JPH09197214A - Production of coated optical fiber ribbon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a process for producing a coated optical fiber ribbon which is short in the extra length to be produced without degrading the arrangement of optical fibers and without increasing the cost of equipment in forming the optical fibers as a ribbon. SOLUTION: A resin of a first layer having a prescribed thickness is applied by a primary coating device 3 around the plural optical fibers 1 aligned by an aligning device 2 and thereafter, a resin 18 of a second layer is applied on the outer periphery of the resin 11 of the first layer with the resin of the viscosity lower than the viscosity of the resin 11 of the first layer by a secondary coating device 4 without curing the resin 11 of the first layer used for coating. The resin 11 of the first layer and the resin 18 of the second layer are thereafter integrally cured by a curing device 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon which integrates a plurality of optical fiber strands into a tape.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method of storing optical fiber core wires in an optical cable at a high density, a plurality of optical fiber core wires integrated into a tape form are laminated to form a laminated body. Further, a method of forming an optical cable by applying a coating after collecting a plurality of the laminated bodies is performed. FIG. 8 shows an outline of a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon used for such an application.

As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of optical fiber wires 81 are prepared, and these optical fiber wires 81 are arranged in parallel and in a row by an aligning device 82 having vertical rolls 82A and horizontal rolls 82B. It is sent to the coating device 83. A resin for coating the optical fiber element wire 81 is continuously supplied to the coating device 83 from a resin supply tank (not shown). Then, the plurality of optical fiber strands 81 arranged in a line are introduced into the coating device 83 at a constant speed, and the outer periphery of the optical fiber strands 81 is collectively coated with resin. Then, the coated optical fiber element wire 81 is sent to a curing device 84 provided as a post-process of the coating device 83, and in the course of traveling through the curing device 84, the resin is cured to form a coating layer. . Further, the optical fiber tape core wire 85 integrated into a tape shape by this coating layer is wound around a winder through a winder (not shown).

[0004]

By the way, in the above-described method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, it is necessary to form an optical fiber ribbon in which the optical fiber wires 81 are properly aligned in a line. When it is attempted to collectively coat a coating having a predetermined thickness with 83, fluctuations in the tension at the time of supplying the optical fibers cause the optical fiber element wires 81 to shake, and the optical fiber element wires 81 are covered with the alignment state shifted. It happens that it ends up. As a method for solving this problem, the invention described in JP-A-5-509422 has been proposed. In this method, coating is performed twice. After coating the first layer in a tape shape by a coating device, it is immediately cured to form a primary optical fiber ribbon, and the primary optical fiber ribbon is guided by a guide roll. Support it, and then use another coating device again to attach 2 to the outer circumference of the primary optical fiber tape.
It is devised to cover the layers and not disturb the arrangement between the optical fiber strands.

In the first coating device, the coating of the first layer is merely made to fill the space between the optical fiber strands with resin, and the second coating device coats the second layer with a predetermined thickness to obtain a desired light beam. A fiber tape core wire is used. By the way, the above-mentioned method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon requires two coating devices and two curing devices, and the equipment cost for each one coating device and one curing device is higher than the method of coating at one time. Up. In particular, since the curing device for the first layer cures only a small amount of resin, almost all the resin is cured by the curing device for the second layer, which is a problem in effective use of the curing device.

When a UV resin is used as the coating material and a normal UV lamp is used as the light source of the curing device, the line for the curing device becomes long, the equipment becomes large, and the extra length also becomes long. There is a drawback that. From the overall length, the extra length is about 10% up, but the number of tapes has increased, the length of one tape core is short, and each tape core has a different length. The total loss length for a year can be neglected considering that the constituent optical fiber strands are usually colored, and the number of supply bobbin changeovers of the optical fiber strands caused by different combinations of tape cores is large. Not the length.

The present invention solves the above problems and does not deteriorate the arrangement of the optical fiber strands when the optical fiber strands are formed into a tape, the cost of equipment is not so much increased, and the manufacturing surplus is not so great. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon which does not become long.

[0008]

The present invention has the following means to solve the above problems.

After the optical fibers are aligned in a line by the aligning device, the aligned optical fiber element wires are supplied to the coating device to coat the resin, and the coated resin is cured by the curing device. In the method of manufacturing a tape core wire, the coating device includes a primary coating device and a secondary coating device, and a first layer resin having a predetermined thickness is provided around a plurality of optical fiber element wires aligned by the alignment device. After applying the above-mentioned primary coating device,
After the second layer resin having a lower viscosity than the first layer resin is coated on the outer periphery of the first layer resin by the secondary coating device without curing the coated first layer resin. The resin of the first layer and the resin of the second layer are collectively cured by the curing device.

The resin of the first layer and the resin of the second layer are the same resin.

According to the method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to claim 1 of the present invention, a first-layer coating having a predetermined thickness is primarily formed around a plurality of optical fiber element wires aligned by an aligning device. Apply with a coating device. Since the amount of the resin in the first layer is such that the space between the optical fiber strands is filled with the resin, the arrangement of the optical fiber strands is not deteriorated. 1 covered in this state
The second layer is coated with a resin having a viscosity lower than that of the resin of the first layer on the outer periphery of the resin of the second layer without curing the resin of the first layer.

The resin of the first layer is not cured, but when the resin of the second layer is applied in the secondary coating device,
It is rearranged together with the coating of the layer. The second layer of resin is
Since the viscosity is sufficiently lower than that of the resin of the first layer, the arrangement of the optical fiber strands in the resin of the first layer is not disturbed when the second layer is coated. As a method for decreasing the viscosity, there are a method using a resin whose temperature has been raised and a method using a low molecular weight resin. Since the first and second layers of resin are collectively cured by the curing device in the above state, the optical fiber ribbon can be manufactured without deteriorating the arrangement between the optical fiber strands when forming the tape. . Further, according to this method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, the number of coating devices is increased by one, but the coating device is not so large as the curing device, so that the equipment does not become so large and the manufacturing surplus length does not increase at all.
Furthermore, although the equipment cost for one coating device increases, the equipment cost does not increase significantly because the coating device is less expensive than the curing device.

In the method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the first layer resin and the second layer resin are the same resin, it is not necessary to distinguish between the resins. Easy to manage and handle. Further, in order to make the second layer resin have a lower viscosity than the first layer resin, the second layer resin and the secondary coating device itself are heated to a higher level than the first layer resin, so that the viscosity can be easily controlled. It can be carried out.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of optical fiber strands 1 are aligned in parallel and in a row by an aligning device 2 including a vertical roll 2A and a horizontal roll 2B, and are guided to a primary coating device 3. As shown in FIG. 2, a first layer of resin 11 having a predetermined thickness is applied around the plurality of optical fiber strands 1 supplied to the primary coating device 3 filled with UV resin by the primary coating device 3. To form a taped core wire 12. Next, 1 of this cored wire 12
UV resin filled without curing the resin 11 of the second layer 2
Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the resin 1 of the second layer is guided to the next coating device 4.
3 is performed to form the optical fiber ribbon 14.

Thereafter, the resin 11 of the first layer and the resin 13 of the second layer are collectively cured by a curing device 5 equipped with a UV lamp arranged in a subsequent step of the secondary coating device 4 to collectively cure the optical fiber tape. The core wire 15 is formed. A plurality of guide rollers 6 are arranged behind the curing device 5 so that the position of the tape core wire 15 with respect to the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4 is always kept at a predetermined position. Further, the guide roll 6 also functions so as not to transmit vibration and twist (hereinafter simply referred to as fluctuation) of the tape core wire 15 coming from the winding side (not shown) to the coating device side.

In the method of manufacturing the optical fiber ribbon, the viscosity of the first layer resin 11 supplied to the primary coating device 3 is supplied to the secondary coating device 4 and the second layer resin 13 is supplied. Be sufficiently larger than the viscosity of. Specifically, 1
The resin 11 of the second layer and the resin 13 of the second layer are U having the same composition.
V resin is used to change the temperatures of the first layer resin 11 and the primary coating device 3 and the second layer resin 13 and the secondary coating device 4 to increase the viscosity of the first layer resin 11 to 1000 to 5000 cp.
s and the viscosity of the second layer resin 13 is 200 to 800 cp
s, and the ratio of the viscosities of the resins of the first layer and the second layer was set to twice or more.

The viscosity of the resin 11 of the first layer is changed according to the level of vibration of the optical fiber strand when the optical fiber strand 1 of the aligning device 2 is extended, and when the fluctuation is large, the viscosity of the resin is increased. effective. In addition, the resin 11 of the first layer
Is undesirably covered with a too thick resin because the viscous force of the first layer resin 11 itself is large.
It is better to have a smaller thickness. In order to coat the resin 11 of the first layer thinly, it is preferable to supply the resin into the primary coating device 3 from the thickness direction of the optical fiber ribbon 14 as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, 31 is a resin supply unit and 32 is a nozzle. The nozzle 32 is preferably a slit-shaped nozzle 32A as shown in FIG. 5 (a) or a nozzle 32B with many small diameter holes as shown in FIG. 5 (b).

FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4. In order to change the viscosities of the resin 11 of the first layer and the resin 13 of the second layer, the resin tanks 33 and 43 of the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4 should be heated with warm water to keep the temperature of the resin constant. However, just by warming the resin tanks 33 and 43, the resin is cooled while passing through the supply pipes 34 and 44. Further, the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4
Since the resin also cools because heat is taken away by itself, the supply pipe 3
4, 44, and the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4 themselves were also heated to control the temperature.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 36 is a resin pressurizing regulator of the primary coating device 3, 46 is a resin pressurizing regulator of the secondary coating device 4, and in particular, 2 for coating the resin 13 of the second layer. The next coating device 4 is preferably a pressure type,
The square hole of the nipple has the same shape as the resin 13 of the first layer.

The heating of the primary coating device 3 is performed on both sides of the primary coating device 3 so as to heat from the upper and lower two directions in the thickness direction when the optical fiber ribbon 14 is formed as shown in FIG. An electric heater plate 35 was arranged. By doing so, the temperature unevenness in the primary coating device 3 could be reduced. Although not shown, the heating of the primary coating device 3 was controlled by a temperature controller with a thermocouple attached. Similarly to the primary coating device 3, the secondary coating device 4 was also provided with an electric heater plate and the temperature was adjusted by a temperature controller. The heating of the supply pipes 34 and 44 was performed by winding a heating wire.

Specifically, the temperature of the primary coating device 3 is set to 35.
C. The resin viscosity at this time is 2000 to 3000.
Equivalent to cps. The temperature of the secondary coating device 4 was maintained at 50 ° C. The resin viscosity at this time corresponds to 500 to 1000 cps. Thus, the viscosity of the resin 11 of the first layer is 200
By setting it to 0 cps or more, the vibration and tension fluctuation of each optical fiber element wire 1 when it is paid out from the alignment device 2 can be absorbed by the high viscosity resin, and the influence thereof can be reduced. Further, even when the resin has a high viscosity even when it comes out of the primary coating device 3, even if there is some variation, it is difficult to shift from the state covered by the primary coating device 3. Further, the square holes of the nipple of the secondary coating device 4 are made to have the same shape as the resin 11 of the first layer, so that the optical fiber strands 1 are aligned there as well.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since there is no curing device between the primary coating device 3 and the secondary coating device 4,
The tape core wire 12 pulled out from the primary coating device 3 immediately enters the secondary coating device 4, so that it is unlikely to be affected by vibration or tension fluctuation of each optical fiber element wire 1. Furthermore, 2
The uncured optical fiber tape core wire 1 that has emerged from the next coating device 4
4 is cured by a curing device 5, and its position is determined by a guide roll 6. The guide roll 6 is composed of, for example, three points, and not only the upper and lower positions and the left and right positions are determined by the three points,
In addition to positioning, reduce the influence of fluctuations from the winding side.

As described above, the optical fiber tape core wire 14 is cured by the curing device 5 while maintaining the arrangement of the optical fiber tape core wires 14 in the secondary coating device 4.
It is more preferable that the curing device 5 be close to the secondary coating device 4. By increasing the line speed, the vibration and tension fluctuation of each optical fiber strand 1 increase, but the fluctuation can be absorbed before the secondary coating device 4 by increasing the resin viscosity of the primary coating device 3. Further, since the fluctuation from the winding side can be reduced by the guide roll 6, the arrangement of the tape core wires 14 does not deteriorate even if the linear velocity is increased.

Specifically, the linear velocity was increased up to 300 m / min in the case of manufacturing a 4-core optical fiber tape core wire, and to 200 m / min in the case of an 8-core optical fiber tape core wire. The maximum deviation of the optical fiber element wire from the center of the above was within 0.015 mm, which sufficiently satisfied the predetermined requirement.

[0025]

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention, the resin coated on the first layer is hardened on the outer periphery of the resin coated on the first layer rather than the resin coated on the first layer. Since a low-viscosity resin is applied, each optical fiber element wire in the resin of the first layer is protected by the resin of the first layer when the resin of the second layer is covered, and therefore, even if it is fluctuated, it is arranged. Do not disturb. Moreover, since the resin of the second layer has a lower viscosity than the resin of the first layer, it does not disturb the arrangement of the optical fiber strands in the resin of the first layer. Further, according to this method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, the number of coating devices is increased by one, but since the coating device is not so large as the curing device, the equipment does not become large at all and the manufacturing surplus length becomes so long. There is no. Furthermore, although the equipment cost for one coating device increases, the equipment cost does not increase significantly because the coating device is less expensive than the curing device.

According to the method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the first layer resin and the second layer resin are the same resin, it is not necessary to distinguish between the resins. Therefore, its management and handling are easy. In order to make the second layer resin have a lower viscosity than the first layer resin, the second layer resin should be 1
It is possible to easily control the viscosity because it is heated only higher than the resin of the layer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the tape core wire showing a state in which a resin of the first layer is formed by the method for manufacturing the optical fiber tape core wire of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a tape core wire showing a state in which a second resin layer is formed by the method of manufacturing the optical fiber tape core wire of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a primary coating device for coating the resin of the first layer used in the method for manufacturing the optical fiber ribbon of FIG.

5 is a view showing an example of each of the primary coating devices of FIG.
It is arrow A sectional drawing.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a main part of an apparatus used in the method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the primary coating device for coating the resin of the first layer used in the method for producing an optical fiber ribbon according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional method for manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Optical Fiber Element 2 Aligning Device 3 Primary Coating Device 4 Secondary Coating Device 5 Curing Device 11 First Layer Resin 13 Second Layer Resin 15 Optical Fiber Tape Core Wire

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An optical system in which a plurality of aligned optical fiber strands are arranged in a line by an aligning device, the aligned optical fiber wires are supplied to a coating device to coat a resin, and the coated resin is cured by a curing device. In the method of manufacturing a fiber tape core wire, the coating device includes a primary coating device and a secondary coating device, and a first layer having a predetermined thickness is provided around a plurality of optical fiber element wires aligned by the alignment device. After the resin is applied by the primary coating device, the second layer resin having a lower viscosity than the first layer resin is applied by the secondary coating device without curing the coated first layer resin. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon, comprising coating the outer periphery of the resin of the first layer and then curing the resin of the first layer and the resin of the second layer together by the curing device. 2. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber ribbon according to claim 1, wherein the first layer resin and the second layer resin are the same resin.