JPH0279008A - Production of optical fiber cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily obtain the optical fiber cable of a low cost by disposing a coated tape producing stage in which a curing resin is used for integral coating of coated tapes and an aggregating stage and extrusion coating stage in tandem. CONSTITUTION:Plural pieces of the coated optical fibers 1 are respectively supplied from supply bobbins 6 and are arrayed in a plane shape; thereafter, the thermosetting resin is applied on the fibers by a coater 7 and in succession, the fibers are passed through a curing device 8 to cure the resin and to form the coated tapes 3. Plural units of the lines consisting of the respective devices are disposed in parallel and the respective coated tapes 3 supplied form the respective lines are supplied in tandem to the ensuing aggregating device 9. The respective coated tapes 3 are merely stacked in a laminated state and are applied with retaining tapes to coated tape units 4 in this aggregating device 9. The units are supplied again in tandem to an extrusion coating device 10 and are coated with a sheath 5 in, for example, a loosely fitted state, on the outside of the coated tape units 4. The optical fiber cable having the coated tape units 4 is obtd. in this way at the low cost.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a method in which a plurality of optical fibers are arranged parallel to each other in a plane, and a plurality of tape cores are assembled in a laminated state by applying a bundle coating to the fibers. The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical fiber cable having a tape core unit.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, it has been used because of its advantages such as being able to connect multiple optical fibers at once and gathering optical fibers in high density.
A ribbon cable 3 as shown in FIG. 2 is widely used. This is a plurality of optical fiber strands 1 having -order coating etc.
are lined up in parallel on a flat surface, and then covered with a bulk coating 2 made of thermoplastic resin such as nylon.In actual cable production, multiple tape cores 3 are laminated as shown in Figure 3. The ribbon core unit 4 is assembled by pressing with a pressing string or the like, and a sheath 5 made of polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, etc. is applied to this, or the tape core unit 4 is assembled as shown in FIG. Furthermore, a plurality of them are gathered together to cover the sheath 5.

By the way, when manufacturing the optical fiber cable shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, conventionally the tape core wire 3 shown in FIG.
After manufacturing this and winding it onto a bobbin or the like, a plurality of the bobbins are supplied to a collecting device, and the tape fiber unit 4 is formed by simply stacking them in a stacked state or by twisting them after stacking them. This was then wound onto a drum using a winding device, and finally this drum was supplied to an extrusion coating device to coat the sheath 5.

However, as this type of cable has been adopted as an optical fiber cable for subscribers, it has become necessary to manufacture it at a lower cost. Therefore, various studies have been carried out, and cost reduction from the viewpoint of materials, such as forming the above-mentioned bracket coating 2 from a thermosetting resin or an ultraviolet curable resin, has attracted attention as an effective means.

However, when a thermosetting resin or an ultraviolet curable resin is used as the bracket 2 in this way, when forming the tape core 3 shown in FIG. Since the curing speed of the applied thermosetting resin or ultraviolet curable resin is slow, the speed at which the tape core wire 3 is manufactured is slow, and there is a problem in that the manufacturing cost increases.

[Purpose of the invention]

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing an optical fiber cable having a tape core unit at a lower cost.

[Structure of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the method for manufacturing an optical fiber cable of the present invention involves arranging a plurality of optical fibers in parallel in a plane, applying a blanket coating of thermosetting or ultraviolet curable resin, and then a step of curing the collective coating to produce a tape core; and a step of assembling a plurality of the tape core wires in a stacked state to form a tape core wire unit;
The present invention is characterized in that the step of extruding and coating the tape core unit with a sheath is sequentially performed in tandem.

Furthermore, a plurality of optical fiber strands are arranged parallel to each other in a plane and coated with a thermosetting or ultraviolet curable resin, and then the coated coating is cured to produce a tape core. a step of laminating a plurality of the tape core wires and twisting them in an SZ shape to form a tape core unit with SZ twist; and a step of extruding and covering the tape core wire unit with a sheath. It is characterized by sequentially performing tandem operations.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in this figure, the method of the present invention supplies a plurality of optical fiber strands 1 each coated with a suitable coating such as a secondary coating. Bobbin 6.
After supplying each from 6-...-... and arranging them in parallel in a plane using an appropriate alignment device (not shown in the drawing), a thermosetting resin or an ultraviolet curable resin is applied using a coating device 7. This is then cured through a curing device 8 consisting of a heating furnace if the bulk coating 2 is a thermosetting resin, or an ultraviolet irradiation device if it is an ultraviolet curable resin, to form a tape core having a cross section as shown in FIG. form 3. For example, a plurality of lines consisting of the devices described above are arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction, and each ribbon fiber 3 supplied from each line is supplied to the next collecting device 9 in tandem.

In this collecting device 9, the tape core wire unit 4 may be constructed by simply piling up each tape core wire 3 in a laminated state and applying appropriate pressure tape or pressure string thereto, but it is also possible to construct the tape core wire unit 4 by SZ twisting. In either case, supply bobbin 6
This is because the manufacturing equipment can be fixed to the floor, which has the advantage of not complicating the entire manufacturing equipment, and it becomes easier to construct a tandem line.

After forming the tape fiber unit 4 as described above,
This is then supplied in tandem to the extrusion coating device 10, and the sheath 5 is coated on the outside of the tape core unit 4, for example, in a loosely fitted state. If the sheath 5 is provided in a loosely fitted state, the tape fiber unit 4 can move within the sheath 5, so even if an external force such as a tensile force is applied to the cable, the internal tape fiber unit 4 will not be affected. This is because it has the advantage of having less influence.

In addition, as an application of the present invention, a plurality of lines from the supply bobbin 6 to the collection bag W9 are prepared, and each tape supplied from each collecting device 9 is placed between the collecting device 9 and the extrusion coating device 10. It is also possible to further collect the core wire units 4 to form a unit y) as shown in the fourth example, and cover this with the sheath 5 by the extrusion coating device 10 in tandem.

The biggest advantage of combining the steps of manufacturing the tape core 3, forming the tape core unit 4, and extrusion coating the sheath 5 in tandem is that the tape core 4 can be covered 2 all at once. By forming it with hardening resin,
Curing took a long time, and the manufacturing speed of the tape core wire 3 itself was lower than when the conventional blanket coating 2 was made of thermoplastic resin, but on the other hand, the speed of this process became slower, so the manufacturing speed of the tape core wire 3 itself was faster than before. The speeds of the assembling process and the sheathing process, which are difficult to perform, are now relatively equal, and even if the entire process is made in tandem as in the present invention, the problem of one process controlling the overall manufacturing speed does not occur. be.

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, the reduction in production speed in the tape core manufacturing process due to the use of a curable resin for bulk coating of the tape core can be reduced in tandem with the assembling process and the extrusion coating process. Since this can be sufficiently covered without sacrificing the manufacturing speed of other processes, it has become possible to easily obtain lower-cost optical fiber cables.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a tape core unit type optical fiber cable can be manufactured at lower cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the method for manufacturing an optical fiber cable of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a tape core, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are a diagram of a tape core unit type. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of an optical fiber cable.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of optical fiber strands are arranged in parallel in a plane and coated with a thermosetting or ultraviolet curable resin, and then the bulk coating is cured to produce a tape core. A step of assembling a plurality of the tape core wires in a laminated state to form a tape core wire unit, and a step of extruding and covering the tape core wire unit with a sheath are sequentially performed in tandem. Method of manufacturing fiber cable. (2) Arranging a plurality of optical fiber strands in parallel in a plane and applying a bulk coating of thermosetting or ultraviolet curable resin to the fibers, and then curing the bulk coating to produce a tape core. a step of laminating a plurality of the tape core wires and twisting them in an SZ shape to form a tape core unit with SZ twist; and a step of extruding and covering the tape core wire unit with a sheath. A method for manufacturing an optical fiber cable, characterized in that the manufacturing method is performed sequentially and in tandem.