JPH0323303B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention mainly aims at forming the end face of an optical fiber connector with a convex spherical surface or the like so that losses caused by axis misalignment or poor contact during connection are extremely reduced. The present invention relates to a curved surface polishing apparatus for cylindrical members, which is used to polish the axial end faces of various cylindrical members into convex curved surfaces.

(Prior Art) A conventionally known polishing device of this type is not shown in the drawings, but (a) The end face of a cylindrical member is placed on the surface of a polishing disk that continuously rotates in one plane. The end face of a cylindrical member is polished into a conical shape by rotating the cylindrical member at a constant speed around its axis while being pressed so that the axis of the member is fixed and held at a predetermined inclination angle with respect to the surface of the polishing plate. (b) There is a method in which the end surface of a cylindrical member is polished into a spherical surface by a three-dimensional synthetic movement of a rotating drive polishing plate and a cylindrical member whose end is pressed against the surface of the cylindrical member.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In any case, the above-mentioned conventional apparatus requires at least a two-dimensional movable structure such as rotation and movement in addition to polishing feed to the cylindrical member to be polished, that is, the workpiece side. As a result, not only does the structure of the entire device tend to become complicated, but also the accumulation of manufacturing errors, backlash, and degree of wear in these moving parts has a negative impact on polishing accuracy. There is a drawback that you will not be able to obtain
When the cylindrical member to be polished is rotated or moved back and forth, if the cylindrical member is of a small diameter such as an optical fiber, it will be twisted or bent and will be cut, making it unusable. This has a fatal problem.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and
To provide a curved surface polishing device for a cylindrical member capable of reliably and stably obtaining a curved surface with a desired curvature while simplifying the overall structure by simply feeding the workpiece side.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the curved surface polishing apparatus for cylindrical members of the present invention has a diameter that allows insertion of the lower end portions of a plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished on the upper surface. A fixing member 6 having a plurality of holes 6A formed therein, a cylindrical rotating frame 8 surrounding this fixing member 6, and a cylindrical rotating frame 8 that is attached to the cylindrical rotating frame 8 so as to be replaceable, and a part of its lower surface is fixed to the above-mentioned fixing member. The polishing sheet 7 placed on the member 6 and the plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished are placed at positions corresponding to the respective holes 6A of the fixing member 6.
and a feeding device 25 which is non-rotatable and movable only in the vertical direction and which presses the lower end surface of the cylindrical member 26 against the opposing hole 6A of the fixed member 6 via the polishing sheet 7. .

(Function) With this structure, when the cylindrical rotating frame 8 is rotated, the polishing sheet 7 stretched over the frame 8 rotates integrally on the fixed member 6.

When a plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished are pressed by moving the feeding device 25 downwardly onto the fixed member 6 through this polishing sheet 7, the lower end surfaces of these cylindrical members 26 are pressed against the polishing sheet 7. The abrasive sheets 7 are inserted into the corresponding holes 6A of the fixing member 6, and are pressed and deformed partially in the holes 6A to actively press against the lower end surface of the cylindrical member 26, and the lower end surface of the cylindrical member 26 This polishes the surface into a convex curved surface.

At this time, the plurality of cylindrical members 26 are
The cylindrical members 26 are made unrotatable relative to the fixed member 6 and moved only in the vertical direction, and are inserted into the holes 6A of the fixed member 6 corresponding to each cylindrical member 26 via the polishing sheet 7. Since the columnar member 26 is not subjected to any twisting or bending action, there is no risk of the columnar member 26 being cut or broken.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a main part of a spherical surface polishing apparatus for a cylindrical member according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view of FIG.
2 is a grounding frame, and 2 is a fixed support shaft that is vertically vertically fixed at approximately the center of the grounding frame 1. On the outside thereof, thrust self-aligning roller bearings 3,
A cylindrical shaft 4 is fitted and supported through the connector chuck 3 in a concentric manner so that it can only rotate freely, and a polishing restriction fixing member having a disk shape in plan view is attached to the upper end of the fixed support shaft 2 via the connector chuck 5. A member 6 is attached removably. Reference numeral 7 denotes a circular abrasive sheet, which is made by adhering diamond abrasive grains or the like to the surface of a thin sheet having flexibility and elastic restoring force. Its outer periphery is clamped and fixed between the vertically opposing surfaces of a cylindrical holding frame 11 which is vertically swingable around the horizontal horizontal axis 9 and connected to the upper end so that it can be tightened and fixed via a shrimp fitting 10. It is installed so that it can be replaced freely. Reference numeral 12 denotes a cylindrical rotary passive member concentrically connected to the lower part of the cylindrical rotating frame 8 via a knock pin 13, and its axis b is at an angle of ΔL with respect to the axis a of the fixed support shaft 2. It is rotatably supported via a thrust bearing 15 by a large-diameter gear 14, which will be described later, in a state where it is deviated by a certain amount, and an internal gear 16 is concentrically fixed to the inner step thereof. A gear 17 is fixed to the upper part of the cylinder shaft 4, and is connected to the internal gear 16 via an idle gear 18.
It is interlocked with the Reference numeral 19 denotes a gear fixed to the lower part of the cylindrical shaft 4, and is interlocked and connected to a motor 21 fixedly supported on the pedestal 1 via a gear 20 that meshes with the gear.
9, the cylindrical shaft 4 and the gears 17, 18, and 16 constitute an autorotation mechanism that drives and rotates the rotating frame 8 and the polishing sheet 7 around the axis b.

14 is the above-mentioned large diameter gear, which is rotatably supported by the above-mentioned ground frame 1 via a thrust bearing 22 around the axis a, and has a vertical through-hole 14A formed in its center; Part 14
The cylindrical shaft 4 is inserted through A, and the idle gear 18 is fixed to a vertical shaft 18A rotatably supported by the free end of an arm 14B projecting inward. On the upper surface of this large diameter gear 14,
A cylindrical portion 14C that is concentric with the rotating frame 8 is integrally protruded, and a cylindrical portion 12C that is externally fitted concentrically with the protruding cylindrical portion 14C is integrally formed on the rotation passive member 12. A gear 23 meshes with the large-diameter gear 14, and is directly connected to the motor 24.
4C and 12C constitute a revolution mechanism that drives and rotates the rotating frame 8 and the polishing sheet 7 around the axis a, and this revolution mechanism and the rotation mechanism rotate the polishing sheet 7 on the surface of the polishing limiting fixing member 6. A sheet moving mechanism is configured to continuously drive and move the sheet in close contact with the sheet.

The polishing limiting fixing member 6 has a plurality of holes 6A at appropriate intervals in the circumferential direction of the fixing member 6.
It is formed to penetrate in the thickness direction. These holes 6A allow local curved elastic deformation of the sheet portion 7a on which the pressing force acts when the end of the cylindrical member 26 to be polished, which will be described later, is pressed against the polishing sheet 7. The maximum amount of deformation, that is, the curvature, of the deformable sheet portion 7a can be changed depending on the diameter of the hole 6A.For this reason, the plurality of fixing members 6 having different diameters of the holes 6A are configured to be detachable and replaceable.

Reference numeral 25 denotes a polishing feeding device that fixes and holds a plurality of optical fiber connectors 26, which are an example of a cylindrical member, and presses their end surfaces to be polished toward each hole 6A in the fixing member 6 in a concentric state. This includes a pair of upper and lower disk-shaped clamping members 27 and 28 that clamp the flange 26A provided at the middle part of the optical fiber connector 26, and a feed shaft 29. It is fixedly connected to the lower end and has a through hole 28a through which a portion below the flange 26A is inserted, and the upper clamping member 27 is slidable in the axial direction with respect to the feed shaft 29. It is externally fitted and is biased to slide toward the lower clamping body 28 via a spring 30.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

FIG. 4a is a cross-sectional view of the optical fiber connector 26 before spherical polishing, in which the optical fiber 26a consisting of a core and a cladding is inserted into the center of the connector body 26b made of stainless steel, and the connecting end is lengthened to an appropriate length. The connector body 26b has a structure in which the fiber portion in the area is fixedly held at the center by an alumina ceramic 26c filled in the connector body 26b, and the end face 26d is in a flat surface perpendicular to the axis before polishing.

While fixing and holding a plurality of optical fiber connectors 26 having the above-described structure to the polishing feeding device 25 as specified, both motors 21 and 24 are operated to move the rotating frame 8 and the polishing sheet 7 as shown schematically in FIG. As shown, it rotates around axis b while revolving around axis a.

In this state, when the feed shaft 29 of the feed device 25 is moved downward (in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. The polishing sheet portion 17a on which the force acts is the hole 6 of the fixing member 6.
A is locally indented and elastically deformed inward.
Due to this concave elastic deformation, the corner portion of the end face of the optical fiber connector 26 first comes into contact with the polishing sheet 7, as shown in FIG. 5a, and that portion is polished. Along with such polishing, the feed shaft 29 is sequentially fed and moved downward to remove the polishing sheet 7.
The amount of concave deformation into the hole 6A increases, the polishing of the end face of the optical fiber connector 26 progresses in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 5a, and the amount of concave deformation of the polishing sheet 7 increases as shown in FIG. 5b. When it reaches the maximum, the progress of polishing is restricted and the end surface of the optical fiber connector 26 is polished into a convex spherical surface 26e as shown in FIG. 4b.

Note that when the optical fiber connector 26 is unprocessed, the optical fiber 26a may protrude slightly from the end surface, and a portion of the adhesive present at the bonded portion with the connector body 26b may protrude from the end surface. In this case as well, the protruding portion from the end face is polished together with the other portions, and the final result is a convex spherical surface.

During the above-described spherical polishing, the polishing sheet 7 revolves around itself while rotating, so the polishing action area of one polishing sheet 7 can be widened, and the working time until it needs to be replaced, that is, the polishing sheet of a certain area can be Although there is an advantage that the replacement cycle can be lengthened and the polishing accuracy of the entire spherical surface can be made uniform, the present invention may be configured such that the polishing sheet is simply rotated around one axis.

In addition to optical fiber connectors, the device of the present invention can also be used for
For example, it can be applied to lens surface polishing that requires precision polishing.

6 and 7 show another embodiment of the sheet moving mechanism, in which the revolution mechanism and the rotation mechanism described above are driven by one motor 24.

To be more specific, in FIGS. 6 and 7, 31 is a first intermediate transmission shaft, 32 is a second intermediate transmission shaft, and the output shaft 24A of the motor 24 and the first intermediate transmission shaft 31 are connected to each other. Fixed diameter V pulley 33A, 3
3B and V-belt 33C, and the first intermediate transmission shaft 31 and second intermediate transmission shaft 32 are connected to each other via a variable-diameter split V-pulley 34A, 34B,V
Continuously variable speed belt transmission device 3 consisting of belt 34C
4, and connects the second intermediate transmission shaft 32 and the cylindrical shaft 4 to a V-pulley 3 with a fixed diameter.
5A, 35B, and a V-belt 35C are interlocked and connected via a second constant-speed belt transmission 35, and an operation of changing the diameter of one of the two-split V pulleys 34A of the continuously variable belt transmission 34. A knob 36 is provided to connect the one motor 24 to the gear 23, the large diameter gear 14, and the protruding cylindrical portions 14C and 12.
A drive motor for a revolution mechanism that drives and rotates the rotating frame 8 and the polishing sheet 7 around the axis a through C, a first constant speed belt transmission 33, a continuously variable belt transmission 34, a second It is also used as a drive motor for an autorotation mechanism that drives and rotates the rotating frame 8 and polishing sheet 7 around the axis b via the constant speed belt transmission device 35, the cylinder shaft 4, and the gears 17, 18, and 16. Moreover, by changing the setting of the diameter of the two-split V pulley 34A via the operation knob 36, the rotation speed of the rotating frame 8 and polishing sheet 7 can be arbitrarily adjusted.

FIG. 8 also shows another embodiment of the sheet moving mechanism, in which the output shaft 24A of the motor 24 and the cylindrical shaft 4 are connected to fixed-diameter V pulleys 37A, 37.
B and a V-belt 37C are interlocked and connected via a constant-speed belt transmission device, and a brake system is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the cylinder shaft 4 (or the outer peripheral surface of a rotating brake drum fixed to the cylinder shaft 4, although not shown). The brake shoe 38 is provided so as to be press-adjustable and separable via a hydraulic cylinder 39, and the setting of the pressing force of the brake shoe 38 against the outer circumferential surface of the cylinder shaft 4 (or brake drum) can be changed by expanding and contracting the hydraulic cylinder 39. The rotational speed of the cylindrical shaft 4, that is, the rotational speed of the rotating frame 8 and the polishing sheet 7, is made variable by the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 and the sixth embodiment.
In the case of the embodiment shown in Fig. 7, in addition to the advantage that only one drive motor is required for rotation and revolution, it is possible to arbitrarily change the rotation speed under a constant revolution speed. There is an economical advantage that the effective polishing range of the polishing sheet 7 can be expanded and the replacement cycle of one sheet 7 can be further extended.

Furthermore, the hole formed in the polishing limiting fixing member 6 is not limited to the one penetrating in the thickness direction as shown in the above embodiment, but may be a hole with a bottom 6A as shown in FIG. .

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the polishing apparatus for a cylindrical member of the present invention, a plurality of holes 6A are formed in the upper surface, each having a diameter into which the lower end portions of the plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished can be inserted. A fixing member 6, a cylindrical rotating frame 8 surrounding the fixing member 6, and a rotating cylindrical frame 8, which is attached to the rotating cylindrical frame 8 so as to be replaceable, and whose lower surface partially rests on the fixing member 6. Polishing sheet 7 installed
Then, the plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished are attached to positions corresponding to the respective holes 6A of the fixing member 6, and the lower end surfaces of the cylindrical members 26 are inserted into the opposing holes 6A of the fixing member 6 through the polishing sheet 7. A feeding device 25 that cannot be rotated and is movable only in the vertical direction.
Therefore, by moving the feeder 25 downward, a plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished can be
can be reliably inserted into each hole 6A of the fixing member 6 corresponding to each polished cylindrical member 26 through the polishing sheet 7 while pressing the lower end surface against the polishing sheet 7, Then, the part of the polishing sheet 7 that is inserted into the hole 6A is forcibly pressed and deformed along the lower end surface of the cylindrical member 26.
By rotating the polishing sheet 7, the lower end surfaces of all the cylindrical members 26 can be precisely polished into uniform convex curved surfaces.

Further, only the polishing sheet 7 rotates, and the feeding device 25 of the cylindrical member 26 disposed oppositely above the fixed member 6 does not rotate but only moves in the vertical direction. The holes 6A of the fixing member 6 correspond to the lower ends of the plurality of cylindrical members 26.
Since the cylindrical member 26 is inserted into the inside, it is not subjected to any twisting or bending action, and therefore, even if the cylindrical member 26 has a small diameter such as an optical fiber, it will not be cut or broken. This allows polishing to the desired curved surface without fail.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the main parts of a spherical polishing apparatus for cylindrical members according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a state of movement of the polishing sheet. FIGS. 4a and 4b are cross-sectional views before polishing and after polishing of an optical fiber connector as an example of the polishing target. FIGS. 5a and 5b are explanatory diagrams of the polishing action. 7 is a partially cutaway plan view of FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a main part showing still another embodiment of the sheet moving mechanism. FIG. 9 is also an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the main part showing another embodiment. 6... Polishing limiting fixing member, 6A... Hole of polishing limiting fixing member, 7... Polishing sheet, 25... Polishing feeding device, 26... Optical fiber connector (cylindrical member),
26e...Curved surface of optical fiber connector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fixing member 6 having a plurality of holes 6A formed in its upper surface and having a diameter into which the lower end portions of the plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished can be respectively inserted, and a cylindrical rotating frame 8 surrounding the fixing member 6; An abrasive sheet 7 is attached to the cylindrical rotating frame 8 in a replaceable manner, and a part of its lower surface is placed on the fixing member 6.
Then, the plurality of cylindrical members 26 to be polished are attached to positions corresponding to the respective holes 6A of the fixing member 6, and the lower end surfaces of the cylindrical members 26 are inserted into the opposing holes 6A of the fixing member 6 through the polishing sheet 7. A feeding device 25 that cannot be rotated and is movable only in the vertical direction.
A curved surface polishing device for a cylindrical member, comprising: