JPS6157609B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a cable retaining portion of an optical submarine repeater having a water-tight airtight space for accommodating an optical and electrical connection between an optical submarine cable and an optical submarine repeater enclosure. It's about structure.

Similar to the conventional coaxial submarine cable system, in the optical submarine cable system, the repeater casing housing the optical submarine repeater and the optical submarine cable, which have been manufactured and tested separately, are electrically and mechanically connected on the installation ship. The cables are installed after being optically connected. Therefore, this connection structure can accommodate the interconnection of optical fibers and the extra length of optical fiber necessary for the connection work, protect the optical fibers from high water pressure on the seabed at 8000 m, and work in a shipboard environment. Considering this, it must have a structure that is easy to work with. The connections in conventional optical submarine cable systems are derived from the feedthrough attached to the end plate of the optical submarine repeater case and the cable coupling attached to the optical submarine cable terminal, and are inserted into the insulator small-diameter pressure-resistant tube. Optical fibers called vine tail cables are optically connected to each other, and then the small diameter pressure-resistant tubes of the tail cables are mechanically connected to each other, and an insulating coating is applied to the outside of the T-T.
This is done by a method called the Tail to Tail connection method (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 166921/1986
(Refer to Publication No. 56-89708). However, since the tail cable has a small diameter with this method, it is not possible to sufficiently reinforce the joints between the optical fibers, and if the tail cable contains multiple optical fibers, the optical Since the lengths of the optical fibers after being connected are not equal to each other, it may be difficult to accommodate optical fibers of different lengths within the small-diameter pressure-resistant tube. For this reason, a curved tube with a diameter larger than that of the tail cable is used at the T-T connection part, and multiple optical fibers of different lengths can be accommodated by utilizing the difference in the distance that the optical fiber passes through the large diameter curved tube ( special request
No. 55-113023 (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-37317), or a junction chamber with a water pressure resistant structure is placed between the feedthrough of the repeater body and the cable coupling, and the optical fibers are connected to each other. It has been considered to protect the connection part and the excess connection length within a joint chamber to protect it from high water pressure.

However, both of these configurations have some drawbacks. For example, T
- In the T-connection method, problems remain in the watertight structure and insulation structure in addition to the reinforcement and housing structure of the connection part. Also,
In the joint chamber method, the length of the rigid part of the repeater enclosure is approximately equal to the length of the joint chamber, so if the joint that mechanically connects the enclosure and the coupling has a gimbal structure, The distance between the gimbal pins located at both ends of the repeater body inevitably becomes longer. Furthermore, if the distance between the gimbals becomes long, the outer diameter of the repeater shell cannot be made large due to the requirements for compatibility with a drum-type laying machine, and the degree of freedom in the structure design is lost.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention provides a structure of a cable retaining part of an optical submarine repeater, which is characterized in that a joint chamber is provided inside the cable coupling. be.

According to the present invention, the mutual connection portions and connection lengths of optical fibers can be accommodated with sufficient space, and since the joint chamber is provided inside the cable coupling, the repeater enclosure can be accommodated with sufficient space. This has the advantage that the distance between gimbal pins is not affected at all or can be shortened.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail in comparison with a conventional example using the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the structure of a conventional optical submarine repeater body, in which 101 is a pressure-resistant cylinder of the repeater;
02 is a repeater circuit, 103 and 103a are optical fibers and feeder lines called assembly cables, 104 is a feedthrough, 105 is an end plate, 1
06 is a cable coupling, 107 is a tail cable, 108 is an optical submarine cable, 109 is a gimbal joint, 110 is a gimbal pin, and 111 is a cable retaining portion.

In such a conventional structure, the tail cable 1
07 Connect the repeater circuit 102 inside the pressure cylinder 101 and the cable coupling 106 by connecting them between the end plate 105 and the gimbal joint 109, or connect a new one between the end plate 105 and the gimbal joint 109. A joint chamber was installed in the chamber to house the optical fiber connections and protect them from high water pressure.

A feature of the present invention is that, in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, a joint chamber for accommodating the optical fiber connection part and the connection extra length is provided in the cable retaining part in the cable coupling.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing in detail the main parts of the structure of the present invention, in which 1 is an anchor housing, 2 is an insulator,
3 is a cylindrical anchor; 4 is a cone for pressing and holding the cable hole tension line 5 against the anchor 3;
6 and 7 are plates and bolts for pushing the cone 4; 8 is a cage attached to the plate 6 for holding and fixing the optical fiber connection part 10;
In the figure, 9 is an optical fiber unit consisting of four optical fibers, 11 is a lid that is tightened to the anchor 3 with bolts 12 and constitutes a joint chamber 17;
14 is a mold part that continuously insulates the tail cable insulator 18 and the cable coupling insulator 2, 16 is an optical submarine cable, 19 is an O-ring, and 20 is a lid 11.
21 is an insulator molded portion, and 22 is an extension of a gimbal joint (not shown).

Next, the assembly of the structure of the present invention will be explained using FIG. 3 for reinforcement. In the part of the anchor housing 1, the tensile strength wire 5 of the cable is held by the cone 4, the plate 6, and the bolt 7 to one end side of the anchor 3 on which the insulator 2 is molded, excluding the insulator molded part 21, and together with the pressure-resistant layer. The optical fiber is introduced into the anchor 3, the insulation of the cable and the insulation 2 around the anchor 3 are continuously molded and insulated,
It is carried onto the laying ship in the form shown in Figure 3a. That is, up to this point, it is possible to manufacture in advance at a factory. On the other hand, the tail cable 15 led out from the body side is also connected to the pressure tube 13 of the tail cable in advance.
The lid 11 of the joint chamber 17 is hermetically fixed by the brazing part 20, and the outside is covered with an insulator, as shown in FIG. 3b. The optical fiber passing through the tail cable 15 and the optical fiber on the cable side are connected at a connecting part 10 in the joint chamber 17, which is a water pressure resistant space, and are fixed to the cage 8 (FIG. 3c). Next, the lid 11 is fixed to the anchor 3 with bolts 12, after which the insulator mold part 21 is molded, the extension part 22 of the gimbal joint through which the tail cable 15 has been passed in advance is moved (FIG. 3c), and the anchor housing 1 is moved. The assembly of the cable coupling of this structure is completed by fixing it to . In addition, the brazed portion 20 between the pressure tube 13 and the lid 11 of the Tel cable 15,
The insulator mold on the outer periphery may be repaired at the time of assembly on board, and the coupling may then be assembled using the method described above.

As explained above, according to the present invention, by providing a joint chamber in the cable coupling that can accommodate the connection portions between optical fibers and the extra connection length, connection work and reinforcement can be carried out with sufficient space. It is possible to realize an optical submarine cable coupling that can perform the following operations, shorten the distance between gimbals, and provide flexibility in designing the shell.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view with a partial cross section showing an example of the structure of a cable retaining part of a conventional optical submarine repeater, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are side views with a partial cross section showing main parts of an embodiment of the present invention. It is. 101...Pressure cylinder, 102...Relay circuit, 10
3,103a...assembly cable, 104...
Feedsle, 105... End plate, 106... Cable coupling, 107... Tail cable, 10
8... Optical submarine cable, 109... Gimbal joint, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Gimbal pin, 111... Cable retainer, 1... Anchor housing, 2... Insulator, 3... Anchor, 4... Cone, 5... Cable tensile strength wire, 6...
Plate, 7... Bolt, 8... Cage, 9... Optical fiber unit, 10... Connection section, 11... Lid, 12...
Bolt, 13...Pressure tube, 14...Mold part, 15
...Tail cable, 16...Submarine cable, 17...
joint chamber, 18... insulator, 19... O-ring, 20... brazing part, 21... insulator mold part, 22... extension part of gimbal joint.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The cable retaining part in the cable coupling of the optical submarine repeater that retains the optical submarine cable has a cylindrical shape, and one end surface thereof retains the tensile strength wire of the optical submarine cable and has a pressure-resistant layer penetrated. The optical fiber in the pressure-resistant layer is introduced into the pressure layer, and the other end side is hermetically fixed to the tail cable from the enclosure of the optical submarine repeater, and a disc is hermetically fixed as a lid. An anchor having a structure in which a water pressure resistant space is formed between both end faces, and a connecting portion and a connecting excess length between the optical fiber of the optical submarine cable and the optical fiber of the tail cable are accommodated in the water pressure resistant space. and a cylindrical anchor housing for accommodating the anchor inside while insulating it from seawater.