JPS62299544A - Optical fiber fabric - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of Invention] The present invention relates to an optical fiber fabric, and more specifically, a fabric in which optical fibers are woven without bending, and , relates to an optical fiber fabric that is less likely to cause microbending due to the woven structure.

[Conventional technology]

Various decorations and displays have been developed in which optical fiber fabrics are bent and formed and light leaks from the bent portions.Also, it is possible to partially damage the surface of the optical fiber fabric and cause light to leak from that area. , Special Publication No. 47-42554,
JP-A-54-163045, JP-A-55-259
This method is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 50-63274 and the like.

[The problem that the invention attempts to solve]

As mentioned above, conventional optical fiber fabrics utilize light leakage at the bending part of the optical fiber at the intersection of the warp and weft. The light leakage level is limited to a lower level than that obtained by damaging a tape or sheet made of optical fibers, for example, and the luminance distribution at the leakage source is not uniform, and the light leakage area is also limited9. However, the problem was that the optical transmission properties were not good, which placed significant restrictions on the product development.

In this way, the means of light leakage by bending optical fibers has limitations in obtaining high brightness at the light leakage part, and it is unsuitable for transmitting light, which imposes significant restrictions on the development of applications. is the actual situation.

On the other hand, some attempts have been made to minimize the bending caused by the woven structure of optical fibers, such as by using flexible threads to intersect with optical fibers. However, the optical fiber fabric made by this method is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.
As shown in the figure, the optical fiber (1) is composed of intersecting threads (2).
) A microbending part (4), which is a minute bend, occurs at the intersection point of the optical fiber, a large number of crazes occur in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the optical fiber, or the boundary between the core material and sheath material of the optical fiber. If light is incident from the end face of the optical fiber, causing a phenomenon such as peeling at the intersection, light leakage at the intersection becomes considerably large.

Therefore, the optical FI1. constituting the optical fiber fabric obtained by such means. For example, when light leaks from the side of a predetermined location of an optical fiber fabric, it is extremely inappropriate for the transmission of light in gI. Since light is leaking at the intersection points of the fiber fabric, the brightness at the light leaking portions is also insufficient.

[Means for solving problems]

The present inventors have developed an optical fiber fabric that is excellent in light transmission even though it is an optical fiber fabric, and furthermore, by adding a damaged part of an arbitrary area to the side surface of the optical fiber fabric, The present invention was completed as a result of studies aimed at obtaining an optical fiber fabric in which the damaged portion can serve as a high-intensity surface light source.

The gist of the present invention is that optical fibers are arranged in warp or weft yarns that are finer than optical fibers and are easy to bend, and are arranged every other optical fiber or every few optical fibers that have substantially no bent portions. This is an optical fiber fabric in which only the yarns are bent and intersect with the opposing warp or weft so that they do not substantially protrude from the arrangement surface of the optical fiber fabric, and the second gist is the side surface of the fabric. This is an optical fiber fabric characterized by the presence of a damaged area of arbitrary area.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 6 and 7 each show an optical V made by the conventional technology.
& Figures are a side view and a sectional view of the textile fabric, and as described above, the optical fiber (1) is intersected with the yarn (2).
), microbending or a large number of crazes (4) may occur at the intersection with the optical fiber, or peeling may occur at the boundary between the core material and sheath material of the optical fiber. Even if light is incident on one end of the optical fiber of the fabric, the light leaks through the defective portion, and the amount of light reaching the other end of the optical fiber is significantly reduced.

For example, when weaving an optical fiber fabric by arranging optical fibers in the warp and using other threads in the weft, tension is necessarily applied to the weft when weaving the weft, and in order to absorb this tension, the warp must be Either the weft or the weft needs to be bent. Usually, the yarn (in this case, the weft), which has the characteristics of being fine and easy to bend, is bent, but the bending of the weft alone cannot absorb the tension, and the optical fiber, which is the warp, is also bent. This phenomenon is the same even if the warp and weft materials are switched.

Optical fiber fabrics using optical fibers as warp threads will be described below. In order to avoid bending the optical fibers, it is necessary to use a perspective view of the optical fiber fabric of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, a side view of the optical fiber fabric of the present invention shown in FIG. It is necessary to have a configuration as shown in the cross-sectional view.

That is, optical fiber (1) and optical fiber (1) in these figures.
! By alternately arranging 5fi11f&if&tsu+fll easy yarn *(3) and making sure that the weft (2) intersects with the yarn (3), the warp (3) is aligned with the weft (2) as shown in FIG.
), and along with the bending of the weft, all the tension of the weft is absorbed, so that an optical fiber fabric is formed in which the tension of the weft has no effect on the optical fibers.

According to the above-mentioned principle, the optical fibers have fine and easily bendable threads (3) arranged every one to every few optical fibers (1), and the wefts (2) and the threads (3) It is necessary to cross only the

Therefore, the yarn (5) that absorbs the tension of the weft does not necessarily have to be arranged alternately with the optical fibers, but as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the yarn (5) for two optical fibers (1) (3) One t is arranged, or the yarn (5) f: 1 for three optical fibers (1).
The number of optical fibers (1) may be more than five, depending on the case. In addition, one or more threads (3) are arranged in line against the optical fiber, but in this case, the threads (3)
! 1) is not limited to one, and even if a plurality of them are arranged in succession, there is no problem in view of the gist of the present invention. Naturally, it is necessary that the plurality of consecutive threads (3) be finer than optical fibers as a mass and be easily curved.

In order to obtain this optical fiber fabric of the present invention, the arrangement of the optical fiber (1) and the yarn (3) and the intersection with the weft (2) are changed to the yarn (3).
If you make sure to do this, you can use the normal weaving process.

However, it is natural to avoid damaging the optical fiber (1) during weaving or during the preparation process for weaving, and for this reason, for example, when weaving using optical rA fibers as warp threads, the opening amount may be reduced, It is best to consider the shape and material of the reed.

Furthermore, it should be noted that when attempting to obtain the fabric of the present invention by weaving optical fibers onto the weft, it is difficult to use a shuttle loom.

Since the optical fiber fabric of the present invention, in which the optical fibers are arranged without bending, has the above-mentioned structure, there are extremely few other yarns that stand out on the surface of the optical fibers, and any area on the side surface of the optical fiber fabric is extremely small. By providing a damaged portion, the brightness due to light leakage from the damaged portion is significantly improved, and since the optical fiber is organized without being bent, light leakage spots due to bending spots can be almost eliminated.

Damage can be imparted to the side surface of the optical fiber fabric by any method such as a method using a laser, a hot stamping method such as a method in which a heated rough surface is pressed against the fabric, a sandblasting method such as a method in which fine particles are bombarded with the fabric, etc. can also be done without any restrictions.

In order to uniformly leak light from the entire damaged area of the optical fabric 8a, care must be taken to make the distribution of the damage uniform.

Example 1 Plastic optical fiber in warp (0.25y+mφ)
(1) and nylon filament 20 d/7 f (3)
were arranged as shown in Fig. 4, and nylon filaments 2. Using OA/7R (2), a narrow fabric with a width of 6III (20 optical fibers were used in total) was obtained.

When we observed the state of the optical fibers after weaving them with two different thread densities: 3.5 threads/cm and 10 threads/tm, we found that none of the optical fibers had any damage and had excellent transmission characteristics. It was confirmed that the woven fabric was obtained.

Furthermore, the above fabric 5- with a weft density of 10 threads/cm was hot-stamped (130CX3 with $300 mesh paper).
When a 5W halogen lamp was connected to the end of the optical fiber as a light source and leaked from the damaged area of the fabric, the brightness was 150 nt, and the brightness was 150 nt. No light leakage was observed in this area.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the fabric of the present invention, and FIG.
-x' cross section, and FIG.
4 and 5 are schematic cross-sectional views showing other examples of the cross-section of the optical fiber fabric of the present invention, and FIGS. 8 and 9 are schematic side and cross-sectional views of conventional fabrics. 1... Optical fiber 2... Weft 3... One or several fibers arranged directly next to the optical fiber f
Yarn 4 having low Young's modulus at cam degree...Damaged parts such as micro-bending parts or craze parts of optical fiber Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Procedural correction layer September 2, 1985

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Optical fiber 1 whose warp or weft yarns are finer than optical fibers and are easily bendable and have substantially no bent portions.
The optical fibers are held every other thread or every few threads, and the optical fibers are held as a woven material by intersecting with the opposing weft or warp threads so that only the threads are bent and do not substantially protrude from the optical fiber arrangement surface. Optical fiber fabric. (2) The optical fiber fabric according to claim 1, wherein a damaged part of an arbitrary area exists on the side surface of the optical fiber fabric.