JPH0361161B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an optical fiber cutter that cuts a plurality of optical fibers at once, for example, for the purpose of connecting tape-shaped optical fiber units.

(Prior Art) Generally, this type of cutter includes a base body, an optical fiber receiver attached to the base body on which the optical fiber to be cut is placed, a holder attached to an arm pivotally supported on the base body, and a holder attached to the arm pivoted to the base body. and a retained cutting blade.

Figure 2 shows a conventional optical fiber cutter
6924) is a side view showing a partial cross section of an example, showing a base body 11 and an optical fiber receiver 1 on which an optical fiber to be cut attached to the base body is placed.
2, and a holder 1 attached to an arm 13 that is pivotally supported by a pin 15 to a bracket 14 of the base 11.
7, a cutting blade 18 mounted in the holder 17 via a spring 19, and an upper cover 16 pivotally supported by a pin 15.

(Problem to be Solved) In the cutter described above, the arm 13 moves in an arc, and after the cutting edge of the cutting blade 18 hits the optical fiber, the spring 19 contracts, so that the cutting blade 18 is cut inside the holder 17. As the cutting blade 18 slides, the cutting blade 18 causes a lateral shift phenomenon as shown by the dotted line in FIG. If the optical fiber is shifted in the longitudinal direction, the wound becomes larger, and the optical fiber may be damaged by about 100 μm in the longitudinal direction. Furthermore, since each optical fiber is cut somewhere within the length of the above-mentioned flaws, for example, when cutting a multi-core optical fiber unit, the cut length of the optical fibers will vary by an average of about 100 μm.
This made it difficult to connect optical fibers.

For example, if the amount of misalignment in cut length is 100 μm or more, it is not possible to fusion splice multiple optical fiber units at once, and when connecting multiple optical fiber units with an amount of misalignment of about 30 μm, only one out of five This results in a connection loss of 0.4dB or more. In addition, since the optical fiber is scratched in the longitudinal direction of about 100 μm, the scratch remains near the spliced part even after fusion splicing.
There was a problem in that it easily broke under a tension of about 100 g.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides an improved optical fiber cutter that solves the above-mentioned problems, and has the following characteristics:
An arm 1 having a cutting blade fixed to the lower part of the tip, and an arm 2 located outside the arm and connected to the arm 1 at the tip via a blade pressure setting spring are both pivotally supported on the base at the other end. When the arm 2 is pressed and the cutting blade hits the surface of the optical fiber, the arm 2 is displaced relative to the arm 1, thereby applying a pressing force to the arm 1 and the cutting blade applying blade pressure to the optical fiber. There is.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a side view of an embodiment of an optical fiber cutter according to the present invention. The base body 1 has an optical fiber receiver 2 on which the optical fiber to be cut is placed as in the conventional case.
is attached to the base bracket 1a, and an arm 1 with a cutting blade 5 fixed to the lower part of the tip is mounted on the base bracket 1a.
and an arm 24 for setting the blade pressure located outside of the arm 24.
is pivotally supported by pin 6. Arm 13 above
The arm 24 is connected at its tip by a spring 7 such as a coil spring or a leaf spring for setting the blade pressure, and when the arm 24 is pressed, the spring 7
The structure is such that force is transmitted to the arm 13 via the arm 13.

The arm 24 is integrally provided with a stopper 8 that limits its rotation, and this prevents the spring 7 from contracting beyond a certain level. 2, the pin 6 connects the bracket 1 of the base 1.
a, and a spring 1 is connected between the arm 24 and the arm 24.
An optical fiber clamp 9 provided through the 0 is located.

In such a cutter, even after the arm 13 is pushed down by pressing the arm 24 and the cutting blade 5 hits the optical fiber surface, the arm 2 is further pressed down.
4 is pushed in until its rotation is stopped by the stopper 8, thereby compressing the spring 7 for setting blade pressure, applying blade pressure to the cutting blade 5, and damaging the optical fiber. At this time, the cutting blade 5 is fixed to the arm 13 and does not slide as in the conventional case, so there is no lateral shift of the cutting blade and no unnecessary damage is caused in the longitudinal direction of the optical fiber.

Although the figure shows a manual cutter,
The rotational force may be applied by a motor or the like. It goes without saying that the principle of this cutter can be applied not only to multi-core optical fiber units but also to cutting single-core optical fibers.

(Effects of the Invention) When a multi-core tape-like optical fiber unit is cut using the cutter shown in FIG. 1, the amount of cut length irregularity is as shown in FIG. 4. Conventionally, cuts with cut length irregularities of 20 μm or less, which could be fused and spliced as is, accounted for less than 15% of all cuts, but with the improvement of the present invention, this has increased to 98%.

Also, since there is no lateral deviation of the cutting blade, the cutting surface is 95%
A good mirror surface is obtained, and even after connection, the
The number of scratches that would cause breakage under 100 g was significantly reduced.

In addition, when the cutting blade hits the optical fiber, it is only necessary to consider the play of the pivot part 6;
It is easy to keep the thickness below 5 μm.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the optical fiber cutter of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side view showing a partial cross section of a conventional cutter, and Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the problems of the conventional cutter. It is. FIG. 4 is a histogram of the amount of unevenness in cut length when cutting is performed using the optical fiber cutter of the present invention. 1... Base body, 2... Optical fiber receiver, 3... Arm 1, 4... Arm 2, 5... Cutting blade, 6...
Pin, 7...Blade pressure setting spring, 8...Stopper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An arm 1 having a cutting blade fixed to the lower part of the tip;
An arm 2 located on the outside of the arm and connected to the arm 1 at the tip via a blade pressure setting spring is pivotally supported at the other end of the arm 2, and the arm 2 is pressed to cause the cutting blade to light up. An optical fiber cutting device characterized in that, when hitting the surface of the fiber, the arm 2 is displaced relative to the arm 1 to apply a pressing force to the arm 1 and the cutting blade applies blade pressure to the optical fiber. 2. The optical fiber cutter according to claim 1, wherein the rotation range of the arm 2 is limited by a stopper provided on the arm 2 or the base body.