MXPA98005090A - Method to reduce or avoid damage to fiber devanated in a carr - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for reducing or preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel, caused by the whipping action of a loose end of the fiber against the fiber already wound on the reel, the method includes the steps of capturing the loose end of the fiber. a fiber that is being wound on a reel against the inner surface of a non-circular shield substantially surrounding the spool, the loose end of the fiber being captured against an angular entrance surface of the shield extending out of the shield; As the spool rotates, the end of the fiber is held against the inner surface of the shield by the centrifugal force, thus keeping the free end of the fiber separated from the fiber already being wound on the spool by keeping the free end of the fiber fiber against protection during spool rotation, the whiplash damage to the fiber on the spool is substantially reduced or completely avoided.

Description

METHOD TO REDUCE Q AVOID DAMAGE TO FIBER DEVANATED IN UM REEL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 'FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is directed to a method for preventing damage to fibers »such as an optical fiber» which is wound on a spin spool »caused by the whipping action of a loose end of the fiber on the fiber already wound on the spool .

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED TECHNIQUE In fiber optic or plastic filament manufacturing industries »long lengths of fibers or filaments are wound at high speeds on receiver spools rotated on a machine for shipping and handling- Since the fiber is wound on the reel» the fiber is it tends on the reel in successive layers. In the fiber optic industry »fiber reel winding takes place in two general places» in the stretch tower where the fiber is originally stretched »and in the off-line pick station where the fiber can be subjected testing. At each of these sites »the fiber can be wound at speeds of approximately 20 meters per second and maintained at a voltage relative to a. During these winding events »the fiber can break due to the forces applied by the machine. When the fiber breaks »the loose end of the fiber tends to flagellate at high speed because the reel is spinning rapidly. The loose end of the uncontrolled fiber flails against the fiber already wound on the reel and can cause damage to as many as five to six layers of fiber. In the fiber optic industry »this can reach damage up to approximately 500 meters of fi re. The breaking event is unpredictable and the machine must be brought to an immediate stop to avoid damage to fiber by whiplash. However, because the break is unpredictable since the interruption of the reel takes time, there inevitably exists a period in which the reel will continue to rotate and the end of the fiber will be free to flagellate against the fiber already wound on the reel, causing damage to the reel. that fiber. Ideally »if the reel is suspended in a free space» there will be no whiplash damage because the free end of the fiber will not hit an obstacle and will bounce back to the reel with fiber. However »in most cases manufacturers have protections or protections mounted for safety reasons. In many winding applications »the protections on the winding machines consist of a square box around the spool» a reflecting plate mounted parallel to the spool. The purpose of these protections is to avoid whipping the fiber towards an operator after breaking. However, those types of protections actually increase the likelihood that the tip of the fiber hits the fiber bundle. Any type of surface at an angle on the guard allows the free end of the fiber to strike one end of it »causing the fiber to bounce back against the spool. In addition »there must be an opening in the protection that allows the fiber to be wound on the reel. Any type of opening will produce an angled edge which in turn will produce the whiplash action described above at the end of the fiber. In addition »a perfectly round protection will not provide the surface architecture necessary to capture and keep the end of the fiber away from the reel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a novel method for reducing and avoiding damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel by overcoming one or more of the problems described above associated with the fiber winding. The present invention is directed to a novel method for reducing or preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel caused by the whipping action of a loose end of the fiber and against the fiber that It is already wound on the reel. The main advantage of the present invention is that an arrangement is provided that substantially obviates one or more of the limitations and disadvantages associated with prior arrangements. By keeping the free end of the fiber against the smooth surface of a shield substantially surrounding the spool during the rotation of the spool, the damage of the whiplash fiber on the spool is substantially reduced or completely avoided. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the following description, and in part will be apparent from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and other advantages of the invention will be realized and will be achieved by the method particularly indicated in the written description and claims thereof as well as the attached drawings. In order to achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention "as it is modalized and broadly described" the invention is a method for reducing or preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel comprising the steps of winding the fiber onto a rotating spool that is substantially surrounded by a non-circular shield having a smooth, continuous inner surface facing the spool »capturing a free end of the fiber against an entry surface of the shield while rotating the reel »and keep the end of the fiber against the inner surface of the guard while rotating the reel thus keeping the fiber end of the fiber separated from the fiber already wound on the reel. The invention may also include the steps of maintaining the fiber against the inner surface of the shield through various degrees of rotation of the spool. The free end of the fiber can be maintained against the inner surface of the protection after entering the protective entry surface while the spool rotates through at least 90 °, 180 ° or 270 ° »or less than 3SO °. It should be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are illustrative and explanatory and are intended to provide a further explanation of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in this specification and constitute a part thereof illustrating an embodiment of the invention and together with the specification serve to explain the principles of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a side view of a known fiber winding apparatus of the prior art. Figure 2 is a side view of a known prior art fiber winding apparatus illustrating the whipping action of a broken fiber end. Figure 3 is a side view of a mode of protection in accordance with the present invention. Figures 4-9 are side views of the shield illustrated in Figure 3 »illustrating in this way the sequence path of the loose end of the fiber around the shield.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Figure 1 illustrates an apparatus known from the prior art for winding fiber. The fiber 1 is being wound on a reel 2 at a relatively high speed "for example" of 30 m / s. The reel 2 sits on a pedestal 3. The fiber 1 is kept under a relatively high voltage to ensure proper winding on the reel 2. The fiber is an optical fiber »can be directly supplied from any supplying apparatus of known type (not shown) or a known type of selection device (not shown). Ideally »if the reel is suspended in a free space» there would be no reason for some kind of protection or cover around the reel. However »as illustrated in figure 1» to avoid damage to the operators that are close to the reel if the fiber breaks »a protection 4 is mounted on the back of the reel 2. In practice» if the fiber i breaks »The loose end of the fiber will flagellate against the protection 4. However» as illustrated in figure 2 »any type of angle or edge in the protection, as illustrated in the reference number 5. that can trap the fiber , will cause the end or tail of the fiber to wrap itself over the edge and hit the fiber bundle. To avoid damage to fiber caused by whiplash »the end of the fiber can be contained by capturing it with a smooth surface around the spool. By enclosing the spool in a cylinder, the end of the fiber would be kept away from the fiber bundle by the centrifugal forces caused by the spin spool. However, there must be an entry in the cylinder for the fiber to enter. As described above »any type of opening will produce a severe whiplash source for the fiber. In this way »the fiber should be allowed to enter the reel during the winding operation. A perfectly round cylinder around the whip roll will not prevent the whip of the fiber from causing damage to the fi ber pack. Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The illustrative embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Figure 3 and is generally designated by the reference number 10. As a modality in the present. the invention is s directed to a method for reducing or preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel comprising various steps. As illustrated in Figure 3, the shield 10 in accordance with the present invention controls the tip of the fiber during two phases after the break occurs. The first phase is the entry of the tip into the fiber package after a break. When the fiber breaks »it bounces around the pulleys of the stretch or selection apparatus and adopts a high-speed direct path to the spool resulting in damage to the fiber. The second phase is the continuous rotation of the fiber around the fiber spool. The end of the rotating fiber has impact on the surface and bounces off the fiber reel with enough energy resulting in damage to the fiber. The maximum separation between the tip of the fiber and the spool is necessary to ensure that no damage to the fiber package occurs. The first step of the invention is to wind the fiber on a rotating reel which is substantially surrounded by a non-circular shield 10. The shield 10 preferably has a smooth and continuous internal surface facing the spool. This smooth surface helps prevent the fiber from bouncing against the fiber bundle. Figure 4 illustrates a fiber path projected after a fiber break. Due to the high tension in the fiber and the direction of rotation of the spool. when break occurs »the fiber will tend to flagellate directly within the reel area. To prevent the loose end of the fiber 1 from striking the fiber that is already wound on the reel 2 »the arched section Al is positioned so as to ensure the impact of the end of the fiber to the right of the mounting arm S of the protection . The arc section Al defines the entry surface of the protection. To prevent damage to the fiber bundle by the loose end of the fiber 1, the next step in the invention is to capture the free end of the fiber 1 against a protective input surface 10 while rotating the spool. Figure 5 illustrates the loose end of the fiber 1 that is captured on the inner entry surface formed by the arcuate section Al. The capture of the loose end of the fiber 1 is achieved by providing a smooth arcuate surface in a position in such a way that as the loose end of the fiber 1 approaches the spool 2, it initially impacts the surface of the protection 10 before hitting the fiber bundle. The capture is achieved by the arched shape of the input surface Al and A2 together with the centrifugal forces imparted to the end of the fiber by rotation of the spool 2. To ensure that the loose end of the fiber 1 does not bounce and has an impact on the fiber. fiber packet »the final step in the invention is to keep the fiber end against the inner surface of the shield 10 while the spool rotates thus keeping the free end of the fiber separated from the lO fiber that is already wound on the reel. Preferably the end of the fiber is held against the inner surface of the shield 10 while the spool 2 rotates 90 ° and most preferably 180 ° and very preferably even 270 °. As shown in Figures 3 and 4 »to ensure that the fiber is maintained in the shield 10 during the rotation of the spool» the configuration of the shield 10 is not circular. To optimize the control of the loose end of a broken fiber 1, the guard 10 is preferably composed of several arched sections. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate a preferred mode of protection 10. in the preferred embodiment »the protection 10 is composed of seven arched sections. Al-A7. However, different numbers of sections can be used while the inner surface remains intact and without angular surfaces. Each arched section has a different radius »Rl-R7. In order to maximize the amount of surface of the shield 10 on which the fiber will be maintained, the spokes are offset from the center of the spool. Depending on the size of the reel and the protection, the locations of the out-of-date points may vary. The figures & and 7 illustrate that the "smooth" inner protection surface defined by the arcuate sections A3 to A7 »combined with a centrifugal force of the rotation of the spool 2 keeps the loose end of the fiber 1 against the inner protection surface. In other words, the centrifugal surface imparted on the end of the fiber by rotation of the spool 2 together with the arched shape of the shield 10 allows the end of the fiber to be pulled along the surface of the shield 10 with an effect of minimum rebound. Therefore »the end of the fiber is held against the protection. Because the internal protection surface contains no angular surfaces »there are no whiplash effects imparted to the end of the fiber and the fiber path conforms to the internal protection surface. Figures 3 and S illustrate the path of the fiber along the final protection section 10 before the fiber reaches the protection entrance. The final section 11 is a substantially straight section of protection. It is located to direct the end of the fiber to the spool before releasing the end of the fiber towards the entrance of the protection. This redirection of the fiber path allows the fiber to exit the protection surface at an angle. As the spool 2 rotates »the loose end of the fiber 1 is initially projected towards the spool and is then fed directly to the entrance surface of the protection formed by the arched section Al. The fiber path ensures that the end Loose the fiber not flagele against the mounting arm 6 of the protection and bounce against the fiber bundle. Rather, the loose end of the fiber adopts a trajectory similar to that shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 to avoid whiplash damage to the fiber on the spool 2. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that they may make various modifications and variations to the invention described above without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of the invention as long as they are within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims (6)

NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION CLAIMS

1. - A method for reducing or preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel comprising the steps of: winding the fiber on a rotating reel that is substantially surrounded by a circular shield having a smooth and continuous internal surface facing towards The reel; capture a fiber end against an entry surface of the shield while rotating the spool »and keep the end of the fiber against the inner surface of the shield while the spool rotates thus keeping the free end of the fiber separated from the fiber. the fiber already wound on the reel.

2. A method for preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel according to claim 1, further characterized in that the free end of the fiber is maintained against the inner surface of the protection after the end of the fiber fiber enters the reel entrance surface while the reel rotates through at least 90 °.

3. A method for preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel according to claim 1. further characterized in that the free end of the fiber is held against the inner surface of the protection after the end of the Fiber enters over the reel entrance surface while the reel rotates through at least 180 °.

4. A method for preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel in accordance with the rei indication 1, further characterized in that the free end of the fiber is held against the inner surface of the protection after the end of the fiber enters on the reel entrance surface while the reel rotates at 0 through at least 270 °.

5. A method for preventing damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel according to claim 1, further characterized in that the free end of the fiber is held against the inner surface of the protection after the end of the fiber. the fiber enters on the reel entrance surface while the reel rotates through at least 270 ° but less than 3SO °. 6.- A method to avoid damage to a fiber that is being wound on a reel in accordance with the? rei indications 1 »2» 3 »4 or 5» further characterized in that the inner surface of the shield comprises a substantially straight end section adapted to direct the path of the loose end of the fiber towards the spool.