JPH08190035A - Colorless coated optical fiber ribbon - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make it possible to apply a distinct display of a fixed shape on an optical fiber without coating and coloring this fiber and to make possible the reading of this display by man and further the automatic mechanical reading. CONSTITUTION: Carbon coating is applied on coated optical fibers and these fibers are coated with transparent UV resins. Plural parallel bar lines along a longitudinal direction are displayed on a ribbon surface by a combination of the optical fibers subjected to the carbon coating and the optical fibers not subjected to the carbon coating. The information on tape numbers is displayed by combinations of both fibers.

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 on which an identification code is displayed, which can display the identification code without printing or coloring, and to match both optical fiber tapes to be connected to each other. It is possible to automatically confirm the sex with a welding splicer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Spinning of wires such as optical fibers, coating of wires,
A series of processes such as tape formation and curing of taped coating are performed on a series of production lines.The winding device at the end of this production line winds up the finished tape, but it is placed behind the coating device. An identification symbol (for example, “1-3”, which means the No. 3 tape of No. 1 unit) is printed on the coated surface of the tape at regular intervals by the printing device. This printing is performed by intermittently printing the tape flowing at a constant speed at a constant time interval. The above-mentioned printing is generally an ink dot method or a jet ejection method, but in any case, a large number of dots (dots) are used to display characters and symbols. Or printed from top to bottom. This printing speed is fast and one character or symbol can be printed in an instant, but since the tape speed is high, for example, "1-
When "3" is printed, the characters are distorted as shown in FIG. Since the speed of the tape is high, it causes distortion of printed characters and symbols and uneven printing.Therefore, if the speed of the tape is reduced, distortion of printing can be prevented. Since the tapes are arranged, if the tape speed is reduced, the productivity of the manufacturing line is significantly reduced. Therefore, it is impossible to reduce the tape speed due to the convenience of printing. In addition, even if the tape feeding speed can be made extremely high in view of the capability of the manufacturing line, if the printing condition cannot be put to practical use because the tape feeding speed is too high, the printing condition is There is no choice but to slow down to the point where it can be put to practical use. The above-mentioned display by printing has a great advantage that a lot of different information can be displayed as compared with the display by coloring the tape and color-coding, and the cost for the display is lower than the display by color. In addition to the above problems associated with tape speedup,
As the tape becomes finer, the letters and symbols printed on the tape surface become smaller and smaller, and in combination with the above-mentioned distortion of the letters and symbols, it is becoming more and more difficult to read the letters and symbols accurately. The above problem is caused by reading the unit number and the tape number by the character and symbol, and matching the tapes to be connected to each other by using the character and symbol as the display. Therefore, as long as the display using letters and symbols is adopted, this problem cannot be fundamentally solved, and the shape of the letters is inconsistent. It is not possible to finally check the consistency of the tapes that should be connected to each other. By coloring the optical fiber strands and identifying the tape number and the strands in the tape according to the type of color of the dyed pigment wire, there is one that solves the above-mentioned conventional problems (however, it is not known. , This is referred to as "prior art"). This prior art requires a step of coloring the strand after spinning before forming the tape. Then, in the coloring step, curing treatment is carried out by ultraviolet rays. In this case, however, the colorant is difficult to pass ultraviolet rays and hard to cure, so that the linear velocity in the coloring step cannot be increased.
Therefore, there remains a problem that the manufacturing efficiency is inferior to the conventional manufacturing process of spinning an optical fiber element wire coated with a UV resin (ultraviolet curing resin) and further forming a tape, and further changes with time. However, there is a problem in that the color may fade, the identification may be difficult, and misidentification may occur.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and for this reason, it is possible to provide a clear indication of a certain shape without coating and coloring an optical fiber element wire. Moreover, it is an object of the invention to devise a display method capable of reading the display by a human and automatically by a mechanical means.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The measures taken to solve the above problems are as follows.
Multiple parallel bars along the longitudinal direction are displayed on the surface of the tape by combining this with a transparent UV resin and combining the carbon fiber coated optical fiber and the carbon fiber uncoated optical fiber. However, the tape number information is displayed by the combination of both strands.

[0005]

[Operation] The spinning speed will not be reduced even if the process of coating the optical fiber with a carbon coat is added. Therefore, the manufacturing efficiency of the optical fiber ribbon is the same as that of the prior art. The carbon-coated black optical fiber core wire appears on the surface of the optical fiber tape core wire through a coating layer (coating of strands, tape coating) made of a transparent UV curable resin, whereby the tape surface extends along the longitudinal direction of the tape. A display symbol is formed by a combination of a plurality of parallel black bars and the colorless bars that are displayed. Information such as the unit number and tape number is displayed on the number of parallel bars displayed on the tape surface and the combination of both strands. By reading and selecting the tapes to be connected to each other and recognizing the pattern formed by the combination of a plurality of parallel bar lines, the consistency of both tapes to be connected to each other can be visually confirmed. That is, even if the unit numbers and tape numbers displayed by a plurality of parallel bars are not recognized, the matching of the above patterns and the matching of both tapes to be connected to each other by visually recognizing the mismatch You can check the discrepancy. Since this confirmation is extremely mechanical, this pattern can be recognized by the automatic reader installed in the tape splicing machine, and therefore, it is necessary to mechanically and reliably check the operator's mistake in confirming the consistency of the tape. You can Further, since the display with a plurality of parallel bar lines is a bar display along the longitudinal direction of the tape, the display at the cut end does not change at any position of the tape. Therefore, when the tape is attached to the connecting machine, the reading by the automatic reader is accurately performed regardless of the cutting position.

[0006]

[Example] Next, an example of a bar line displayed on the surface of the tape will be described with reference to FIGS. In the case of a slot type cable, for example, a plurality of optical fiber tapes 1 are stacked and mounted on a large number of slots 3 provided in a core 2 as shown in FIG. The tapes mounted in each slot are called the first unit and the second unit, and the tapes mounted in each unit are called, for example, the first tape and the second tape in order from the top. The tape in the uppermost layer is called the first tape of the third unit, and this designation and the indication displayed on the surface of each tape match. Each tape 1 has a large number of optical fiber strands, and the optical fiber strand at the left end is a and the optical fiber strand at the right end is b when the surface 4 of the optical fiber tape is facing up. When connecting the tape,
Must be connected to the optical fiber strand a of another tape. When the front and back are connected in reverse, the optical fiber strand a is connected to the optical fiber strand b of another tape.
Carbon fiber coated optical fiber strands (black) and non-colored for the optical fiber ribbons from the first tape to the fifth tape of the first unit when stacking five 4-core tapes in the slot 3 An example of the combination with the optical fiber strand (white) is shown in FIG. The tape (4-1) in FIG. 4 has one black line at the left end, which indicates that it is the most tape. Furthermore, the one in (4-2) of the figure is 2 from the left.
There is one black line in the main line, indicating that it is the second tape. Further, the one in the figure (4-3) has a black line on the first and second lines from the left, indicating that it is the third tape. Furthermore, the one in the figure (4-4) shows the left end and the left. There is a black line on the 3rd to the 4th tape.
-5) There are black lines on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tapes from the left, indicating that it is the fifth tape. It is possible to appropriately select the rule based on which the unit number and the tape number are indicated by the black bar line, similarly to the normal bar code indication, and the above rule is not an essential matter of the present invention. For example, in some cases, the display of the unit number is omitted, and only the tape number is displayed by the parallel bar lines, and there is no problem in practical use. In this case, when the number of tape layers is small, simply increase the black bar line by 1 and
It is also possible to display only the tape numbers by leaving all the books and making all strands black. When it is desired to identify both the unit number and the tape number, it is possible to display a unit number on one half of the optical fiber strand and a tape number on the other half by using a multi-core tape having eight or more fibers.

[0007]

[Effects] The above-mentioned object of the present invention is novel. Therefore, it is the effect peculiar to the present invention in itself that the new problems are solved and the problems in the prior art are solved. That is, a combination of an optical fiber elemental wire coated with a carbon core wire and an optical fiber elemental wire not carbon-coated represents a combination pattern of black rods on the tape surface along the longitudinal direction through a transparent coating layer. Since the information such as the unit number and tape number is displayed on the surface of the optical fiber tape by the display, there is no influence on the running speed of the optical fiber in the manufacturing process of the optical fiber tape, and it is a constant symbol. Can be displayed accurately, the displayed symbol is not distorted or collapsed, and even when the tape is thin and the width of its surface is extremely small, the displayed symbol is extremely simple, Easy and easy to read, no accidental reading of symbols. Also, since the symbol can be read by pattern recognition, it can be read at the time of connection by an automatic reader provided in the connection machine, and the consistency of the tapes connected to each other can be mechanically checked. The reliability can be guaranteed. Also, unlike what is printed and displayed, and what is displayed by coloring the coating, carbon is coated on the optical fiber core wire, and the display is performed so that it can be seen through.
There is no scratching and blurring of the display, and it is not difficult to see the display over time. Therefore, the reliability of the display is high, which is also a great advantage of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an optical fiber cable.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an optical fiber tape.

FIG. 3 is one display example according to the present invention.

4 is a plan view of the optical fiber ribbon core wire of FIG. 3. FIG.

FIG. 5 is an example of a conventional display.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Optical fiber tape 2 ... Core 3 ... Slot 4 ... Optical fiber tape surface a ... Left end optical fiber strand b ... Right end optical fiber strand

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber ribbon comprising an optical fiber core coated with a transparent UV resin to form an optical fiber strand, and a plurality of optical fiber strands arranged side by side and coated with a transparent UV resin to form a tape. In the optical fiber, the optical fiber core wire is coated with carbon and this is transparent U
A combination of an optical fiber element coated with V resin and having a carbon coating and an optical fiber element having no carbon coating is used to display a plurality of parallel bar lines along the longitudinal direction on the tape surface. An uncolored optical fiber ribbon that displays information such as the tape number by combining the strands.