JPS583210B2 - Optical fiber V groove connection method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a V-groove connection method that allows optical fibers to be connected with low loss with only simple mechanical operations.

A conventional optical fiber splicing device and optical fiber splicing device will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

Figure 1 shows a V-groove connector for aligning and fixing optical fibers. 1 is a V-groove board, with a V-groove 2 about 1 mm wide at both ends for fixing the fiber core, and a V-groove 2 in the center. A narrow V-groove 3 with a width of about 150 μm is machined in the portion for fixing the fiber wire.

Reference numeral 4 is a holding plate for holding down the fiber strand, and 5 is a clamp for holding down the fiber core.

Figure 2 shows a device for fixing and working the connector in Figure 1, 6 is a fiber holding plate and a suction part for vacuuming the clamp, and 7 is a hole leading to a vacuum pump. be.

8 is a part for lifting the suction part 6.

For the actual connection work, first, the connector shown in FIG. 1 is fixed to the device shown in FIG. 2, and the holding plate 4 and clamp 5 are lifted by vacuum suction or by using a spring.

Next, the coating was removed and the two cut fibers were cut with a width of 150 mm.
The fiber is inserted into the V-groove 3, which is as narrow as .mu.m, and is temporarily fixed by lowering the holding plate 4 and clamp 5 as shown by the arrows in FIG.

Furthermore, the two fibers are brought close together until they butt each other (whether or not they butt each other depends on the operator's sense).

In this state, the holding plate 4 and clamp 5 are pressed down with an appropriate force to fix the fiber and complete the connection.

Among the above methods, the operator relies on his or her senses to insert the fiber into the narrow V-groove 3 and to butt the two fibers together, which has the drawback of extremely poor workability.

In order to eliminate these drawbacks, the present invention provides a mechanism for placing an optical fiber on a thin V-groove and a mechanism for abutting two optical fibers on the V-groove using mechanical operations such as lever operations. It is.

The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a device using the optical fiber V-groove connection method of the present invention, where 9 is a fiber holding part, 10 is a magnet used to fix the fiber, and 11 is a V-groove connector. A fixing table, 12a and 12b are plates for gripping and lifting the fiber holding plate and clamp, respectively, 13 is a lever for lowering the fiber holding part, and 14 is a connecting part for transmitting the force applied to the lever to the fiber holding part. It is.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a part of the connecting part 14, which is used to set the distance by which the fiber holding part is lowered when the lever 13 is pulled, and the lowering distance is set in two stages.

16 is a spring for returning the lowered fiber holder to its original position.

The operating mechanism of the optical fiber V-groove connection method according to the present invention is explained in the third section.
This will be explained according to the diagram.

First, place the V-groove connector on the stand 11 that fixes the V-groove connector,
The V-groove connector fixing plate 17 and the spring 18 firmly fix the V-groove substrate, and the plates 12a and 12b grip and lift the fiber holding plate 4 and clamp 5.

Next, the fiber is set in the fiber holding section 9.

At this time, the force that presses the fiber is loosely applied by adjusting the spacing between the magnets 10.

In this state, when the lever 13 is pulled in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. is the fiber core fixing part 2 of the V-groove connector
is pressed onto the V-groove of the fiber wire, and enters the fiber fixing groove 3 while sliding.

Here, in order to prevent the fiber from shifting from the fiber wire fixing groove 3 by 6 degrees, the fiber holding plate 4 was lifted by the plate 12b.
lower it lightly.

At this time, the fiber holding force by the fiber holding plate is set to such an extent that the fiber can slide on the V-groove.

Next, when the lever 13 is pulled once again in the direction of the arrow, the fiber holding part 9 is lowered in the same manner as described above, and the two fibers are butted against each other above the fiber wire fixing groove 3.

After the fibers butt each other, the fiber holding part 9 descends and even if the fiber tries to move on the V-groove in the axial direction of the fiber, the fiber is held loosely by the fiber holding part 9, so the fiber will not move in this part. The fibers are kept abutting each other.

In this state, the plate 12b is lowered to fix the fiber and complete the connection.

Note that FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of one embodiment of an apparatus using the optical fiber V-groove connecting method of the present invention, and various apparatuses and mechanisms for implementing the method of the present invention are conceivable.

Although the V-groove connector may have a conventional structure, FIG. 4 shows the structure of one embodiment of the V-groove connector used in the method of the present invention.

Figure 4a is a plan view, and Figures 4b and 4C are side views.
Unlike the structure of the groove connector, the bottoms of the V-groove 2 for fixing the fiber core and the V-groove 3 for fixing the fiber strand are located on the same plane.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, the operations of aligning and butting the fibers will be described in detail.

Reference numeral 19 denotes an optical fiber. First, (1) the coating of the optical fiber is removed, and the two cut fibers are set near the V-groove substrate 1 at an angle.

At this time, the fiber is lightly held down by the magnet 10.

■ When the lever 13 shown in Fig. 3 is pulled once, the fiber holder 9 simultaneously descends in the direction of the arrow, and the optical fiber is inserted into the fiber core fixing groove 2 at both ends of the V-groove substrate 1, which serves as a guide. It is forcibly pressed and then automatically slides into the narrow fiber wire fixing groove 3 in the center of the V-groove substrate 1.

(2) The operator lowers the fiber holding plate 4 and closes the lid so that the tips of both optical fibers do not come off the fiber wire fixing grooves 3.

■ When the lever 13 is further pulled, the fiber holding part 9 is lowered at the same time, and the optical fibers are mutually connected to the fiber fixing groove 3.
They approached while sliding on top of each other, and they were sure to butt into each other.

After the two optical fibers are butted against each other, the optical fibers slip at the fiber holding part 9, and the two optical fibers are maintained in a state where they are butted against each other with a constant force.

■ With the two optical fibers butted against each other, clamp 5 and fiber holding plate 4 are fixed with appropriate force to complete the connection.

As explained above, in the optical fiber V-groove connection method of the present invention, the optical fiber from which the coating has been removed is simply set in the vicinity of the wider V-groove of the V-groove substrate, and the rest is a simple mechanical operation. It has the advantage of being able to align and butt the axes of two fibers and connect them with low loss using only a chisel.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows the structure of a conventional V-groove connector, a is a perspective view,
b is a plan view, c and d are side views, Fig. 2 shows a conventional V-groove connection device, a is a plan view, b and c are side views, and Fig. 3 is an optical fiber V-groove connection method of the present invention. Fig. 4 shows the structure of an embodiment of a device using a V-groove connector used in the optical fiber V-groove connection method of the present invention. a is a plan view, b and c are side views, and the fifth
The figure is a partial explanatory diagram of an operating mechanism for connecting optical fibers according to the present invention. 1... V-groove board, 2... Fiber core wire fixing groove, 3... Fiber wire fixing groove, 4... Fiber holding plate, 5... Clamp, 6... Adsorption part, 7... Leads to vacuum pump hole, 8
... Part for lifting the adsorption part, 9 ... Fiber holding part, 10 ... Magnet, 11 ... V-groove connector fixing stand, 12
... Lifting plate, 13 ... Lever, 14 ... Connection part, 1
5... Portion for setting the distance to which the fiber holding part is lowered, 16... Spring for returning the fiber holding part to its original position, 17...
...V-groove connector fixing plate, 18...Spring optical fiber.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a method of connecting two fibers from which the coating has been removed in a V-groove substrate, a V-groove connector that fixes the fiber core and the bare fiber in a straight line, or a V-groove connector that holds the two fibers, and By moving one of the fiber holders having means for adjusting the force for pressing the fiber in the vertical direction, the tip of the optical fiber is forcibly introduced into the V-groove in the V-groove connector, and the tips of the fibers are aligned with each other. Before contact, a fiber holding plate is placed on the fiber wire, and by relative movement, the tips of the two fibers are slid in the V-groove and brought into contact, and after the tips of the fibers are in contact, An optical fiber V-groove connection method characterized in that the fibers are butted together by sliding the fibers on a fiber holding part.