JPH0327494B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an improvement in an optical fiber drawing device, and more specifically, it relates to an improvement in an optical fiber drawing device, and more specifically, a device for spinning an optical fiber base material (hereinafter referred to as “preform”), and furthermore, after coating with a resin. The present invention relates to an optical fiber drawing device that performs an in-line proof test before winding the optical fiber and is configured to easily return to the pass line when broken.

<Prior Art> An optical fiber drawing device is configured to heat-melt and spin a preform, coat the outer periphery of the resulting fiber with a resin, and then wind it up with a winder. In order to guarantee the rupture life of the optical fiber, a proof test is usually performed in-line in the equipment, before winding the optical fiber, by applying a constant load, that is, tension, to the optical fiber to break the weak parts. I have to.

Conventional examples of such an optical fiber drawing device are shown in FIGS. 6 to 8.

As shown in the overall configuration of this conventional optical fiber drawing device in FIG. is pulled out, the outer periphery of the fiber is coated with a resin through a coating die 5, and then passed through a curing furnace 6 to be finished into an optical fiber 7. The fiber is further guided to a winding section A through a guide roller 8 and wound up by a winding device 50, which will be described later. There is.

The winding section A has a structure in which an optical fiber introduction device 10 as a winding means, a proof test loading device 20, a dancer roller 30, and a winding device 50 are sequentially arranged from the guide roller 8 to the winding machine 50 side. The optical fiber introducer 10 holds the optical fiber 7 fed in using a take-up wheel 11 driven by a motor (not shown) and a fiber holding wrap belt 12, and sends it out to the proof test loading device 20.

The proof test loading device 20 has a simple guide roller 21 and a loading wheel 22, and as shown in FIG.
The torque generated by the rotational drive of the motor 26 is controlled to a constant torque by a torque control electromagnetic coupling 27 and transmitted to the loading wheel 22, and the loading wheel 22 and the aforementioned optical fiber A constant load is applied to the optical fiber between the introducer 10 and the take-off wheel 11. In addition, the guide roller 2
1 is rotatably supported by bearings 28 and 29.

The dancer roller 30 includes fixed rollers 31 and 32 provided on the introduction side and the output side of the optical fiber, respectively;
A guide block 35 provided to be movable up and down along guide shafts 33 and 34;
The moving roller 36 fixed to the optical fiber 7 exerts an upward force against the weight of the guide block 35.
A counterload constant force spring 37 is provided to apply a predetermined tension to the counterload. In addition to the above, the dancer roller 30 includes a mainspring bobbin 38, and its shaft 39 has a bearing 4, as shown in FIG.
0 and 41, and a displacement detector 42 is provided at the end of the shaft 39. The position of the moving roller 36 mentioned above is detected by a displacement detector 42, and the winding of the winding device 50 is controlled by an electric control device (not shown).

The winding device 50 is provided with a moving roller 51 and a winding bobbin 52.
1 serves to guide the optical fiber 7 sent out from the dancer roller 30 to a take-up bobbin 52, and the take-up bobbin 52 is rotated by a variable speed motor (not shown) and serves to take up the optical fiber 7.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> By the way, in the above-mentioned optical fiber drawing device, the optical fiber is broken between the loading wheel 22 of the proof test loading device 20 and the take-up wheel 11 of the optical fiber introducing machine 10. However, spinning furnace 3
Since the wrap belt 12 runs in contact with the take-off wheel 11, the optical fiber between the pull-off wheel 11 and the take-off wheel 11 is maintained in a running state.

Therefore, it is necessary to re-thread the line between the take-up wheel 11 and the winding bobbin 52, but it is necessary to reduce the winding speed to a line speed that can be done manually. The linear speed decreases as the number of intermediate guide rollers increases and as the path line becomes more complex. 40~ with conventional optical fiber drawing equipment
The maximum speed is about 50m/min. The steady drawing speed is
Since it is larger than this and more than 150m/min,
There is a drawback that a considerable amount of scrap fiber occurs between the steady speed and the lower limit speed.

The present invention was made in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional optical fiber drawing apparatus, and it facilitates the re-threading operation when the drawn optical fiber breaks, thereby increasing the drawing speed.
The object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber drawing device that can shorten working time and reduce the amount of scrap of optical fiber.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to solve the above problems, the optical fiber drawing apparatus of the present invention is capable of drawing an optical fiber obtained by melt-spinning an optical fiber base material and coating the fiber with a resin. In an optical fiber drawing device in which the optical fiber is passed through a take-up means and rollers in a proof test loading device and then wound in a winding device, at least some of the rollers from the proof test loading device to the winding device are used. The device is characterized by being able to reciprocate from the pass line to the retracted position.

<Function> As described above, the optical fiber drawing device according to the present invention moves all or some of the rollers that guide the optical fiber from the proof test loading device to the winding device to the retracted position from the optical fiber pass line route. The path line of the optical fiber can be restored by manually lining the broken optical fiber and then returning the rolls from the retracted position to their original positions.

Furthermore, according to the apparatus of the present invention, the optical fiber can be hung in a straight line from the take-up means to the winding device at the final position without any obstacles.

<Examples> Next, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to typical examples.

1 to 5 show a schematic configuration of an optical fiber drawing device according to an embodiment, FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a proof test loading device in the optical fiber drawing device, and FIG. 2 is a structure of a dancer roller 30. 3 is a front sectional view, and FIGS. 4 and 5 respectively show the rollers of the proof test loading device 20 and dancer device 30 in the optical fiber drawing device of this embodiment. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the optical fiber has been moved from the pass line to a retracted position and a state in which it has returned to the normal feeding pass line position. Among the reference numerals in FIGS. 1 to 5, the same reference numerals as in the conventional apparatus represent the same parts or the same apparatus.

In the proof test loading device 20 in the optical fiber drawing apparatus of this embodiment, the rotating shaft 23 of the loading wheel 22 is supported by a hollow frame 61 via a bearing 24. In addition, electromagnetic clutch 2
6. The motor 27 is similarly fixed to an arm 62 integral with the hollow frame 61.

Further, a shaft 63 is fitted through the arm 62, and the key 6
4 is integrated. One end of the shaft 63 is rotatably supported by a bearing 65 on the frame of the proof test loading device, and the other end is similarly rotatably supported by a bearing 66, with a A rotary actuator 67 is connected thereto.

The rotary actuator 67 is provided so as to be able to reciprocate at a constant angle. Now, when this rotary actuator 67 operates, with the shaft 63 as the central axis,
Loading wheel 22 and take-up wheel 21
The position of will move.

In the dancer roller 30 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, 68 is an air-type actuator for the dancer roller device, and an actuating piece 69 can be moved up and down by an air control device (not shown). are the upper and lower limit switches for the position of the operating piece 69, respectively. 72 is an engagement piece fixed to the guide block 36, and the actuation piece 69
engage with. That is, the moving roller 36 moves from the position I◯ where the actuating piece 69 rises to the position B◯. Further, as the actuating piece 69 descends, the moving roller 36
When the lower limit switch 70 is activated, the structure functions as a dancer roller.

Therefore, the optical fiber drawing apparatus of this embodiment works as follows. In other words, when wiring optical fibers, as shown in Figure 4,
The load device 20 and each roller in the dancer roller 30 move to the retracted position. In this state, the optical fiber is wired from the optical fiber introducer 10 to the winding device 50. Next, when a switch (not shown) is manually pressed, each roller moves to the pass line P as shown in FIG. 5, and the normal feeding pass line is restored.

By performing the above operations using the optical fiber drawing apparatus of this embodiment, it is possible to easily move rollers provided in the apparatus for other purposes, for example.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above description, according to the optical fiber drawing apparatus according to the present invention, in the in-line optical fiber proof test of the apparatus, when the optical fiber breaks, the pulling means is removed during the drawing operation. Since the broken optical fiber can be guided directly to the winding device without having to wire all or some of the guide rollers on the path line leading from the (optical fiber introducing machine) to the winding device, the wire threading work can be reduced. Since it can be dramatically shortened, the amount of scrap can be significantly reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a proof test loading device in an optical fiber drawing device according to an embodiment, FIGS. 2 and 3 are longitudinal and cross-sectional views of a dancer roller in an optical fiber drawing device according to an embodiment, 5 and 5 respectively show the state of the optical fiber drawing device when the guide rollers in the optical fiber drawing device of the embodiment are moved from the optical fiber pass line to the retracted position and when they are returned to the pass line position. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of a conventional optical fiber drawing device, Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view of the proof test loading device inside the device shown in Fig. 6, and Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the device shown in Fig. 6. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the inner dancer roller. In the drawings, 1... optical fiber base material, 4... spinning fiber, 5... resin coating die, 6... hardening furnace, 7
...Optical fiber, 10.. Optical fiber introduction machine as optical fiber take-up means, 20.. Proof test loading device, 30.. Dancer roller, 50.. Winding device, P.. Optical fiber pass line, A.. Optical fiber drawing device. sending section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an optical fiber drawing device, an optical fiber obtained by coating a fiber obtained by melt-spinning an optical fiber base material with a resin is conveyed through a pulling means and rollers in a proof test loading device, and then wound by a winding device. An optical fiber drawing device, characterized in that at least some of the rollers from the proof test loading device to the winding device are movable back and forth from a pass line to a retracted position.