JP3334426B2 - Heating device for optical fiber reinforcement - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for heating an optical fiber reinforcing member for reinforcing an optical fiber fusion spliced portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional optical fiber fusion splicing part is reinforced by:
As shown in FIG. 2, the fusion splicing portion 19 of the optical fiber 10 is used.
An optical fiber reinforcing member 14 made up of a heat melting tube 11, a reinforcing body 12, and a heat shrink tube 13 is put on the optical fiber reinforcing member 14, and the reinforcing member is heated by a heating device 21 shown in FIGS. The heating device 21 has an electric heater plate 23 installed in a support frame 22 having a concave groove. The electric heater plate 23 of this device 21 is attached to the fusion splicing portion 19 of the optical fiber 10 shown in FIG. The optical fiber reinforcing member 14 is placed, and the electric heater plate 23 is electrically heated. Then, the heat melting tube 11 melts, and at the same time, the heat shrink tube 1
3 is contracted to obtain a reinforced connection portion 15 in which the fusion spliced portions 19 of the optical fiber core wires 10 are reinforced by the optical fiber reinforcing member 14 as shown in FIG.

[0003] As described above, the optical fiber reinforcing member 14
In order to perform the attachment, the electric heater plate 23 is heated, and the heat is used to heat the heat melting tube 11 and the heat shrink tube 1.
Time for melting and shrinking 3 (hereinafter referred to as heating time)
In this case, it is necessary to provide a time (hereinafter referred to as a cooling time) for stopping the energization and cooling the reinforcing connection portion 15. The reason for requiring the cooling time is as follows. In other words, when the hot-melt tube 11 is softened at a high temperature and the hot-melt tube 11 is softened, when the hot-melt tube 11 is moved, the hot-melt tube 11 is melted. This is because there is a possibility that the vicinity of 19 and the optical fiber core 10 may be bent and fixed in the bent state. Accordingly, it is necessary to sufficiently cool the reinforcing connection portion 15 in order to take out the reinforcing connection portion 15 which is weak against external force.

The cycle of the heating time and the cooling time is approximately as shown in FIG. That is, A is the heater power supply O
N.OFF, B indicates the temperature of the optical fiber reinforcing member 14, the time for melting and shrinking the heat melting tube 11 and the heat shrink tube 13 at a temperature of about 180 ° C. is about 2 minutes, and energization is performed. After stopping, the cooling time until the reinforcing connection portion 15 is naturally cooled to about 60 ° C. is about 1 minute, and one cycle requires about 3 minutes.

[0005]

In many cases, the mounting operation of the optical fiber reinforcing member is repeatedly performed on a large number of optical fiber fusion spliced portions. Has been an issue. As a means for shortening the installation work time, there is a method in which the reinforcing connection portion is blown by a blower and forcedly cooled. In order to forcibly cool with a blower, it is better to blow air directly to the reinforcing connection after the end of the heating time, but to observe the reinforcing connection from above during installation work, use optical fiber Since it is not desirable to arrange an extra projection such as a blower above the heating device of the reinforcing member, the blower is usually arranged below the heating device.

When the blower is disposed below the heating device for the optical fiber reinforcing member, the blower is provided below the electric heater plate on which the optical fiber reinforcing member is mounted. In order to cool the reinforcing connection part with a blower provided below the electric heater plate, the electric heater plate is first cooled, and the electric heater plate is cooled only by the heat transmission and natural heat radiation. Is less. Therefore, a heating device for an optical fiber reinforcing member has been proposed in which a through-hole is provided in, for example, a central portion of an electric heater plate, and air from a blower is directly applied to the reinforcing connecting portion from the through-hole to cool the reinforcing connecting portion. I have.

Since the heating device for the optical fiber reinforcing member has the through holes, the cooling effect is slightly increased, but the following disadvantages occur. (1) By forming a through hole in the electric heater plate, the degree of freedom of the heating pattern of the electric heater plate is limited. (2) In order to enhance the cooling effect, it is necessary to increase the size of the through hole. However, if the size of the through hole is increased, the heating area is sacrificed. (3) The cost of the electric heater plate is increased by providing the through holes.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a heating apparatus for an optical fiber reinforcing member which can obtain a high cooling effect without providing a through hole in an electric heater plate.

[0009]

The present invention has the following means to solve the above problems.

The heating device for an optical fiber reinforcing member according to the present invention includes an electric heater plate on which an optical fiber reinforcing member mounted on an optical fiber fusion splicing portion is placed, and an electric heater plate below the electric heater plate. A blower that blows air toward the heater, and a wind direction guide arranged at predetermined intervals on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the electric heater plate. It is characterized by having.

[0011]

According to the optical fiber reinforcing member heating device of the present invention, the electric heater plate on which the optical fiber reinforcing member is placed has:
Since no through hole is provided, the heating pattern of the electric heater plate can be provided under optimum conditions regardless of the through hole. In addition, wind direction guides are provided at predetermined intervals on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the electric heater plate, and the wind direction guide is folded so that the upper end thereof goes around above the electric heater plate. In addition, the wind from the blower disposed below the electric heater plate toward the electric heater plate directly hits the reinforcing connection portion by the wind direction guide, thereby enhancing the cooling effect of the reinforcing connection portion.

[0012]

The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to examples. Note that the same components as those in the related art are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the related art, and detailed description is omitted.

One embodiment of the apparatus for heating an optical fiber reinforcing member according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows an optical fiber reinforcing member heating apparatus 1 according to the present invention, in which a ceramic electric heater plate 23 is installed on a support frame 2. A protective box 5 having an intake hole 4 is provided below the electric heater plate 23, and a blower 3 is installed in the protective box 5 to blow air toward the electric heater plate 23. ing. Further, wind direction guides 6 are arranged on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the electric heater plate 23 at a predetermined interval from the electric heater plate 23, and the upper end of the wind direction guide 6 is turned around above the electric heater plate 23. It is folded in.

The following procedure is used to heat the optical fiber reinforcing member 14 of the optical fiber fusion splicing section 19 using the heating device 1. The optical fiber reinforcing member 14 attached to the optical fiber fusion splicing portion 19 as shown in FIG. 2 is placed on the electric heater plate 23, and the electric heater plate 23 is heated by conduction. The power supply voltage during the energization heating is, for example, 12V. As shown in FIG. 3, the temperature is raised to a level required for the heat shrinkage of the heat shrinkable tube 13, and the temperature is maintained for a certain time. After a lapse of a certain time, the power supply to the electric heater plate 23 is stopped, and the blower 3 is rotated almost simultaneously to
Blow the wind.

The direction of the wind is changed by the electric heater plate 23 and the wind direction guide 6 so that the reinforcing connection 1
Cool them in 5.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a cycle when working with the heating device 1. A is heater power ON / OFF,
B is the temperature of the optical fiber reinforcing member, C is ON / OFF of the blower 3
The time for heating the electric heater plate is about 1 minute,
The cooling time required to cool to about 60 ° C is about 25
Seconds. Therefore, the operation time of one cycle is about 1 minute and 25 seconds, and it has been clarified that the operation time can be significantly reduced as compared with the conventional natural cooling heating device requiring three minutes for one cycle of operation. It was also found that the operation time can be reduced as compared with a conventional heating device using a blower in which a through hole is provided in an electric heater plate, which required about one minute and 40 seconds for one cycle of operation.

[0017]

As described above, according to the heating device of the optical fiber reinforcing member of the present invention, the wind direction guides are provided at predetermined intervals on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the electric heater plate. Since this wind direction guide is folded so that the upper end thereof wraps above the electric heater plate, the wind from the blower arranged below the electric heater plate toward the electric heater plate is directly reinforced by the wind direction guide. At the connection portion, the cooling effect of the reinforcing connection portion can be enhanced, and the cooling time can be reduced. Therefore, there is an effect that the time required for one cycle of the mounting operation of the optical fiber reinforcing member can be reduced, and the work efficiency in the case where the optical fiber reinforcing member is repeatedly mounted can be improved.

Further, since there is no need to provide a through-hole in the electric heater plate, the electric heater plate becomes inexpensive, and the heating pattern of the electric heater plate can be provided under optimum conditions regardless of the through-hole. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a heating device for an optical fiber reinforcing member of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a longitudinal sectional view, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. .

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an optical fiber reinforcing member.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an operation cycle of the optical fiber reinforcing member heating device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a conventional heating device for an optical fiber reinforcing member. FIG. 4A is a longitudinal sectional view, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a reinforcing connection part.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing an operation cycle of a conventional optical fiber reinforcing member heating device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heating apparatus of optical fiber reinforcement member 3 Blower 6 Wind direction guide 10 Optical fiber core wire 11 Heat fusion tube 13 Heat shrink tube 14 Optical fiber reinforcement member 15 Reinforcement connection part 19 Optical fiber fusion connection part 23 Electric heater plate

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-6-201938 (JP, A) JP-A-6-347663 (JP, A) JP-A-6-23008 (JP, U) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02B 6/255

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electric heater plate on which an optical fiber reinforcing member mounted on an optical fiber fusion splicing portion is mounted, a blower for blowing air toward the electric heater plate below the electric heater plate, and the electric heater. An optical fiber reinforcement, comprising: wind direction guides arranged at predetermined intervals on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the plate, wherein the wind direction guide is folded so that an upper end thereof is wrapped above the electric heater plate. Equipment for heating components.