JPS6357169A - Polishing method for optical connector coupling edge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable spherical finish for the edge of a ferrule without giving rotary motion thereto by polishing the ferrule finely inclined against the polishing face of a grinding machine toward the upstream of the turning direction of the machine. CONSTITUTION:A ferrule 18 with an optical fiber 1 fitted at the center thereof is inserted in a mounting groove formed on a pallet 22 at a fine inclination angle and pressed thereby for contact with the polishing face of a grinding machine 10 comprising a Cu plate 14, while being inclined finely toward the upstream of the turning direction of the grinding machine 10. For example, the application of a 400-500g load to the pallet 22 enable pressed contact between the ferrule 18 and the Cu plate 14. A fine inclination angle of about 0.5 deg. is enough to cause said contact. Acoording to the afore-said constitution, the edge of the ferrule 18 can be polished apprximately to spherical shape without giving any rotary motion thereto and, therefore, many ferrules to be polished can be mounted to the grinding machine 10, thereby enabling mass production.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Overview A ferrule equipped with nine fibers is rotated (υ
■This is an optical connector joint end face polishing method in which the end face of an optical connector is polished into a spherical shape using a polishing disc, and the polishing method should be applied to the polishing surface of the itI polishing disc). It is characterized by lII + polishing. This makes the traditional? It becomes unnecessary to apply rotational motion to the ferrule itself, which is necessary for IJI polishing.

Industrial Application Field The present invention provides a ferrule 9 for an optical connector having a spherical shape (d
[Light for Polishing] Relating to a method for polishing the end face of a connector joint.

In recent years, with the increase in transmission capacity, optical fibers have come to be used as transmission lines in fields such as communications.
came. As for the connection method of optical fiber 1111, C is the connecting end surface. Examples include a splicing force method for permanently connecting optical fibers by fusion or melting, and an optical fiber method for joining optical fibers together using a removable optical connector. In connection using the optical connector 1 method,
Misalignment of approximately 1/10 or less of diameter, and joint end self-rotation +1
A good-quality stone of J is required, and by attaching the joint end face of the optical fiber to be normally connected to a centered ferrule and polishing the joint end face together with this ferrule, it is possible to meet the requirements in L. I have to. For this reason, a method for polishing the joint end face of an optical connector has been developed, which allows the ferrule to be polished into a spherical shape easily and accurately with the optical fiber attached.

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method for polishing the end face of a ferrule will be explained with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a polishing disk, which is constructed by adhering a 011 root 14 of about 0.15 seconds onto a base 12 made of elastic rubber. The polishing machine 10 is driven by a drive means (not shown) to rotate the polishing machine 10 around its central axis 16 as indicated by the arrow.
A rotational motion of rpm is given. Put it on the polishing machine (
In addition to this rotational movement, a device has also been proposed which performs a vertical movement as shown by arrow B. 18 is a ferrule C, into which an optical fiber is inserted and fixed in alignment with the central axis of the ferrule. Ferrule 18 is holder 20
The holder 20 can be rotated forward and backward as shown by arrow C by a drive means (not shown). The rotation speed of the holder 20 is, for example, 10 rpm.
The direction of the rotating blade J is reversed in the second rotation 1d.

Of course? lll Position the ferrule 18 with the holder 20 so that it comes into contact with a part of the polishing plate 10 a predetermined distance away from the center of rotation 16 with a force of 400 to 500 g, and apply an abrasive powder such as Dai N7 powder. When the polishing disk 10 is rotated and the holder 20 is rotated in the forward and reverse directions at a predetermined recycle, the ferrule 18 rotates eccentrically due to the slight bending that occurs in each member due to the structure, and the surface pressure on the Cu 114 increases to 7. The polished ferrule 18 increases in the radial direction, and as a result, the polished ferrule 18 has a substantially spherical shape with a radius of curvature corresponding to the eccentricity.By changing the particle size of the abrasive, Polishing is carried out in two steps: , shaping, and finishing), and the r-rule end face is finished in a nearly spherical shape.After shaping and polishing, use diamond powder with a particle size of approximately 3 μm to perform I] J1 polishing for 4 to 5 minutes. Invasion committed, approximately 0
．． Cook for 4-5 minutes with 25 μg diamond powder, h
Make sure to perform r111 polishing.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional optical connector joint end face polishing method, in order to make the ferrule end face with the optical fiber attached into a uniform spherical shape,
By rotating the holder to which the ferrule is attached, rotational motion is given to the ferrule. However, since an optical fiber cord is connected to the ferrule, there is no optical fiber. In order to minimize the twisting of the ferrule, it is necessary to give the ferrule a reverse rotational motion, which makes the holder drive device large and makes it impossible to attach a large number of ferrules to be heated for polishing to the grinding machine. There was a problem.

In addition, in general, the adhesion between the coating of the optical fiber core, which consists of a tee, etc., and the ferrule is not very good.The rotational movement of the ferrule causes torsional stress on the optical fiber core, and the bonded portion gradually becomes fatigued. (There was also the problem that it could peel off.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above points, and its purpose is to provide a ferrule for an optical connector that can impart rotational motion to the ferrule, and can finish the ferrule end face into a substantially spherical shape. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for polishing an end face.

Means for Solving the Problems FIG. 1 shows a diagram of the principle of the polishing method of the present invention. The optical fiber is mounted in the seventh errule 18, and the end face of the optical fiber together with the end face of the errule is polished by a polishing disk 10 which is driven to rotate. At this time, attach the ferrule 18 for polishing to the polishing surface of the (11i polishing plate 10) at a slight angle O inclination to the upstream side of the rotating direction of the polishing ffi!J310, and rotate the rtll polishing plate while injecting the vI polishing agent. By polishing the ferrule end face.

As described above, in the present invention, the ferrule 18 carrying the optical fiber 1 is tilted at a small angle t! toward the flow side in the rotational direction of the polishing plate 100. Also, the end face of the I-rule can be polished into a roughly spherical shape without the need to apply rotational motion to the ferrule 18, which was a problem in the past.

Embodiments The present invention will be explained in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which the spliced ends of the optical fibers to be connected are attached to the ferrule. In Fig. 2, there is J3, 1 is an optical fiber, and 2 is light with a coating such as 1 around the optical fiber 1)? fiber core wire, 3 is optical fiber core wire 2
'PV through a high tensile strength tension member 4 around the
Each of the optical fiber cords coated with C or the like is shown.

A cylindrical ferrule 1B with a hollow inside has a depth 5 at the tip thereof with a central hole centered with high viscosity.
The cut optical fiber core wire 2 of the tension member 4 is cut to the right, and the optical fiber 1 near the joint end surface is connected to the chip 5.
It is attached to the ferrule 18 so as to be inserted into the center hole of the ferrule 18, and fixed with, for example, a clay-based adhesive or the like. Then, the two optical fibers to be connected, which have been processed in this way, have their joint ends polished together with the ferrule 18, and are coaxially connected by fitting or screwing the ferrule 18 into a common sleeve (not shown). Connected with

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail using the principle diagram of the present invention shown in FIG. In Fig. 1, J3 and C110 are polishing discs, and the polishing disc 10 is composed of a CL1 root 1/l with a thickness of about 0.15 m adhered to a substrate 12,1- made of elastic rubber. The diameter of the grinding machine 10f is about 200mm, for example.
m, and around the central axis (not shown) 8O-100rl) I
II speed fU 'Q is rotated. In addition, the polishing plate 10 has a rotational movement of 1'! Drive to add dynamic motion rb
good.

As shown in FIG. 2, 18 is a ferrule with an optical fiber 1 attached to its center, and a mounting groove 22 inclined at a slight angle is formed in the ferrule 22, and the ferrule 1 is inserted into this mounting vortex.
8 is inserted into contact with the grinding surface formed from the Cu treatment 14 while tilting at a slight angle toward the upstream side in the rotational direction of the polishing disk 10 . For example, 40 on pallet 22
By adding an additional iF of 0-5007, pressure contact between the ferrule 18 and the temporary CLJ 14 can be achieved.

Further, a small angle of about 0.5 degrees is sufficient for the angle θ.

A plurality of ferrules 18 are attached to the pallet 22 at an angle of 0.5 degrees upstream in the rotational direction of the polishing disc 10, and the polishing disc 1
0 at a high speed of 86 rpm, shaping polishing was performed for 5 minutes while adding diamond powder with a particle size of 3 μm as an abrasive, and then a die V [with a particle size of 0.25 μm] was applied.
Perform final polishing for 5 minutes while adding sand powder.)
When the end face of the I-rule was observed, it was observed that it was covered in a roughly spherical shape.

Effects of the Invention As described in detail above, the present invention is configured so that the end face of the ferrule to be polished is polished while being tilted at a small angle u to the upstream side in the rotational direction of the polishing disk. In addition, the ferrule end face can be polished into a roughly spherical shape. Therefore, a large number of ferrules to be polished can be placed on one grinding disk, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced by 8 times since the production time becomes i+i.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows rII'! of the present invention. Principle diagram showing the polishing method, Part 2
The figure is a partial cross-sectional view showing the nine fibers attached to the ferrule, and FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram for explaining the conventional polishing method. 1... Optical fiber, 2... Optical fiber core wire, 3... Optical fiber? 4... Tension member, 5... Depth, 10... Polishing machine, 12... Rubber base handling, 14... 0('' plate, 1
8...) [Rule, 20... Holder, 22...
··palette. The rules for optical fibers have been passed. i, J'5 ff5 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An optical connector joint end face polishing method in which an optical fiber (1) is mounted in a ferrule (18), and the end face of the optical fiber together with the end face of the ferrule is polished by a rotationally driven polishing disc (10). The optical connector joining end surface is characterized in that the ferrule (18) to be polished is polished at a slight angle upstream in the rotational direction of the polishing disc (10) with respect to the polishing surface of the polishing disc (10). Polishing method.