JPH1138295A - Production of aerial optical cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a process for producing an aerial optical cable capable of easily obtaining a slackened aerial optical cable surely printed with characters and symbols. SOLUTION: A supporting wire body and an optical cable core are simultaneously fed into a cross head die of an extruder and are subjected to simultaneous extrusion coating, to integrate the supporting wire body and the optical cable core into one body at a connecting part. The connecting part is intermittently separated in its longitudinal direction and in this state both are taken off by setting the traveling speed of the optical cable highly than the traveling speed of the supporting wire to put the optical cable into the state having the slack with respect to the supporting wire. The integrated assembly is then brought into contact with a plate drum 29 for printing and printed while the integrated assembly is wound around the outer periphery of a length adjusting roll 28 to the state of eliminating the slack of the optical cable and the supporting wire.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a self-supporting aerial optical cable in which a support wire and an optical cable are connected and integrated at a connecting portion, and the optical cable has a slack (excess length). Characters such as company name and length mark,
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an overhead optical cable that can easily obtain an overhead optical cable on which a symbol is reliably printed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this kind of overhead optical cable,
For example, there is a structure shown in FIG. This overhead optical cable is roughly composed of a support wire 11, a connecting portion 12, and an optical cable 13. The support wire 11 is composed of a support wire main body 14 made of a galvanized steel stranded wire or the like, and a coating 15 made of a synthetic resin such as polyethylene for covering the support wire main body 14.
It is composed of

[0003] The connecting portion 12 is composed of a support wire 11 and an optical cable 1.
3 for supporting the optical cable 13 with the support wire 11 and hanging down from the bottom of the support wire 11 and extending to the top of the optical cable 13 with a continuous wall thickness of about 1 to 4 mm. And made of a synthetic resin such as polyethylene. Also, the optical cable 13
Is composed of a cable core 16 accommodating a large number of optical fiber cores, and a sheath 17 made of a synthetic resin such as polyethylene for covering the cable core 16.

The connecting portion 12 has a support wire 11
Are formed in the form of a plurality of slit-shaped separating portions 18, 18... The length of the separation section 18 is, for example, about 50 cm, and the adjacent separation sections 1
The interval between 8 and 18 is, for example, about 5 cm. The length and interval of the separation part 18 can be arbitrarily changed.

[0005] Further, the separating portions 18 and 1 of the connecting portion 12 are provided.
At the formation position of 8, the optical cable 13 has a slack, and the slack is formed on the side of the support wire 11 by changing the direction substantially alternately. In other words, the optical cable 13 is meandering in the left-right direction with respect to the linear support line 11.
It has an extra length (sag) of about 0.7%. With this structure, this overhead optical cable does not apply or reduces a tensile force or a distortion due to the tensile force on the optical cable 13.

In general, when manufacturing an optical cable in which characters and symbols such as a company name and a length mark are printed on the surface, the optical cable to be printed is taken while collecting the optical cable.
A method of continuously contacting a plate cylinder on which ink is loaded has been adopted.

[0007]

However, in the overhead optical cable having the above-described structure, since the optical cable 13 has a slack with respect to the support wire 11, when the overhead optical cable is to be printed by the above-described printing method. In this case, it is difficult to make the optical cable 13 continuously contact the plate cylinder, and it is difficult to perform reliable printing. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing an overhead optical cable that can easily obtain a slack overhead optical cable on which characters and symbols are reliably printed.

[0008]

The object of the present invention is to simultaneously feed a support wire main body and an optical cable core into a crosshead die of an extruder, extrude and collectively apply the support wire and the optical cable at a connecting portion, and form a connecting portion. Is separated intermittently in the longitudinal direction.In this state, the traveling speed of the optical cable is made faster than the traveling speed of the support line, the two are taken off, and the optical cable is slack with respect to the support line, and then the length is adjusted. The problem is solved by a method of manufacturing an aerial optical cable in which the optical cable and the support wire are wound around the outer circumference of the roll so that they are not slack with each other, and are contacted with a printing plate cylinder to perform printing.
In addition, as the length adjusting roll, cylindrical, frustoconical,
A shape such as a conical shape may be used.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example of a method for manufacturing an overhead optical cable according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 21 in the figure
Is a crosshead die for extrusion coating attached to an extruder. The optical cable core 16 and the support wire main body 14 are simultaneously fed into the crosshead die 21 from an inlet hole of the mandrel, and a molten resin such as polyethylene is supplied from an extruder (not shown). Core 16 and support wire body 14
Thus, an intermediate product N in which the resin is coated on the periphery and the connecting portion 12 is formed is obtained.

As shown in FIG. 2, the intermediate product N is continuously led out from the exit hole of the crosshead die 21 so that the support wire 11 is located below and the optical cable 13 is located above. The supporting wire 1 that becomes heavy in this way
1 is arranged downward, so that the weight of the connecting portion 1
2 is formed in a straight state.

Further, a separating portion forming device 22 is provided on the outlet hole side of the crosshead die. The separation portion forming device 22 has a sharp blade (not shown), and the blade is intermittently advanced or retracted toward the intermediate product N, so that the intermediate product N coming out of the crosshead die 21 is removed. While the resin forming the connecting portion 12 is still in a semi-molten state, a linear cut is made in the resin to form the separating portions 18 intermittently. As shown in FIG. 3, the intermediate product N in which the linear separation portions 18 are intermittently formed substantially at the center of the connecting portion 12 by the separation portion forming device 22 is then sent to the primary cooling water tank 23. Then, it is cooled and the resin on the surface thereof is semi-solidified and sent to the extra-length forming pulley 24.

The extra length forming pulley 24 has a diameter of 30 cm to 2 cm.
It is of an annular shape of about 00 cm, and rotates at a constant speed in the direction of the arrow in the figure. This extra length forming pulley 2
The intermediate product N is wound around the circuit 4 substantially one round and runs in the direction of the arrow. At the time of this winding, the supporting wire 11 and the optical cable 13 come into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the extra length forming pulley 24 as shown in FIG.

Since the diameter of the optical cable 13 and the diameter of the support wire 11 are different from each other and the diameter of the optical cable 13 is larger, the winding diameter of the optical cable 13 among the intermediate products N wound around the extra-length forming pulley 24 is different. It becomes larger than the winding diameter of the support wire 11. Since the extra-length forming pulley 24 rotates at a constant speed, the peripheral speed of the optical cable 13, that is, the traveling speed becomes faster than the traveling speed of the support wire 11. Thereby, the running speed of the optical cable 13 is reduced by winding the intermediate product N around the extra-length forming pulley 24.
It becomes faster than the running speed.

When the intermediate product N moves away from the extra length forming pulley 24, the difference between the two traveling speeds is caused by the optical cable 13
Are partially separated from the support wires 11 at the separation portions 18, 18,..., And appear as slack (excess length) at the separation portions 18, 18,. For this reason, the intermediate product N moving away from the extra-length forming pulley 24 has its optical cable 13 slackened at the positions of the separation parts 18, 18,..., And exhibits a meandering state as shown in FIG.

The intermediate product N in this state is immediately sent to the secondary cooling water tank 25, where it is completely cooled and the resin is solidified. In this way, a slack intermediate product N having the appearance shown in FIG. 7 is obtained.

The intermediate product N is subsequently supplied to a printing device 26 shown in FIGS. This printing device 26
Is an introduction roll 27, a length adjustment roll 28, and a plate cylinder 2
9 is provided. The shape of the length adjusting roll 28 is appropriately determined according to the length ratio between the optical cable 13 and the support wire 11 and the distance between the optical cable 13 and the support wire 11, and the intermediate product N is wound around the outer periphery thereof. At this time, the support wire 11 and the optical cable 13 are formed in such a shape that there is no slack in each other. Specifically, the shape may be a cylinder, a truncated cone, a cone, or the like.

A printing plate is provided on the outer periphery of the plate cylinder 29. Characters and symbols such as a company name and a length mark are formed on the surface of the intermediate product N using ink supplied from an ink supply device (not shown). And so on. The plate cylinder 29 is provided at a position in contact with the intermediate product N wound around the length adjusting roll.

The slacked intermediate product N supplied to the printing device 26 passes through the introduction roll 27 and the adjustment roll 2.
8, passes between the adjusting roll 28 and the plate cylinder 29, and at this time, comes into contact with the plate cylinder 29, and characters and symbols are printed on the intermediate product N.

When the intermediate product N is printed by the plate cylinder 29, as shown in FIG. 6, the support wire 11 and the optical cable 13 of the intermediate product N come into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the adjusting roll 28 due to the tension caused by winding. . At this time, the optical cable 1
3 becomes larger than the winding diameter of the support wire 11,
The optical cable 13 is in a state where the slack is stretched. Therefore, when the intermediate product N in this state comes into contact with the plate cylinder 29, printing is performed while continuously contacting the plate cylinder 29 without leaving the plate cylinder 29. The position where the printing is performed may be the support wire 11 or the connecting portion 12 in addition to the optical cable 13. Through the above process, the overhead optical cable 10 having its surface printed is obtained.

In the method of manufacturing an overhead optical cable of the above example, the intermediate product N is brought into contact with the plate cylinder 29 while the optical cable 13 and the support wire 11 are wound around the length adjusting roll 28 without slack. Therefore, printing can be performed while the intermediate product N is continuously brought into contact with the plate cylinder 29. Therefore, it is possible to reliably and easily perform printing on the optical cable 13, the connecting portion 12, or the support wire 11, and to easily obtain a slack overhead optical cable on which characters and symbols such as a company name and a length mark are securely printed. Can be.

[0021]

According to the method for manufacturing an aerial optical cable of the present invention, the supporting wire and the optical cable are integrated at the connecting portion, and the optical cable having a slack with respect to the supporting wire is formed on the outer periphery of the length adjusting roll. In addition, since the optical cable and the supporting wire are wound around in a state where there is no slack, the printing is performed by contacting the plate cylinder, so that the printing can be performed while the integrated body is continuously contacted with the plate cylinder. Therefore, the optical cable, the connecting part,
Alternatively, printing on the support line can be performed reliably and easily, and an overhead optical cable on which characters and symbols are reliably printed can be easily obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a part of an apparatus for implementing an example of a method for manufacturing an overhead optical cable of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an intermediate product in a production method example of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an intermediate product in a production method example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an enlarged main part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a part of an apparatus for implementing an example of a method for manufacturing an overhead optical cable of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an enlarged main part of the device shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of an overhead optical cable.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... support wire, 12 ... connecting part, 13 ... optical cable, 14
... Support wire body, 16 ... Cable core, 18 ... Separation part, 2
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cross head dice, 22 ... Separation part formation apparatus, 23
... primary cooling water tank, 24 ... extra length forming pulley, 25 ... secondary cooling water tank, 28 ... adjusting roll, 29 ... plate cylinder

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Masayoshi Yamanaka 1440, Mukurosaki, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture Inside Fujikura Sakura Plant Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroto Watanabe 1440, Misaki, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture Fujikura Sakura Plant ( 72) Inventor Suehiro Miyamoto 1440, Misaki, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture Inside Fujikura Sakura Factory (72) Inventor Hideyuki Iwata Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, 3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The support wire main body and the optical cable core are simultaneously fed into a crosshead die of an extruder, and are simultaneously subjected to extrusion coating to integrate the support wire and the optical cable at a connecting portion, and the connecting portion is intermittently separated in the longitudinal direction. Then, in this state, the traveling speed of the optical cable is made faster than the traveling speed of the support line to take both of them, and after the optical cable has a slack with respect to the support line, these are placed on the outer periphery of the length adjusting roll, A method for producing an aerial optical cable, wherein an optical cable and a supporting wire are wound so that they are not slack with each other and printed by contacting a printing plate cylinder.