JPH0731293B2 - Optical connector - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an optical connector, and particularly to an optical connector suitable as a connector for a plastic optical fiber that is useful for a short-distance transmission region of home appliances and the like. It is about.

(Prior Art and Problems Thereof) In recent years, various high-performance optical connectors for optical communication have been developed.

Screw locks, bayonet locks, push-on locks, etc. are used to fasten the adapter and plug of the optical connector.

Since the push-on lock type optical connector is a non-rotating type that allows plug insertion / removal only in the axial direction, it has a smaller operating space than screw locks and bayonet locks and is suitable for high-density mounting. As described in Technical Report CS85-128 "Low-cost, high-performance push-on optical connector" of the Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers, the conventional push-on lock type optical connector has a cantilever elastic locking piece provided on the adapter. The locking claw is locked in the recess provided in the plug frame of the plug, and the fastening between the adapter and the plug is maintained.

Also, by retracting the knob slidably provided on the outer surface of the plug frame, the peripheral portion of the knob lifts the elastic locking piece to release the locking between the locking claw and the recess, and the fastening of the adapter and plug. Is to be released.

By the way, in a short-distance transmission area such as between home appliances, optical signal transmission using a plastic optical fiber has been used from the viewpoint of economy. Since the plastic optical fiber has a larger core diameter than the quartz optical fiber and is also used for short-distance transmission, the design condition of the connector used for connection is gentler than that of the quartz optical fiber, and the structure is simpler. .

Although a screw lock, a bayonet lock method, etc. have been conventionally used for fastening such a plastic optical fiber, a push-on lock method is not used. If an optical connector having a push-on lock type fastening structure is applied as the optical connector for the plastic optical fiber, high-density mounting can be performed as described above.

However, since the conventional push-on-lock type optical connector uses a quartz optical fiber, the plug components include a ferrule that fixes the optical fiber, a spring that presses the ferrule, and a Kevlar of the optical cord, in addition to the plug frame and knob. It consists of a stop ring and a caulking ring for fixing, a ring for fixing the outer cover, and a hood, and there is a problem that it is uneconomical to use the plastic optical fiber as it is because of the large number of parts.

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical connector suitable for connecting a plastic optical fiber by reducing the number of plug parts in order to eliminate such a problem.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an alignment sleeve in a housing, and a cantilever elastic locking piece having a protrusion and a locking claw at its tip. A plug frame including an adapter provided with the ferrule integrally, having a through hole communicating from a hole at the rear end to the tip of the ferrule, and having a protrusion that is locked by the locking claw of the elastic locking piece. A cylindrical member having an inner diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the optical fiber cord and an outer diameter substantially equal to the hole at the rear end of the plug frame, and having a flexible member at the tip, the hole at the rear end of the plug frame A cord tube that is fixed to the plug frame by the bending of the bending member and is caulked and fixed to the optical fiber cord inserted inside when inserted into the portion;
It is mounted on the outer surface of the plug frame, and when the ferrule part of the plug frame is inserted into or withdrawn from the alignment sleeve, the locking claw of the elastic locking piece is pressed outward by abutting the protrusion, And a knob having a protrusion that allows the protrusion to pass therethrough.

(Operation) According to the present invention, the optical cord such as a plastic optical fiber is passed through the cord pipe and the cord pipe is inserted into the plug frame, whereby the bending member of the cord pipe is bent and the optical cord is fixed. As a result, it is possible to omit the parts that were conventionally required to crimp the Kevlar for fixing the optical cord.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a plug showing a first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a plug frame, is a knob, 3 is a cord tube, 4 is a plastic optical fiber, and 5 is a plastic optical cord. A ferrule 1a integrally formed of plastic is provided at the tip of the plug frame 1. Ferrule 1a
A plastic optical fiber 4 is inserted in the hole 1b of the. An optical cord 5 is caulked and fixed to the hole 3a of the cord tube 3. The cord tube 3 is a hole 1f at the rear end of the plug frame 1.
Has been pushed into. A knob 2 is mounted on the outer periphery of the plug frame 1 so as to be slidable back and forth.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the plug frame 1 shown in FIG. 1 in more detail. It has a rectangular shape with a square cross section as a whole, the ferrule 1a is provided at the center of the front surface, and the ferrule 1a is provided on the upper surface and the lower surface. 1c, a recess 1d for locking, and a step 1e are provided in parallel.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the knob 2 shown in FIG. 1 in more detail. The knob 2 has a substantially rectangular box shape capable of accommodating the plug frame 1, and has convex portions 2a on both sides of the upper surface and the lower surface. Recess 2
b, and an opening 2c is provided in the middle of both sides.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the cord tube 3 shown in FIG. 1 in more detail. The cord tube 3 has a cylindrical shape as a whole, and a small diameter portion at the distal end side is open at the distal end side at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction. The individual slits 3a are provided, and thereby the flexible member 3b is formed. 3c is a saw-toothed portion provided on the flexible member 3b.

In such a structure, the plug is assembled as follows. First, the plastic optical fiber 4 is exposed at the end of the plastic optical cord 5, and then the plastic optical cord 5 is passed through the hole 3a of the cord tube 3. The cord tube 3 is inserted into the hole 1f of the plug frame 1, and the plastic optical fiber 4 is inserted into the hole 1b of the ferrule 1a. At this time, due to the bending of the bending member 3b, the cord tube 3 is fixed by hooking the saw-shaped portion 3c in the hole 1f of the plug frame 1, and the plastic optical cord 5 is also pressed and fixed by the bending member 3b. In this way, the plastic optical cord 5 can be fixed only by the cord tube 3. The knob 2 is attached to the plug frame 1 by pushing it in from the rear end of the plug frame 1 until the protrusion 1c and the step 1e of the plug frame 1 are located in the opening 2c of the knob 2. Finally, the end face of the ferrule 1a is mirror-finished together with the end face of the plastic optical fiber.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the adapter used in this embodiment. 6
Is a housing, 6a is a supporting member provided through the middle of the housing 6 in the vertical direction, 7 is an elastic locking piece provided on each side of the supporting member 6a, and 8 is one provided through the supporting member 6a. It is an alignment sleeve.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of an essential part showing the elastic locking piece of FIG. 5 in more detail. 7a is a projection provided on both sides of the tip, 7b.
Is a locking claw provided on the upper or lower surface of the tip.

Next, the attaching / detaching operation of the plug and the adapter will be described. When the plug shown in FIG. 1 is inserted into the housing 6 of the adapter shown in FIG. 5 while holding the knob 2, the protrusion 2a of the knob 2 abuts the protrusion 7a of the elastic locking piece 7 and pushes it up. Since it opens, the locking claw 7b gets over the projection 1c of the plug frame 1. When it is further inserted, the projection 7a goes beyond the convex portion 2a, the elastic locking piece 7 is closed, and the locking claw 7b enters the concave portion 1d of the plug frame 1 and is completely locked. After that, unless the knob 2 is moved, the engagement between the engagement claw 7b and the recess 1d cannot be released,
The connection between the plug and the adapter is maintained. At this time, if the same plug is inserted into the other end of the adapter, the ferrule 1a is coupled in the alignment sleeve 8 and the plastic optical fibers 4 are interconnected.

To pull out the plug from the adapter, pull back the knob 2. As a result, the convex portion 2a of the knob 2 comes into contact with the projection 7a of the elastic locking piece 7 and pushes it up to open it, and the locking claw 7b is lifted to move over the projection 1c of the plug frame 1 and the plug comes out of the adapter. .

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an integrally molded adapter showing another embodiment of the present invention, except that the window 9 is provided on the side surface of the adapter shown in FIG. Is the same as. The same plug as that used in the first embodiment is used.

In this embodiment, when the adapter is manufactured by plastic molding, by providing the window 9 in advance, it is possible to perform die cutting from the window 9 in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction together with the die cutting in the axial direction. The elastic locking piece 7 with the shape can be easily and accurately molded, and the housing 6, the elastic locking piece 7, and the alignment sleeve 8 can be formed.
The adapter consisting of can be molded at once, and the adapter becomes one part. When it is desired to close the window 9, a metal plate that also serves as a mounting plate for the adapter may be attached.

In this embodiment, since the adapter, which is a component of the connector, is one component, the number of components of the entire connector is smaller than that in the above-described embodiment.

(Third Embodiment) When the plug frame 1 is applied to a region where a force is not applied to the plug, such as a connection in the apparatus, the plug frame 1 may be integrally molded with the knob 2. FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the knob 10 in which the plug frame is integrally molded.

FIG. 8 shows a knob and a plug frame. Each part corresponds to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, respectively. 10a is a convex part, 10b is a slope of a step part, 10
c is a recess, 10d is an opening, and 10e is a ferrule. However, the projection 1c and the recess 1 of the plug frame 1 shown in FIG.
d, step 1e is not provided. Similar to the plug assembling method shown in FIG. 1, a plastic optical fiber cord 5 and a cord tube 3 are incorporated into the knob 10 to form a plug, and when the plug is inserted into the adapter shown in FIG. 7 The protrusion 7a and the inclined surface 10b of the knob 10 are engaged and incompletely locked. At this time, if the force applied to the knob 10 is small (for example, about 1 kg or less), that is, if the force due to the bending of the elastic locking piece 7 is greater than the force pushing up the protrusion 7a along the slope 10b, the elastic locking piece 7 Since the force due to the bending is applied to the slope 10b of the knob 10 via the protrusion 7a, the fastening between the adapter and the knob is maintained.

(Effect of the Invention) According to the present invention as described above, the plastic optical cord can be fixed only by the flexible member provided on the cord tube, so that the number of parts of the plug is three, the plug frame, the knob, and the cord tube. Therefore, the number of parts is reduced and the plug becomes cheaper. Further, the structure of the adapter is simple, the cost can be reduced, and an optical connector suitable for a plastic optical fiber can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a plug showing a first embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a detailed perspective view of the plug frame shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a detailed perspective view of the knob shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 shows the cord tube shown in FIG. It is a perspective view showing in detail. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the adapter shown in the first embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of essential parts showing in detail the elastic locking piece of FIG. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the adapter shown in the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is a side view of the integrally molded knob and plug frame shown in the third embodiment. 1 ... Plug frame, 1a ... Ferrule, 1b ... Hole,
1c ... projection, 1d ... recess, 1e ... step, 1f ... hole, 2 ...
… Knob, 2a …… convex part, 2b …… concave part, 2c …… opening part, 3
…… Cord tube, 3d …… hole, 3b …… bending member, 3c …… saw-shaped part, 4 …… plastic optical fiber, 5 …… plastic optical cord, 6 …… housing, 7 …… elastic locking piece,
7a ... Protrusion, 7b ... Locking claw, 8 ... Alignment sleeve, 9 ...
... window, 10 ... knob, 10a ... projection, 10b ... slope, 10c
...... Concave, 10d ...... Opening, 10e ...... Ferrule,

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A rear end hole having an alignment sleeve, an adapter having a cantilever elastic locking piece having a projection and a locking claw at its tip, and a ferrule integrally formed therein. A plug frame having a through hole extending from the end to the ferrule tip and having a protrusion that is locked by the locking claw of the elastic locking piece, and an inner diameter approximately equal to the outer diameter of the optical fiber cord and the rear of the plug frame. The plug frame is formed of a cylindrical member having an outer diameter substantially equal to that of the end hole and has a bending member at the front end, and when inserted into the hole at the rear end of the plug frame, the bending of the bending member causes the plug frame to move to the plug frame. A cord tube that is fixed and caulks and fixes an optical fiber cord that is inserted inside, and is mounted on the outer surface of the plug frame, and the ferrule portion of the plug frame is arranged in the alignment three A plug having a protrusion having a protrusion that abuts on the protrusion and pushes the locking claw of the elastic locking piece outward when inserting or pulling it out of the protrusion. Optical connector characterized by 2. The knob mounted on the plug frame is slidable forward and backward with respect to the plug frame, and when retracted, unlocks the locking claw and the projection of the plug frame. The optical connector according to claim 1, wherein the optical connector has a convex portion. 3. The plug frame and the knob are integrated to form a plug portion, and the elastic locking piece is locked by a convex portion of the plug portion. The optical connector according to item 1. 4. The optical connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the adapter is integrally molded of plastic and is made of one component.