JPS61100355A - Optical connector end-face polisher - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of parts item and highly accurate parts as well as to make the promotion of miniaturization and lightweightiness plus reduction in cost attainable, by constituting it so as to make a cylindrical member, concentrically fitted in a cylindrical box body, hold an optical connector holding plate, while forming a shaft of an end-face polisher into one axis. CONSTITUTION:An optical connector 12 is set to hole installed in the central part of an optical connector holding plate 6 with a screw 14 via a spring 13, and when a drive motor starts to rotate, a polisher also rotates whereby an optical connector end face receiving pressure of the spring 13 polished by a lapping film 5. Here, with the optical connector holding plate 6 slidden, all parts on the lapping film is usable for polishing without unevenness, thus a good finished surface is securable. And, when the following three points that 1) a box body having a coaxial cylindrical part with a rotary shaft of the polisher is secured, 2) an inner diameter of a cylinder 20 is fitted in the box body without any laod motion and 3) squareness of the end face at the side of the holding plate 6 is secured are all satisfied, parallelism between the holding plate 6 and the polisher 4 is guaranteed, and with the promotion of muniaturization and lightweightiness and simplification in parts polishing in a simple structure plus reduction in the number of parts items, low-unit cost of production is realizable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a polishing machine for polishing the end face of an optical fiber connector. [Prior Art] Conventionally, an end face polishing machine used for assembling optical connectors fixes a polishing disk 4 and its rotating shaft 15, and an optical connector holding plate 6 and its holding plate 6, as shown in FIG. axis 16 for
It consists of an eccentric rotating shaft 17 for swinging the jig, and a drive device 1 for the aforementioned polishing disk 4 and eccentric rotating shaft 17.

In polishing the optical connector, first, the optical connector is fixed to the optical connector holding plate 6, and then the holding plate 6 is fixed to the shaft 16, and at the same time, it is set on the eccentric rotating shaft 17.

Next, when the drive section 1 is started, the polishing disk 4 starts rotating, and the optical connector holding plate 6 swings on the polishing disk due to the rotation of the eccentric rotating shaft 17. The end face of the optical connector is polished under processing pressure due to the weight of the optical connector holding plate 6, the fixed shaft 16 of the holding plate 6, and the like. For example, JP-A-57-1
No. 63049 discloses an end face polishing machine having such a conventional structure.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, such conventional end face polishing machines had the following drawbacks.

-Secondly, in addition to the rotating shaft 15 of the polishing disk, two axes are required: a rotating shaft 16 for fixing the optical connector holding plate and an eccentric rotating shaft 17 for swinging the optical connector holding plate. Since it is necessary to maintain rotational accuracy, there are many metal parts such as bearings.

Therefore, if these three axes and bearings are placed in the same housing, it will inevitably become large and heavy, which is a huge drawback in terms of portability as a device for assembling optical connectors on site. .

Second, the perpendicularity of the polished end face of the optical connector has a great effect on the connection loss of the optical connector, so it must be polished with high precision. It must be swung while being fixed in good parallelism with the connector holding plate 6. In order to do this, the rotating shaft 15 of the polishing plate 4 and the retaining plate fixing shaft 16 must be positioned in parallel, and the retaining plate fixing shaft 16 must rotate without play.
The surface of the optical connector holding temporary holder of the holding plate fixing shaft 16 is required to be parallel to the polishing plate 4. In order to fully satisfy these requirements, in conventional end face polishing machines, the machining accuracy of single parts such as shafts and bearings is strict, and the accuracy of mounting shafts etc. to the housing is also strict. For this reason, this type of end face polishing machine is necessarily an expensive device, which is a fatal drawback in making it widely available to on-site assembly workers.

Currently, in Japan, for example, optical fiber is being installed throughout the country under the N8 project, and ITV
Communication networks using optical fibers, such as LAN, CATV, etc., are steadily increasing due to their great advantages, but optical connectors, which are one of the most important parts used in these networks, are low-priced. 1. There is a strong demand for ease of assembly (quick assembly, assembly at any location, etc.)9, and in particular for the latter, the emergence of a lightweight and inexpensive end face polishing machine is desired0. Therefore, the present invention This kind of polishing 1
The machine is large and draws electricity, so it cannot be carried freely to the optical connector assembly site or easily worked on, and the equipment configuration requires a large number of parts to achieve high precision, and the processing accuracy is strict, making it expensive. In order to solve the drawback of becoming a physical object, the aim is to obtain a portable optical connector polishing machine for on-site assembly work that is small and lightweight and has a reduced cost by simplifying the shape of the component parts. .

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention forms a casing having a cylindrical driving device and a power source that are coaxial with the rotating shaft of the polishing machine, and a cylindrical part of the cylindrical casing on the polishing machine side. A matching cylindrical member is provided, and the cylindrical member holds the optical connector holding plate, and the optical connector holding plate is configured to move parallel to the polishing plate.

By adopting this structure in which the optical connector holding plate is held by a cylindrical member that is coaxially engaged with the cylindrical housing, the end face polishing machine has a simple shape with only one axis, and the parts can be easily assembled. A significant reduction in the number of parts and high-precision parts was achieved, and the objective of making the end face polisher smaller and lighter and lowering the cost was achieved. The weight of the end face polishing machine manufactured with the structure according to the present invention is about 5,002 kg, which is less than the weight of the conventional machine.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a drive motor 1 obtains power from a battery 5,
The reduction gear 2 lowers the rotation speed and increases the torque, and transmits the rotation to the polishing plate 4. A wrapping film 5 (manufactured by Sumitomo 3M, for example) coated with a minute abrasive is pasted on the polishing disk 4. The optical connector holding plate 6 is attached to the cylindrical housing 7
It is held by a head 8 that engages with the polishing plate 4, and can slide parallel to the polishing plate 4. The head 8 is fixed to the cylindrical housing 7 with screws 9. In addition, the ring 10 is a cylindrical housing 7.
Again, it is fixed with screws 11, and determines the position where the head 8 is fixed to the cylindrical housing 7. The optical connector 12 is set into a hole provided in the center of the optical connector holding plate 6 by a screw 14 via a spring 16. When the drive motor 1 starts, the polishing disk 4 rotates, and the end face of the optical connector, which has been subjected to the pressure of the spring 15, is polished by the wrapping film 5. At this time, by sliding the optical connector holding plate 6, the top of the sillapping film can be used evenly for polishing, and a good polished surface can be obtained. When the wrapping film becomes unusable, it can be easily replaced by removing the head 8 from the cylindrical housing 7. For this reason, a removable adhesive is applied to the back side of the wrapping film or the surface of the polishing plate. Furthermore, by selecting wrapping films, bub polishing cloths, etc. of various roughnesses and pasting them on the polishing plate 4, it is possible to easily apply the polishing of optical connectors made of various materials.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the optical connector holding portion of the optical connector holding plate 6 according to the present invention. A hole is provided in the center of the holding plate 6, and the optical connector holding bushing 18 is fixed in the hole of the holding plate with screws 19. Holding plate 6 for bushing 18
By making it a separate part, it is possible to easily create optical connectors of various shapes.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the head in the present invention.

The cylinder 2o has an inner diameter that fits with the cylindrical housing, and the cylinder 21 has a notch for housing the optical connector holding plate 6.
It is fixed at 2. With such a configuration, it is possible to obtain a housing having a cylindrical portion coaxial with the rotating shaft of the polishing disk, to ensure that the inner diameter of the cylinder 20 is engaged with the housing without play, and that the end surface of the cylinder 20 on the retaining plate 6 side is Obtaining the right angle ensures parallelism between the holding plate 6 and the polishing plate 4. The processing of each part to realize this is cylindrical cutting as described above, and can be performed at extremely low cost.

Furthermore, although a battery is used as the drive source in this embodiment, it goes without saying that the motor may be driven by an external power source. In addition, even if the optical connector holding plate 6 is slid manually, a sufficiently good polishing surface can be obtained.
For example, when the present invention is implemented as a tabletop type, the reciprocating movement of the holding plate 6 may be performed by an external drive source.

Similarly, the polishing part of the optical connector 12 includes not only the end face of the optical fiber but also the end face of the ferrule and plug that protect the optical fiber, but it is also possible to polish only the end face of the optical fiber wire.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has a simple structure in which an optical connector holding plate is provided on a cylindrical member (head) that engages with a cylindrical housing, which makes the end face grinding machine smaller and lighter, and facilitates processing of various component parts. We have achieved lower prices by simplifying the process and reducing the number of parts. As a result, it is possible to supply a small, lightweight, and inexpensive end face polishing machine that is portable for on-site work of optical connector assembly, and has a very large effect on the fields of communication and measurement using optical fibers.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an optical connector end surface polishing machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional optical connector end surface polishing machine.
FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of the optical connector holding plate according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the force of the head portion including the optical connector holding plate according to the present invention. 1. Drive motor 4. ...polishing machine &...
・Optical connector holding plate l...Cylindrical housing a...Head 12...Optical connector and above Applicant Seiko Electronic Industries Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Mogami Affairs Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] A drive motor, a polishing disk that is connected directly or indirectly to the motor shaft of the drive motor and rotates, a cylindrical casing that protects the drive motor and the polishing disk from the outside, and an optical fiber on the surface of the polishing disk. an optical connector holding plate for vertically holding the end face of the optical fiber or a ferrule for protecting the end face; and an optical connector holding plate for guiding the optical connector holding plate to reciprocate parallel to the polishing surface of the polishing disk. An optical connector end face polishing machine comprising a guiding head fixed to a housing.