JPS60104911A - Production of supporting body for optical fiber coupling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce an optical fiber supporting body easily by compressing a pipe-like member into which a hard metallic core material having a diameter equal to the diameter of an optical fiber to be coupled is inserted in the core material direction from the external periphery to deform the pipe-like member plastically. CONSTITUTION:The hard metallic core material 50 having a circular section is inserted into the pipe-like member 51 having proper thickness and projection parts on both the sides are pulled in the A, A' direction while being held and then fixed. Then, the intermediate part of the pipe-like member is plastically deformed from three directions shown by arrows C by a prescribed length 53. The core material 50 is pulled out from the deformed pipe-like member 51, the left side part 55 is cut out at a position where the pipe-like member 51 is made a small diameter 56 by the core material 50 and the outer diameter is ground and finished 57 uniformly up to a prescribed outer diameter coaxially with the small diameter 56 to be reference. A flange 35 of which axial positioning is executed by matching its step part 35 of which axial positioning is executed by matching its step part with the end part of the outer diameter of the pipe-like member 51 is pressed or adhered into/to the end part to obtain the supporting member easily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an improved optical fiber support for use in coupling devices for optical fibers, fiber optic cables, and the like.

Optical transmission lines used for testing and measuring optical communication systems and optical circuits are made of optical glass or plastics with different refractive indexes and a predetermined refraction height, and are used as the core and cladding layers with a predetermined cross-sectional dimension. The thin wires (hereinafter referred to as optical fibers), the rows of which are made of synthetic resin,
For example, protected forest JIB l1 for silicone, urethane, etc.
iii, an intermediate layer consisting of a fiber layer such as polyimide resin (trade name: nylon) as a reinforcing material, and an outer jacket layer integrally extruded from materials such as polyethylene or vinyl. Alternatively, there are thin optical fiber cords in which an optical fiber is coated with a resin.

When such optical fibers such as optical fiber cables and cords are coupled to the main part of equipment or other optical fibers with their end faces facing each other, the ends of the optical fibers are connected to an optical fiber coupling device.

When connecting optical fibers to an optical fiber coupling device, since the optical fibers have a small diameter, it is necessary to position them correctly and connect them so that there is no optical axis misalignment between them. The constituent members of an optical fiber coupling device, particularly the optical fiber support (core), are required to have very strict dimensional accuracy. Therefore, parts manufactured by conventional machining, etc. are inevitably high in cost due to yield gaps, etc., and are not efficient.

For example, as shown in FIG.
1 and a plug body 21 fitted with a bag-shaped nut 22 and a retaining ring 23 on the outside, and insert optical fiber supports (cores) 3 and 3' each having an optical fiber fixed thereto, and rubber boots 5 and 5'.
is screwed onto each of the attached clampers 4.4'i, and tightened and fixed from the back side of the large-diameter outer circumferential portion 30 of the support 30.The standard of the optical fiber support 3 on one side of the optical fiber coupling device is The outer peripheral part 31 is fitted into the reference hole 12 of the jack main body 1, and its position is determined by the stepped part 33, and the protruding part of the other T fiber support 3' is fitted into the reference hole 12 of the jack main body. Then, the end surfaces 34 and 34' are brought into contact with each other, and the optical fiber ends located at the respective centers are coupled.

Conventionally, the optical fiber support 3 is as shown in FIG.
The outer diameter of the optical fiber cable 6' can be inserted from the large diameter side 30 end of the support body (and the outer diameter 31
A support body with a hole 32 that is concentric with the original fiber and that exactly fits the original fiber 1- is formed by cutting, or a speed hole 32' is drilled in the center as shown in Fig. 3 f. Insert the optical fiber cable 6'' with the optical fiber strand fully exposed at the end into the support, adjust the position of the optical fiber so that it is concentric with the reference outer diameter 31 of the support, and apply adhesive. There was a way to fix it with.

In the former case, although the drilling work was performed with high precision by cutting, only short lengths could be obtained at that part, so the outer diameter and hole of the optical fiber 69 were changed as shown in FIG. Due to the inner diameter difference of 32, it is impossible to prevent the axis B of the optical fiber from being tilted with respect to the axis MA of the hole. The latter is not suitable for connecting optical fibers quickly or on a large scale because the workability of centrally positioning the optical fibers is poor.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a support for an optical fiber coupling device, which is provided with a hole through which an optical fiber can be inserted and supported correctly in the center. Insert a linear core made of a hard circular material with a predetermined size that forms a desired hole diameter through which the optical fiber can be passed through a tubular member having an appropriate wall thickness;
Next, the intermediate portion of the tubular member is compressively deformed into a concave shape having a predetermined axial length on the outer periphery from at least three equally spaced directions in the direction of the core material, and the internal shape of the tubular member is determined based on the deformation. and a step of cutting the compressively deformed portion of the tubular member along a plane perpendicular to the axial direction so that the portion where the inner diameter of the tubular member has the desired hole diameter size becomes the end face. A step of circularly polishing an outer shape including a protrusion that can be deformed and protruded between the recesses by the compressive deformation of the outer diameter of the tubular member to a predetermined outer diameter with reference to the desired hole portion of the end surface, and the cutting. positioned in axial abutment on the other end side of the end face;
The above objective is achieved by including the step of attaching the O flange.

An embodiment of the method of manufacturing a support for an optical fiber coupling device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 shows (a) to (e) one embodiment of the process for manufacturing an optical fiber support according to the method of the present invention. In the figure (a)
is a hard metal core material 50 with a circular cross section. For example, the tubular member 51 is made of a piano wire or tungsten wire that has been hardened and polished so that its outer diameter is equal to the diameter of a predetermined optical fiber, and has an appropriate wall thickness. 52 stainless steel tube, grip the protruding parts on both sides, and pull and fix in the directions of arrows A and A'.

Next, (b1) the middle part 53 of the tubular part 51 is shown in cross section B and B' from the outer periphery in the direction of the core material 50. Press 3
It is a directionally movable type having a predetermined length of 53fc in the axial direction, and is subjected to compressive plastic deformation. Then, the outer shape of the tube 51 bulges outward at the portion where the inner shape of the core matches the outer diameter of the core material 50 and the adjacent pressed boundary portion, and the inner shape of this portion is exactly the same as that of the crack-shaped portion 54. is formed, and most of the core material 50 corresponds to a circular shape.

The core material 50 is extracted from the deformed pipe member 51, and (
d) As shown in the figure, cut the outer shape (indicated by imaginary lines) to a position where the inner diameter on the left side in the figure becomes the part where the large diameter part 55 is made into a small diameter part 56 by 5 degrees of core material, and cut the small diameter part 56. Based on the reference, the outer diameter is entirely coaxial and uniformly polished to a circular polishing finish 57 to a precise desired size.

The thus obtained tubular member, that is, the optical fiber support 58, is attached to the outer diameter end of the flange 35, which is positioned in the axial direction by the stepped portion abutting the end face as shown in FIG. A joining device can be constructed by press-fitting or gluing. Of course, in this case, 57 becomes the reference outer diameter portion. Alternatively, a step with a small diameter may be formed in advance on the end side of the optical fiber support 58, and a flange with a straight inner diameter may be press-fitted into this step, which can be selected and implemented as appropriate in terms of design.

In any of the above cases, the bare optical fiber portion is inserted into the small diameter hole 56, and the coated portion of the optical fiber is inserted into the uncompressed portion of the hole 52 to bond and fix the optical fiber (not shown) and the optical fiber support 58. The end face is polished to make the optical fiber end optically flat.

The small-diameter hole 56 can easily have an inner diameter that allows accurate insertion with a gap of several μm or less from the outer diameter of the optical fiber. This can be avoided by selecting and determining the diameter of the core material 50 in advance to a predetermined size so that the inner diameter of the small diameter hole 56 formed when the tube member 51 is compressed and deformed has the desired size. be.

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, a highly accurate optical fiber support can be produced with great precision and ease. Heartwood 5
0 can be used repeatedly or - can be used only once,
Due to the hardness of the material, it will not deform when compressed. The length portion 53 of the inner diameter 56 can be arbitrarily determined by the core material 50, and the optical fiber diameter is 100 μm.
In some cases, conventional hole drilling could only obtain a length of one inch or less, but with the method of the present invention, a length of lam.
Since the length K can be easily manufactured with a precise inner diameter, the optical fiber end can be supported stably with little inclination.

The core material 50 may be extracted after being cut at the end surface in the process shown in FIG.

In addition, in the case shown in (e), especially (d)
In the drawing process, the outer diameter is first roughly finished, then barrel processing is performed to make the corners of the outer shape m-sided and to remove burrs, etc., and then a slight finishing polishing process is performed, and the finishing barrel processing is performed again. These barrel processing steps deburr and smooth the external surface, round the corners, and harden the surface.

In addition, suitably heat-treating the tubular member before compression deformation, during the compression process, after deformation, etc. brings good results in improving the dimensional stability of the tubular member.

As shown in FIG. 6, if an adapter 37 with screws 36 and 36' formed at both ends of 727961 is used at the center of the outer periphery, the optical fiber supports 3 and 3' can be inserted from both sides facing each other, and then tightened with appropriate gob-shaped nuts. If so, it can be configured as an optical coupling device.

It goes without saying that in any of the above-mentioned cases, the method of the present invention may be such that the deformation stage of the tubular member is not set at the desired inner diameter from the beginning, but is deformed and formed step by step, and the desired diameter is achieved at the final stage. There is no such thing.

As described above, the method of the present invention involves inserting a hard metal core having a circular cross section into a softer tubular member, compressing the tubular member from the outer periphery in the direction of the core, and plastically deforming the tubular member. A hole is obtained in which the inner diameter of the member is set to a desired size depending on the outer diameter of the upper piece, and the formed inner diameter portion forms one end surface and also has the shape and size of the outer shape. Precise and long holes can be produced by pressing, isopressure, and compression means, and the holes that appear on the end surface are
Since the external shape is accurately positioned relative to the inner diameter hole, and the flange can be provided integrally, excellent effects can be achieved by using only a few optical fibers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows an example of a pair of optical fiber coupling devices connected to a jack (
The Ha and plug sides are shown in 1t and 1 cross-sectional views, respectively. 2 and 3 are side views of a conventional optical fiber support, FIG. FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of the adapter. In the figure, 1 is a jack, 2 is a plug, 3 is an optical fiber support, 61'i original fiber cable, 69 is an optical fiber,
Reference numeral 11 indicates a jack body, 12Ii reference hole, 311:l: reference outer peripheral portion, 50 a core material, 51 a tubular member, 53 a compression portion, and 58 an optical fiber support. Figure 1 Figure 2 Measure 3 Figure 4 Figure 1 Figure 5 (ll)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A linear core material made of a hard circular material with a predetermined size to form a desired hole diameter through which an optical fiber can be inserted is inserted into a tubular member having an appropriate wall thickness, and then inserted into the middle of the tubular member. The outer periphery is compressively deformed into a concave shape with a predetermined axial length from three equally spaced directions in the direction of the core material, and the inner shape of the tubular member of the portion based on the deformation is changed to the outer dimensions of the core material. a step of cutting the compressively deformed portion of the tubular member along a plane perpendicular to the axial direction and making the portion where the inner diameter of the tubular member has the desired hole diameter size the end face; a step of circularly polishing the outer diameter of the tubular member, including the protruding portion that can deform and protrude between the recesses due to the compressive deformation of the outer diameter of the tubular member, to a predetermined outer diameter; A method for manufacturing a support for an optical fiber coupling device, comprising the step of attaching flanges that are positioned in abutment.