JPH0843683A - Optical fiber connector and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an optical fiber connector capable of exactly and concentrically aligning and forming an optical fiber and a protective sleeve, allowing a high power laser beam to be surely focused at the end face of the optical fiber and surely preventing heating and burning of members constituting the optical fiber connector. CONSTITUTION:This optical fiber connector 12 is formed by concentrically integrating the optical fiber 11 from which the coating material is removed and a fiber guide 15 on its outer side and concentrically providing the fiber guide 15 with a protective sleeve 16 on its outer side. The optical fiber 11 and the protective sleeve 16 are concentrically aligned. By which, the fiber guide 16 and the protective sleeve 16 are fixed by laser welding.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber connector and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly to an optical fiber connector suitable for concentrically arranging an optical fiber and a protective sleeve on the outside thereof and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in order to perform cutting, soldering, welding, etc. with a high power laser beam, as shown in FIG. 6, a high power laser beam emitted from a laser beam generator is used as a lens unit 1 on an incident side. The laser beam is incident on the optical fiber 2 and transmitted to the processing side, and the high power laser light is irradiated from the optical fiber 2 through the lens unit 3 on the emission side onto the workpiece 4a to perform a predetermined processing.

The lens units 1 and 3 and the optical fiber 2
Conventionally, in order to connect to each other, optical fiber connectors 4 as shown in FIG. 7 have been formed at both ends of the optical fiber 2.

That is, the optical fiber 2 is formed by the core of the central axis portion and the clad outside thereof, and is coated with the coating material 2a to form the optical fiber cable 2b. The optical fiber 2 is in a state where the coating material 2a is removed at the end portion.

Optical fiber 2 and optical fiber cable 2
A fiber guide 6 is integrally and concentrically adhered to the outer side of the end of b, and a metal protective sleeve 7 is attached together.
Has been inserted inside. Then, the grip claws 8, 8 formed in the circumferential direction in three equal parts at the inner end of the protective sleeve 7, are attached to the taper screw part 9 formed at the outer peripheral portion of the cap nut body 10.
The fiber guide 6 by bending it inward by screwing
And the protective sleeve 7 is concentrically attached to the optical fiber 2. The lens unit side is formed so as to be spigot-connected with the outer peripheral surface 7a of the tip portion of the protective sleeve 7.

[0006]

However, since the accuracy of the outer diameter of the optical fiber 2 is ± 5%, the degree of concentricity between the optical fiber 2 and the fiber guide 6 also has an error of ± several%. In the above-mentioned conventional example in which the protective sleeve 7 is mounted concentrically with respect to 6, the degree of concentricity between the protective sleeve 7 and the optical fiber 2 also has an error of ± several percent. Therefore, the center axis of the lens unit and the optical fiber 2 connected with the outer peripheral surface 7a of the tip portion of the protective sleeve 7 as a reference for the spigot connection is deviated, so that the high power laser light is not included in the end surface of the optical fiber 2. There is an inconvenience that the end surface of the optical fiber 2, the adhesive agent, and the like are burned when the light is incident on the surface.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and the optical fiber and the protective sleeve can be formed by accurately aligning them concentrically, and high power laser light can be formed on the end face of the optical fiber. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber connector that can be surely focused, and that can reliably prevent a member constituting the optical fiber connector from being heated or burnt out, and a manufacturing method thereof. To do.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the optical fiber connector of the present invention according to claim 1 is such that the optical fiber from which the coating material has been removed and the fiber guide outside thereof are concentric. An optical fiber connector in which a protective sleeve is concentrically provided outside the fiber guide, the optical fiber and the protective sleeve are aligned concentrically, and the fiber guide and the protective sleeve are fixed by laser welding. An optical fiber connector characterized in that

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical fiber connector manufacturing method in which an optical fiber from which a coating material has been removed and a fiber guide outside the optical fiber are concentrically integrated, and the integrated optical fiber is integrated. The fiber and the fiber guide are inserted into the protective sleeve, the optical fiber and the protective sleeve are concentrically aligned with each other, and then the fiber guide and the protective sleeve are fixed by laser welding.

[0010]

By producing the optical fiber connector of the present invention in accordance with the method of the present invention, the optical fiber and the protective sleeve can be accurately aligned and formed concentrically, and a high power laser beam can be formed on the end face of the optical fiber. Therefore, it is possible to surely prevent the members constituting the optical fiber connector from being heated or burnt out.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the optical fiber connector of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a state in which the optical fiber connector 12 of this embodiment is attached to the end of the optical fiber 11 at the central axis. The optical fiber 11 is formed of a core at the center and a clad outside thereof, and the outside thereof is covered with a covering material 14 to form an optical fiber cable 13. At the portion of the optical fiber connector 12, the outside of the optical fiber cable 13 is concentrically covered by a fiber guide 15, and at the end of the optical fiber connector 12, the covering material 14 is exposed so as to expose the optical fiber 11.
Have been removed. The exposed optical fiber 11 and the optical fiber cable 13 including the coating material 14 and the fiber guide 15 are concentrically bonded by an adhesive. Examples of the material of the fiber guide 15 include opaque materials such as zirconia, alumina and mica-based ceramics such as macerite (trade name of Mitsui Mining and Materials Co., Ltd.), and transparent materials such as quartz glass having a lower refractive index than the cladding and simple glass. Can be mentioned. The outside of the end of the fiber guide 15 is concentrically covered with a protective sleeve 16 made of a metal pipe such as stainless steel, copper, phosphor bronze, or brass. A minute gap 17 is formed between the outer peripheral surface 15a of the fiber guide 15 and the inner peripheral surface 16a of the protective sleeve 16 in order to absorb manufacturing errors. In addition, the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 have one outer peripheral surface 15
The step portion 15b formed on a and the step portion 16b formed on the other inner peripheral surface 16a are in close contact with each other. Then, the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 are aligned with each other in a concentric manner with the protective sleeve 16 and the optical fiber 11, and then, as shown in FIGS. Laser welding 18, at four positions in this embodiment) and a plurality of axial positions (two positions in this embodiment),
It is fixed by applying 18. Further, the outer peripheral surface 16c at the tip portion of the protective sleeve 16 is accurately finished so as to be spigot-connected to the lens unit side.

On the outside of the protective sleeve 16,
A metal engagement cylinder 19 having an engagement protrusion 19a is fixed by laser welding 20 to connect with the lens unit so as not to rotate relative to the lens unit. On the outer side of the engagement cylinder 19 and the protection sleeve 16 on the inner side of the engagement cylinder 19, there is formed a fixed cylinder 21 in which a female screw portion 21a to be screwed with a fixed cylinder (not shown) on the lens unit side is formed. The exterior is movably and rotatably mounted, and a compression spring 22 is interposed between the inner end of the engagement cylinder 19 and the protective sleeve 16.

The other end of the optical fiber 11 is also formed in the same manner as in FIGS. 1 to 4, and a space between them is covered with a flexible pipe 23 made of metal such as stainless steel to ensure safety.

Next, the optical fiber connector 12 of the present embodiment.
The manufacturing method of will be described.

First, the coating material 14 at the end of the optical fiber 11
Is removed, and the fiber guide 15 is concentrically provided on the outer side thereof, and is adhered to be integrally formed. The optical fiber 11 is placed inside the protective sleeve 16 so as to have mutual step portions 15a,
16a are inserted so as to be in close contact with each other, and the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 are relatively moved by a separate well-known XY driving device, so that the optical fiber 11 and the protective sleeve 1 are
Align the central axis with 6 exactly. In that state, subsequently, the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 are circumferentially equally divided (four in this embodiment) and axially plural (in this embodiment) by a known laser welding device. Laser welding 18 is applied to the two locations to fix them. Although dust may be generated in the minute gap 17 at the time of this welding, since the step portions 15b and 16b of the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 are in close contact with each other, dust is prevented from coming out. .
After that, the engagement cylinder 19, the fixing cylinder 21, and the compression spring 22 are mounted on the protective sleeve 16, and the engagement cylinder 19 is fixed to the protective sleeve 16 by laser welding 20.

Next, the optical fiber connector 12 of the present embodiment.
The operation of will be described.

When the optical fiber 11 of this embodiment is connected to the lens unit with the fixing tube 20, the outer peripheral surface 16c of the protective sleeve 16 of the optical fiber connector 12 and the lens unit are connected in a spigot manner as shown in FIG. Thus, the optical axis of the lens 24 and the central axis of the optical fiber 11 are aligned so as to be exactly aligned with each other.

As a result, the high power laser light is converged by the lens 24 so as to focus on the end face of the optical fiber 11, and the members constituting the optical fiber connector 11 are prevented from being heated or burned.

Further, the outer peripheral surface 15a of the fiber guide 15
After aligning the central axes of the protective sleeve 16 and the core 13 in the minute gap 17 formed between the protective sleeve 16 and the inner peripheral surface 16a of the protective sleeve 16, laser welding 18 is performed.
When the adhesive is filled after that, the heat generated in the connector through the adhesive can be efficiently dissipated to the outside.

Further, the laser welding points of the fiber guide 15 and the protective sleeve 16 are locations other than those in the above embodiment,
The number may be any number, for example, as shown in FIG.
It may be before 5b or 16b.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but can be modified as necessary.

[0024]

As described above, since the optical fiber connector and the method of manufacturing the same of the present invention are constructed and operate, it is possible to form the optical fiber and the protective sleeve by accurately aligning them concentrically. It is possible to reliably focus the high power laser light on the end face of the optical fiber, and it is possible to prevent the members constituting the optical fiber connector from being heated or burnt out. Play.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an end portion of an optical fiber to which an embodiment of an optical fiber connector of the present invention is attached.

FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the optical fiber connector portion of FIG.

4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing another embodiment of the optical fiber connector.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing an example of a conventional optical fiber connector.

FIG. 7 is a view showing another example of the conventional optical fiber connector.
Similar figure to

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 optical fiber 12 optical fiber connector 15 fiber guide 16 protective sleeve 18 laser welding

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber connector in which an optical fiber from which a coating material has been removed and a fiber guide outside thereof are concentrically integrated, and a protective sleeve is concentrically provided outside the fiber guide. And the protective sleeve are concentrically aligned with each other, and the fiber guide and the protective sleeve are fixed by laser welding. 2. An optical fiber from which a covering material has been removed and a fiber guide on the outside thereof are concentrically integrated with each other, and the integrated optical fiber and fiber guide are inserted into a protective sleeve, and the optical fiber and the protective fiber are protected. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber connector, characterized in that the fiber guide and the protective sleeve are fixed by laser welding after the sleeve and the sleeve are aligned concentrically.