JPS61232404A - Method and device for cutting optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an excellent end surface state by making a flaw in the glass part of an optical fiber core placed on a base body with a flawing blade having high hardness and then moving it away from the base body, and applying a tensile force to the glass part and cutting it at the flawed part. CONSTITUTION:The optical fiber core 1 is placed on the base 2 of a cutting device and an upper case 3 is closed. Then, the coating part 11 of the optical fiber core 1 is clamped and the position of the boundary between the coating part 11 and glass part 12 is specified with a stopper 9 to determine the cutting length of the glass part 12. The flawing blade 4 which is optimized by a pressure adjusting spring is lowered in said state to make an initial flaw in the glass part 12, and the flawing blade 4 is elevated. Then, the pressure member 52 of a glass part clamping part 5 is lowered 1a to clamp the optical fiber core 1 with a movable part 51 near the end of the glass part 12. Then, the clamping part 5 is rotated around a pivot 7 as shown by an arrow (d) to move away from the base 2 and then an axial tension force is applied to the glass part of the optical fiber core 1 to cut the glass part 12'. Consequently, an excellent specular end surface is obtained and cutting operation which is reliable for a long period is possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for cutting the end face of an optical fiber into a mirror surface, and a cutting device used therefor.

(Prior art) Figure 4 shows an example of a conventional method for cutting optical fibers.
7-6082) is an explanatory diagram.

In the drawing, (1) is an optical fiber (ID is its coating part, and GZ is a glass part exposed by removing the coating.The coating part GD of the optical fiber (1) is connected to the fixing part (
42) At the same time, fix the tip of the glass part Ob to the fixing device (4I) while fixing it with the holding plate (43). A leaf spring (4) is connected between the fixing device (41) and the covering part fixing part (42).
4), and a rubber elastic plate (45) is provided on the surface of the leaf spring (44).

After fixing the optical fiber core (1) as shown in Figure 4 (a), cut the glass part Q21 with a scratching blade (4G) made of diamond, cemented carbide, etc. at the cutting position of the glass part Q21. cause cutting wounds. Next, bend the leaf spring (44) part in an arc upwards as shown in Fig. 4 (as rumored), and apply axial tension to the glass part +121. Then, the glass portion (12') can be cut into a vertically broken end surface as shown in FIG.

(Problems to be solved) In the above method, the center of bending cannot be determined because the bending force is applied to the glass part (121) of the optical fiber (1) by the plate spring (44) to apply tension in the axial direction. Well, I don't know if the minimum curvature part will be at the critical injury position.

(4) As the leaf spring (44) is used more frequently, it undergoes plastic deformation and becomes so-called "cuspid", causing damage and cutting conditions to change.

■Originally, it is difficult to break the glass part +121 of the optical fiber core (1) with only bending stress and obtain a mirror surface, which requires the coexistence of tensile stress, but the latter is not suitable for the mechanism using plate springs. difficult to give.

There were problems such as.

In particular, if the initial scratch on the glass portion a'b is less than an appropriate size, the leaf spring (44) is extremely bent to reduce the curvature and the glass portion Q? ), and as a result, the cut end surface of the glass portion 1121 is not perpendicular to the axis, or the end surface is chipped, resulting in unevenness, and the leaf spring (44) exceeds its elastic limit. Because it is bent by being bent, it easily gets bent and does not recover, and the leaf spring (44) rises or sinks at the landing point of the damaging blade (46),
This will change the state of injury next time.

Furthermore, if the leaf spring (44) rises or sinks at the landing point of the damaging blade (46), the glass part G21 itself will not be stable, and the blade will slide in the axial direction of the glass part 021 when it is inserted. This will unnecessarily make the initial wound larger. This results in variations in the cutting position, which causes variations in the cutting length of each core in the case of a single-core optical fiber, and an increase in the amount of irregularities in the end faces in the case of a multi-core optical fiber.

(Means for solving the problem) Solving the p-q reading of fat and decoys 1. The first aspect of the present invention provides an optical fiber cutting method and a cutting device that obtain a good end face condition (right angle, mirror surface) over the same number of bends.
The feature is that after scratching the glass portion of the optical fiber core placed on the substrate with a high-hardness scratching blade, the glass portion is grasped near the end and moved in a direction away from the substrate. The method for cutting an optical fiber includes applying a tensile force to the glass portion and cutting the optical fiber at the damaged portion. an upper case having a scratching blade that grips the coating portion of the coated optical fiber placed on the base body and scratches the glass portion; and after scratching the glass portion of the coated optical fiber. An optical fiber cutting device includes a mechanism for gripping an end of a glass portion and moving it in a direction away from a base to apply a tensile force to the glass portion.

(Embodiment) Fig. 1 is a partially cross-sectional side view of one embodiment of the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention (Fig.
FIG. 2 is a partial side view showing the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1.

The cutting device in this embodiment is a main component.

Holding the coated portion GD of the optical fiber (1) and the glass portion 02+ exposed by removing the coating, the base body ■ holds the coated portion (ID) of the coated optical fiber (1)
Injury blade that gives initial scratches to 1 (upper case (3)
), and a glass part gripping part (2) having a mechanism that, after damaging the glass part (121), grips the vicinity of the end of the glass part GZ, moves in a direction away from the base body (1), and applies a tensile force to the surface of the glass part. It is growing.

The base body (■) is made of elastic rubber or plastic material so that the scratching blade (4) applies uniform force to the surface of the glass part +121 on the surface on which the glass parts q of the optical fiber core (1) are placed. It has a body layer, and is connected to the movable member (51) of the glass gripping part (5I) by a pivot (3) at a point separated from this surface, and a spring device (5I) is provided between the two (5I). ! ■ is intervening. Further, a stopper (9) is provided on the base body (2) to define the position of the boundary between the coating portion OD of the optical fiber (1) and the glass portion 021.

The upper case (3) is openably and closably connected to the base body (2) by a pivot OC, and the coated portion OD of the optical fiber (1)
A covering part fixing spring GJ is provided where the glass part of the optical fiber (1) is located, and a scratching spring GJ is provided where the glass part surface of the optical fiber core (1) is located to give an initial scratch in a direction perpendicular to the glass part da. It is equipped with a blade (4).It also has a blade pressure adjustment spring (+141) for applying an optimal initial scratch to the glass portion 021.

The glass gripper ■ has the same plane height as the base ■ and is connected to the base ■ by a pivot ■ and a spring device ■, and can rotate in the direction of the arrow (4#) in Figure 2 about the pivot ■. The provided movable member (51) and the movable member (51)
) and is lowered along the guide shaft (53) to the position indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 2 to grip the vicinity of the end of the glass surface. Note that an elastic body FJ (54) is provided on the upper surface of the movable member (5I) to make the gripping force of the glass portion 112+ uniform.
This elastic layer (54) may be provided on the lower surface of the pressing member (52).

The coated portion GD of the optical fiber (1) is gripped by placing the optical fiber (1) on the base body (1) of the above-mentioned cutting device shown in FIG. 1 and closing the upper case (3).

At this time, the cut length of the glass part G is determined by specifying the position of the boundary between the covering part (D) and the glass part Ob with the stop bar (gl). The scratching blade (4), which has been optimized to be able to apply the glass, is lowered, gives an initial scratch to the glass part GZI, and then the scratching blade (4) is raised.

Next, the holding member (52) of the glass part gripping part (2) is lowered (!α) to the position indicated by the dotted line in FIG. Grip near the end of J. Thereafter, as shown in Fig. 2, rotate the gripping part 0 in the direction of the arrow mark) around the pivot axis
When moved in the direction away from the optical fiber (1
) is applied an axial tensile force to the glass portion (12'), and the glass portion (12') is cut.

FIG. 3(A) is a partially sectional side view of another embodiment of the cutting device of the present invention, and FIG. 3(B) and FIG. It is an X3 arrow view. In addition, on the M side, the 1st group, L-Ko-Koichijo, has the H part covered.

In this embodiment, the optical fiber core (1) is inserted into the fixing jig Qθ, placed on the base body (■), and is held by the fixing jig clamp spring (13') of the upper case (■).
The movable member (51) of the glass gripper (2) is connected to the base body (2) via a crank mechanism 09, and the operation of the crank mechanism (15) ■ moves approximately horizontally in the direction of the arrow (C) in the figure, and the glass portion 021 of the optical fiber core (1)
This is largely different from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that the cutting is performed by applying a tensile force mainly in the horizontal direction to the material. In addition, in the figure, the elastic layer (
54), but it is of course possible to provide it on the upper surface of the movable member (5I).

(Experiment example) To cut the glass part of the optical fiber core,
Although it is necessary to make an initial scratch, good scratches cannot be made on glass parts whose main component is quartz unless a scratching blade made of a material with a hardness higher than that of cemented carbide is usually used.

Here, two types of AlB were selected as the cemented carbide, and the results of a durability test are shown in the following table.

From the results shown in the table above, it was confirmed that a scratching blade with a hardness of 90 or more can withstand at least 1000 cycles in the case of a single core, and 500 cycles or more in the case of multiple cores.

(Effect of the invention) According to the optical fiber cutting method and cutting device of the present invention,
It is possible to always give an appropriate minimum initial scratch in the vertical direction to the glass part of the optical fiber core placed on the substrate, and by applying stress, mainly tensile, to the glass part, a good mirror surface can be achieved. This makes it possible to obtain an end face with a long-term reliability and long-term reliable cutting.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1(a) is a partially cross-sectional side view of an embodiment of the optical fiber cutting device of the present invention, FIG. 1(b) is a view taken along arrows X+-X+ in FIG. 1 is a partial side view showing the operation of the cutting device shown in FIG. 1, FIG.
B) and (C) are respectively X2- at position g in Figure 3 (A).
It is an X2 and X3 arrow view. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a conventional method for cutting an optical fiber. ■... Optical fiber core wire, 11... Sheathing part, 12...
・Glass part, 2... Base, 3... Upper case, 4...
- Damaging blade, 5... Glass part gripping part, 51... Movable member, 52... Pressing member, 7.10... Pivot, 8...
・Spring device, 9... Stopper, +4... Blade pressure at spring, 1G... Optical fiber core wire fixing jig. 1 Figure (0) 2 Figure O 3 Figure (A)

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) After scratching the glass portion of the optical fiber core placed on the substrate with a high-hardness scratching blade, grasp the vicinity of the end of the glass portion and move it in the direction away from the substrate. 1. A method for cutting an optical fiber, comprising applying a tensile force to the damaged portion and cutting the optical fiber at the damaged portion. (2) The method for cutting an optical fiber according to claim 1, wherein a cemented carbide having a Rockwell hardness of 90 or more, diamond, or a synthetic crystal material is used as the high-hardness damaging blade. (3) Hold the vicinity of the end of the glass part on a movable member whose rotation center is a point away from the optical fiber mounting surface of the base body, and apply tensile force to the glass part by rotating the movable member. A method for cutting an optical fiber according to claim 1, characterized in that: (4) Grasp the vicinity of the end of the glass portion on a movable member provided with a crank mechanism between it and the base body, and apply a tensile force to the glass portion by moving the movable member in a direction away from the base body using the crank mechanism. A method for cutting an optical fiber according to claim 1, characterized in that: (5) Grip the coated part of the optical fiber and the base on which the exposed glass part is placed after removing the coat, and the coated part of the coated optical fiber placed on the base to scratch the glass part. an upper case having a scratching blade that applies a scratching force to the glass portion of the optical fiber core wire; and a mechanism that grips the end of the glass portion after scratching the glass portion of the optical fiber core wire and moves it in a direction away from the base to apply a tensile force to the glass portion. An optical fiber cutting device characterized by: (6) A mechanism that applies a tensile force to the glass portion is connected to the base body by a pivot at a point apart from the optical fiber placement surface of the base body, and a movable member and a glass portion holding member whose rotation center is the pivot axis. An optical fiber cutting device according to claim 5, characterized by comprising the following. (7) The optical fiber according to claim 5, wherein the mechanism for applying a tensile force to the glass portion comprises a movable member having a crank mechanism between it and the base body and a glass portion holding member. cutting equipment.