JP2010096983A - Optical fiber guide - Google Patents

Abstract

A special tool that removes the coating of an optical fiber and a coating removal work that does not require the use of the special tool are realized, and the optical fiber connection work is simplified.
An optical fiber core wire is coated on one end of a main body of an optical fiber core guide portion having a V-groove that accommodates a coated portion of the optical fiber core wire so as to be movable in the axial direction. By using an optical fiber guide provided with a coating removal portion 20 having an inner diameter that is substantially the same as or slightly larger than the outer diameter of the removed portion, one end of the optical fiber core 40 to be connected is optically connected. The coating is removed by the coating removing unit 20 only by being housed in the V-groove from the other end side of the fiber core guide portion 10 and inserted into the one end side, and the tip end portion becomes the bare optical fiber strand 41.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an optical fiber guide used for alignment and positioning when connecting optical fibers.

Currently, there are mainly splicing, mechanical splice, and connector connection as optical fiber connection methods used in the construction work site of optical fiber cables. The coating must be removed from the coated optical fiber (optical fiber core) with a special tool. After the coating is removed, the optical fiber (bare optical fiber) is wiped with alcohol or the like, and is gripped and handled by a fiber holder or the like. Usually, in this state, connection adjustment is performed using a fiber guide or the like. A mental work is performed (see Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3).
JP-A-11-160563 JP 2001-235657 A JP 2004-38018 A

  Since the optical fiber strand from which the coating has been removed is easy to break and its fragments are easy to stick into the human body, special skills are required for its handling. Also, special tools for removing the coating are expensive.

  The present invention makes it possible to guide the tip of the optical fiber after removal of the coating to a desired position without requiring a special tool for removing the coating of the optical fiber and a coating removing operation using the special tool. Therefore, it is an object to realize simplification of optical fiber connection work.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, in the present invention, an optical fiber core guide portion that accommodates a coated portion of a coated optical fiber so as to be movable in the axial direction, and an extension line of the optical fiber core guide portion is provided. A coating removal portion and a coating housing portion, wherein the coating removal portion includes a hole having an inner diameter that is substantially the same as or slightly larger than the outer diameter of the portion where the coating of the coated optical fiber is removed; Occurs when the coated optical fiber is inserted from the optical fiber core guide portion to the coating removal portion, the coating abuts the coating removal portion, and the coated optical fiber is pushed into the coating removal portion side. An optical fiber guide having a space for accommodating a coating peeled off from the coated optical fiber by a stress to be applied is proposed.

[Action]
According to the above configuration, the one end to be connected to the coated optical fiber is accommodated in the optical fiber core guide part, and only the sheath removal part and the sheath accommodating part are inserted to remove the coating on the one end and Since the tip of the optical fiber from which the coating has been removed can be guided to a desired position, conventional coating removal and wiping prior to alignment and positioning are not required, that is, coating removal using a special tool Wiping with alcohol or alcohol is not necessary, and in normal connection work, there is no need to take out and handle the optical fiber that has been aligned and positioned with the fiber guide. There is no need to handle it, and no special skills are required.

  According to the present invention, the special tool for removing the coating of the optical fiber and the coating removal work using the special tool are not required, and the tip of the optical fiber after the coating removal is guided to a desired position. Therefore, the number of steps of the entire optical fiber connection work can be reduced and simplified.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereby.

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of an optical fiber guide according to the present invention. In the figure, 10 is an optical fiber core guide part, 20 is a coating removal part, 30 is an optical fiber gripping part, and 40 is coated. An optical fiber (optical fiber core wire). 2 is an explanatory view showing the appearance during assembly, FIG. 3 is a front view showing an example of the coating removal unit, FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view showing an example of the coating removal unit, and FIG. FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing still another example of the coating removing portion, FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state where the alignment mechanism is attached, and FIG. 8 is a state where the alignment mechanism is attached. FIG. 9 is a main part sectional view showing an example of the connection state, and FIG. 10 is a main part sectional view showing another example of the connection state.

  The optical fiber core guide part 10 includes a main body 11 having a V-groove (or U-groove) that accommodates the coated portion of the optical fiber core 40 so as to be movable in the axial direction, and the main body 11 as shown in FIG. A bending space in which the optical fiber 40 can be bent by a space in which the pressing lid 12 is movable with respect to the main body 11. 13 is configured.

  The coating removal unit 20 is provided with a hole 21 having an inner diameter that is substantially the same as or slightly larger than the outer diameter of the part from which the coating of the optical fiber core 40 is removed, as shown in FIG. It is composed of a plate-like member (2a, 2b) made of two pieces of metal as shown in (b), and is an extension of the optical fiber core guide part 10, more specifically, the center of the hole 21 and the optical fiber core It is provided on one end side of the main body 11 so that the central axis of the optical fiber core 40 accommodated in the guide portion 10 coincides. Further, a space for accommodating a coating peeled off from an optical fiber core wire 40 to be described later is formed adjacent to a portion of the main body 11 of the optical fiber core guide portion 10 where the coating removal unit 20 is provided. 14 is constituted.

  The optical fiber gripping portion 30 is provided on the other end side of the main body 11 of the optical fiber core guide portion 10 and has a function of holding and fixing the coated portion of the optical fiber core wire 40 mechanically or with an adhesive. In addition, it cannot be overemphasized that this optical fiber holding | grip part 30 can insert the optical fiber core wire 40 freely at the time of an assembly.

  2A, one end to be connected to the optical fiber core 40 is accommodated in the V groove of the main body 11 of the optical fiber core guide portion 10 through the optical fiber gripping portion 30. As shown in FIG. At this time, the optical fiber gripper 30 does not fix the optical fiber core wire 40.

  In this state, when the optical fiber core wire 40 is inserted into one end side of the optical fiber core wire guide portion 10, the coating comes into contact with the coating removal portion 20, and the optical fiber core wire 40 further contacts the coating removal portion 20 side. As shown in FIG. 4, it is peeled off from the optical fiber core wire 40 and accommodated in the sheath accommodating portion 14 by the stress generated when it is pushed into the sheath.

  In IEC 60793-2-50, it is desired to make the coating removal force of the coated optical fiber core wire for communication to be 1 to 5 N on average, and by pushing the optical fiber with a force higher than this, The coating can be peeled off by the coating removal unit 2, and further, the coating can be torn by pushing more than a certain amount.

  As described above, the optical fiber core wire guide portion 10 has the bending space 13. However, in order to obtain a sufficient insertion force, the optical fiber core wire guide portion 10 may be configured to temporarily limit the bending at the time of insertion. As an example of a structure that temporarily restricts the bending, in this embodiment, the pressing lid 12 of the optical fiber core guide portion 10 is movable. That is, since the insertion force that can be applied to the fiber tip is determined by the buckling force of the longest bending length, the holding lid 12 is positioned approximately in the middle of the movable range as shown in FIG. By doing so, the bending length can be reduced, and the insertion force can be increased accordingly. The bending space 13 is used to utilize the pressing force generated when the optical fiber is buckled (flexed) when the optical fiber cores are directly contacted (Physical Contact: PC). However, it is not necessary during assembly.

  Here, in the case where the coating removing unit 20 is composed of plate-like members (2a, 2b) made of two metals as shown in FIG. 3B, as shown in FIG. The members 20a and 20b may be arranged at an angle, and the coating removal portion 20 may have a structure having an angle and a thickness as shown in FIG. The coating can be removed with force.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the end of one end of the optical fiber core 40 to be connected is inserted to a predetermined position while removing the coating to form the bare optical fiber 41. In addition to fixing the optical fiber core wire 40 to the optical fiber core wire guide portion 10 by the optical fiber gripping portion 30, a sufficient bending space 13 is formed by moving the pressing lid 12 toward one end side of the main body 11. Further, by separately aligning and fixing the bare optical fiber strand 41 protruding from the optical fiber core guide portion 10, it is possible to connect to another optical fiber. For alignment, an alignment mechanism such as a V-groove may be used separately, or as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, an alignment ferrule 51 is attached to one end side of the optical fiber core wire guide portion 10. May be. At this time, the coating removing unit 20 may be removed before the alignment work.

  In actual connection, as shown in FIG. 9, the alignment mechanism may be attached to the optical fiber guide of the present invention, and may be opposed to another optical fiber via the sleeve 52, or as shown in FIG. Alternatively, one alignment mechanism, for example, two optical fiber guides of the present invention may be inserted into the microhole 53 from their respective end portions.

  The alignment mechanism may be attached after the optical fiber is inserted and removed, or may be arranged in advance on one end side of the optical fiber guide of the present invention before insertion.

<Second Embodiment>
FIG. 11 shows a second embodiment of the optical fiber guide of the present invention. In the figure, the same components as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. That is, 20 is a coating removal portion, 40 is an optical fiber core wire, and 60 is an optical fiber core wire guide portion.

  The optical fiber core wire guide portion 60 is formed of a member having a through hole 61 having an inner diameter substantially the same as the outer diameter of the coated portion of the optical fiber core wire 40 from one end to the other end thereof. And the coating | casing accommodating part which is not shown in figure is provided. In addition, the inner part of the through hole 61 has an inner diameter larger than that of the other part to form a bending space 62.

  In the above configuration, when one end of the optical fiber core wire 40 to be connected is accommodated in the through hole 61 from the other end side of the optical fiber core guide portion 60 and inserted into the one end side, the first embodiment As in the case of the embodiment, the coating is removed by the coating removing unit 20, and the tip portion becomes the bare optical fiber 41. In this state, the optical fiber core 40 is fixed to the optical fiber core guide 60 with an adhesive or the like, and the bare optical fiber 41 protruding from the optical fiber core guide 60 is separately aligned and fixed. Thus, it is possible to connect to another optical fiber as in the case of the first embodiment.

The perspective view which shows 1st Embodiment of the optical fiber guide of this invention Explanatory drawing showing the appearance during assembly Front view showing an example of the coating removal unit Enlarged sectional view showing an example of the coating removal portion Enlarged sectional view showing another example of the coating removal portion Enlarged sectional view showing still another example of the coating removal portion An enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state where the alignment mechanism is attached The perspective view which shows the state which attached the alignment mechanism Cross-sectional view of the main part showing an example of the connection state Cross-sectional view of the main part showing another example of the connection state The perspective view which shows 2nd Embodiment of the optical fiber guide of this invention

Explanation of symbols

  10, 60: Optical fiber core wire guide part, 11: Main body, 12: Pressing lid, 13, 62: Deflection space, 14: Coating housing part, 20, 20a, 20b: Coating removal part, 30: Optical fiber gripping part, 40: optical fiber, 41: bare optical fiber, 51: aligning ferrule, 52: sleeve, 53: microhole, 61: through hole.

Claims (5)

An optical fiber guide for guiding the tip of one end to which an optical fiber is to be connected to a desired position,
An optical fiber core guide portion that accommodates the coated portion of the coated optical fiber so as to be movable in the axial direction, and at least a sheath removing portion and a sheath housing portion provided on an extension line of the optical fiber core guide portion ,
The coating removal portion includes a hole having an inner diameter that is substantially the same as or slightly larger than the outer diameter of the portion where the coating of the coated optical fiber is removed,
In the sheath receiving portion, a coated optical fiber is inserted from the optical fiber core guide portion to the sheath removing portion, the sheath comes into contact with the sheath removing portion, and the sheathed optical fiber is further on the sheath removing portion side. An optical fiber guide comprising a space for accommodating a coating peeled off from the coated optical fiber by a stress generated when being pushed. 2. The optical fiber guide according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber core wire guide portion is configured by a combination of a main body having a V-groove or a U-groove and a pressing lid. 2. The optical fiber guide according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber core wire guide portion is configured by a member having a through hole having an inner diameter substantially the same as the outer diameter of the coated portion of the coated optical fiber. The optical fiber guide according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the optical fiber core guide portion has a bending space where the coated optical fiber is bent at an intermediate portion thereof. The optical fiber guide according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising an optical fiber gripping part that holds and fixes the coated portion of the coated optical fiber.

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