitch of the groove can be further increased. Similarly, it is also possible to superimpose a grooveless roller on the variable pitch roller and guide the optical fiber core line by both rollers. Also in this case, the groove of the variable pitch roller can be made shallower than in the case of using one variable pitch roller.
Since the optical fiber core wire can be pushed into the guide groove of the guide roller from diagonally above and pushed out obliquely upward by pressing the optical fiber core wire with the laser, You can make it even smoother.

[0007]

As described above, according to the present invention, the fiber pitch can be adjusted steplessly, simply and accurately in-line by changing the rotation angle of the variable pitch roller in the coating die. Therefore, the work of changing the fiber pitch can be performed extremely efficiently, and thus the operating efficiency of the optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus can be improved, and the manpower for the work of adjusting the fiber pitch can be significantly reduced. It can greatly contribute to the reduction of the manufacturing cost of the optical fiber tape. Further, when the variable pitch roller is normally or reversely rotated within a predetermined rotation angle range while the optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus is in operation, the optical fiber tape manufactured while the variable pitch roller is rotating. -The fiber pitch is such that the fiber pitch changes continuously along the longitudinal direction, that is, when the fiber pitch is cut, the fiber pitch at both ends becomes different jumper tape. Therefore, the jumper tape can be continuously manufactured by rotating the variable pitch roller normally and reversely within a range of a predetermined rotation angle and repeating this.
Then, in this case, by changing the starting angle and the ending angle of the forward rotation of the variable pitch roller, the fiber pitch at both ends of the jumper tape can be arbitrarily changed, and without changing the running speed of the optical fiber, The length of the jumper tape can be arbitrarily changed by changing the rotational angular velocity. Therefore, a jumper tape having an arbitrary shape and structure can be manufactured by the same coating die. Since these adjustments can be performed by a simple control device, the fiber pitch can be adjusted and the shape and structure of the jumper tape to be manufactured can be accurately and quickly controlled by remote control. further,
A large number of guide rings with guide grooves are slidably fitted in the axial direction of the guide rollers, and these guide rings are moved by the screw sleeve incorporated in the guide rollers, so that there is no gap between the guide rings. The variable pitch means can be configured such that it is adjusted in stages, and this variable pitch means can also solve the above problems of the present invention. However, in another invention based on this solution, the fiber pitch is adjusted by using the screw mechanism, and therefore the fiber pitch adjustment (performed in μm) is not necessarily accurate due to play of the screw or the like. In contrast, the variable pitch roller according to the present invention has an extremely simple mechanism and structure. Further, the operation of changing the fiber pitch is a rotating operation of the variable pitch roller, which is an extremely simple operation. The accuracy of the fiber pitch is determined by the processing accuracy of the guide groove, and is not affected by other effects such as screw play. Therefore, the adjustment accuracy of the fiber pitch is extremely high, the adjusting operation can be performed at an extremely high speed, and the jumper tape can be continuously manufactured at a high speed. This is a great advantage of the present invention over the invention by the other solutions using multiple guide rings described above.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the variable pitch roller of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the variable pitch roller.

FIG. 4 is a development view of grooves of the variable pitch roller.

5 is a sectional view taken along line XX in FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view of an optical fiber tape manufactured by the embodiment of FIG. 1, showing (a) minimum pitch and (b) maximum pitch.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a conventional optical fiber tape manufacturing line.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical fiber core feeding device 2 ... Guide roller 3 ... Stacking part 4, 10 ... Coating die 5 ... Ultraviolet irradiation device 6 ... Dancer 7 ... Winding Taking part 11 ・ ・ ・ Variable pitch roller 12 ・ ・ ・ Resin supply port 13 ・ ・ ・ Inlet nipple 14 ・ ・ ・ Outlet nipple 15 ・ ・ ・ Guide groove f ・ ・ ・ Optical fiber core wire P ・ ・ ・ Guide groove Pitch T ... Optical fiber tape B ... Optical fiber tape width t ... Optical fiber tape thickness h ... Guide groove depth b ... Guide groove width r ... Variable pitch roller radius

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A guide roller having a large number of circumferential grooves on its outer circumference is arranged in a coating die, and is rotatably supported by a casing of the coating die. The grooves on the outer circumference of the guide roller are pitched between the grooves. Is a groove that continuously changes from the maximum position to the minimum position to form a variable pitch roller, and the optical fiber core wire is installed in the nipple of the coating die so as to run almost tangentially to the variable pitch roller. In contrast, an optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus in which the variable pitch roller is positioned. 2. The optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the groove on the outer circumference of the variable pitch roller is a curved groove. 3. A fiber pitch adjusting method for an optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus, which adjusts the fiber pitch of an optical fiber tape to be manufactured by changing the rotation angle of a variable pitch roller arranged in a coating die. 4. A method of manufacturing a jumper tape, wherein a fiber pitch of an optical fiber tape manufactured is continuously changed by rotating a variable pitch roller arranged in a coating die.