JPH09152523A - Tool and method for cleaning optical fiber and relative component - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a cleaning tool which can easily be manufactured and is inexpensive by composing the tool of the connection body of a cleaning fiber blocks having insertion holes for the tips of tweezers almost in the center and the tweezers which are provided with neck parts capable of locking the fiber block at the tips. SOLUTION: The cleaning fiber block is the connection body composed of respective units 10, and neck parts 14 for locking at the time of insertion into the fiber block 10 are provided at the tips of a bent tweezers main body 13. The tweezers are inserted into the insertion holes of the adjacent fiber blocks 10 and 10 and held at nearly intermediate depth. The fiber blocks into which both the tips of the tweezers main body 13 inserted are inserted and other fiber blocks 10 are separated along cutting lines 12 before or after the tweezers are inserted. The adjacent fiber blocks 10 into which the tweezers are inserted are bent along the cutting lines 12 and well held with the gripping force of the tweezers, so that they can be cleaned by scouring.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning tool and a cleaning method for optical fibers and related parts.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of connecting optical fibers to each other, single wires of optical fibers to be connected are aligned with high precision on the order of micron and directly connected by butting. Therefore, when using the optical connector, the optical fiber, the ferrule and the like must be thoroughly cleaned before the connecting work. If the cleaning is inadequate and the thread waste used for cleaning or the solvent remains, the connection characteristics will deteriorate, so cleaning is performed with great care. A commonly used cleaning method is tweezers in which a woven or non-woven fabric or paper (called wipe paper) made of ultrafine fibers made of cotton or highly absorbent synthetic fibers is soaked with a solvent such as alcohol. I was grasping and cleaning. An example of such a state will be described with reference to FIG. 4. The coating 2 of the optical fiber 1 is stripped off, the optical fiber core 3 is exposed, and when cleaning the exposed portion, it is sandwiched with a wipe paper 5 impregnated with alcohol, It was cleaned by squeezing it back and forth along the length of the fiber and wiping it off.

[0003]

According to the conventional technique as described above, the amount of wipe paper used at one time is large, as can be seen in the figure, and therefore the amount of alcohol impregnated is also large. However, it is not always sufficient to clean small parts when handling items that require precision, and the fingers touch the alcohol to melt the fat, and in cold regions, use gloves when working outdoors. There was a problem that the work was difficult to do because it was fitted. The present invention aims to solve this problem.

[0004]

The present invention has been made as a result of various studies in order to solve the above problems,
The outline is (1) an optical fiber characterized by comprising a connecting body of cleaning fiber blocks having an insertion opening at the tip of tweezers at substantially the center, and tweezers provided with a neck portion at the tip for locking the fiber block. A cleaning tool for related parts, and (2) a connecting body of cleaning fiber blocks having an insertion opening for the tip of the tweezers substantially at the center, impregnated with cleaning alcohol, and the tip of the tweezers is adjacent to the cleaning fiber block. The method for cleaning an optical fiber and related parts is characterized in that the optical fiber and related parts are cleaned by inserting the optical fibers and related parts into the respective insertion openings.

The cleaning fiber block and tweezers as described above can be manufactured very easily and at low cost, and the optical fiber and related parts can be cleaned with the wipe paper of the necessary limit. Since it is to be cleaned, and because the tweezers are used, it is not affected by the fat of the hands, and even when gloves are used even in cold weather, the tweezers are used, so there is no worry of contamination by the gloves and it is extremely clean. It is also easy to carry out, and it is very easy to clean fine areas without adhering fibers.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A cleaning tool of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 shows an example of a cleaning fiber block.
(A) is a top view, (B) is a sectional view taken along the line AA of (A),
(C) is a perspective view, and the cleaning fiber block is 1 for each unit.
It is a connected body composed of 0, 10, 10 and so that each unit can be easily separated by a cut line 12. Further, a thin insertion port 11 for inserting the tweezers is provided substantially at the center of each unit so as to penetrate in the thickness direction.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the tweezers constituting the cleaning tool of the present invention, in which the locking neck portion 14 at the end of the bent tweezer body 13 is inserted into the fiber block.
Is provided. FIG. 3 shows the tweezers shown in FIG.
In the explanatory view of the state in which it is inserted into the fiber block shown in, the tweezers are inserted into the insertion ports of the adjacent fiber blocks 10 and 10 and are stopped at a substantially intermediate depth. In this case, it is preferable that the outer diameter of the locking neck portion 14 of the tweezers is slightly larger than the width of the tweezers insertion opening 11 of the fiber block 10 because locking is easy.

The fiber block in which both tips of the tweezers body 13 are inserted and the fiber block in which the tips of the tweezers body 13 are not inserted are separated from the score line 12 before or after inserting the tweezers. Adjacent fiber block with tweezers inserted, fold at score line 12,
For example, the exposed optical fiber can be sandwiched and sufficiently held by the gripping force of the tweezers to be squeezed for cleaning. Since the fiber block is grasped by tweezers also in a portion requiring cleaning, fine parts can be cleaned cleanly. The alcohol for cleaning may be used by impregnating the fiber block immediately before it is used for cleaning.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the cleaning tool has an extremely simple structure, the volume of the fiber block is smaller than that of the conventional napkin-like wipe paper, and the tweezers only have a small neck portion at the tip of the ordinary tweezers. Therefore, it is not very expensive, and since the fiber block for cleaning can be cleaned without touching it directly with the hand, it is extremely clean and preferable in terms of the cleaning effect. It can also solve difficulties.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is an example of a cleaning fiber block used in the present invention, (a) is a top view, (b) is a sectional view taken along the line AA of (a),
(C) is a perspective view.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an example of tweezers used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a state in which tweezers are inserted into the cleaning fiber block of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional state of cleaning an end of an optical fiber.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 optical fiber 2 coating 3 optical fiber core 4 wipe paper 10 fiber block 11 tweezers insertion port 12 notch line 13 tweezers body 14 neck

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber and a related article comprising: a connecting body of cleaning fiber blocks having an insertion port for the tip of tweezers at substantially the center thereof; and tweezers having a neck portion for locking the fiber block at the tip. Cleaning tool for parts. 2. A connecting body of cleaning fiber blocks, which has an insertion opening at the tip of tweezers at substantially the center, is impregnated with cleaning alcohol, and tweezers are respectively inserted into the insertion openings of continuous fiber blocks. A method for cleaning an optical fiber and related parts, which comprises cleaning the optical fiber and related parts to be cleaned.