JPH0943466A - Optical fiber tape manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: A method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape having high productivity is provided. SOLUTION: A plurality of fiber core wires 1a to 1h are arranged in parallel, passed through an extrusion hole of a die, covered with an ultraviolet curable resin J in the extrusion hole to form a tape, and then irradiated with ultraviolet rays. In the method of manufacturing an optical fiber tape to be cured, a plurality of optical fiber tapes 7a and 7b are manufactured at the same time using the die 4 in which the plurality of extrusion holes 13 and 14 are formed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An optical fiber tape is made by arranging a plurality of fiber core wires in parallel and coating the outer circumferences thereof with a coating material (for example, an ultraviolet curable resin) so as to be integrated.

Specifically, the fiber cores sent out from the sending bobbin are arranged in parallel, passed through the die, and a urethane acrylate resin, which is an ultraviolet curable resin, is applied in the die to form a flat tape. The tape-shaped state is introduced into the ultraviolet curing device. Then, ultraviolet rays are radiated from a mercury lamp or the like to cure the urethane acrylate resin to form a fiber tape.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, when the optical fiber tape is manufactured, the arrangement of fiber core wires is disturbed,
Although the tape shaping technology due to variations in tape thickness has reached the almost completed range, there is a demand for improved productivity as well as a reduction in the diameter and the number of optical fibers.

In particular, there have been almost no studies to reduce the cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a highly productive optical fiber tape manufacturing method.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is to arrange a plurality of fiber core wires in parallel, to pass through an extrusion hole of a die, and to coat an ultraviolet curable resin in the extrusion hole. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber tape which is formed into a tape shape and is irradiated with ultraviolet rays after being extruded from a die to be cured, in which a plurality of optical fiber tapes are simultaneously produced using a die having a plurality of extrusion holes. is there.

In addition to the above construction, the present invention is to provide a resin pressure sensor in each extrusion hole to detect the pressure of the ultraviolet curing resin.

With the above construction, the ultraviolet curable resin is coated on the fiber core wires arranged in parallel in the plurality of extrusion holes formed in the die, so that a plurality of tape-shaped fibers are simultaneously formed in one extrusion step. It By irradiating a plurality of tape-shaped fibers simultaneously extruded from a die with ultraviolet rays, a plurality of optical fiber tapes can be manufactured at the same time, which improves productivity of the optical fiber tapes and leads to cost reduction.

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an apparatus to which the method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape according to the present invention is applied.

As shown in the figure, the bobbins 2a to 2a for sending out a plurality of (four) optical fibers 1a to 1d.
2d, delivery bobbins 2e to 2h for delivering the four optical fibers 1e to 1h, rollers 3a and 3b, and optical fiber groups 1a to 1d, 1e to 1h arranged in alignment with ultraviolet curable resin (hereinafter referred to as " Molding die 4 for coating "UV curable resin", UV lamp 5, and dancer 6
An optical fiber tape manufacturing apparatus is constituted by a and 6b and winding drums 8a and 8b for winding the optical fiber tapes 7a and 7b.

The delivery bobbins 2a to 2h are fiber cores (optical fiber strands in which a buffer layer having a low Young's modulus is formed on the surface of a bare glass fiber and a hard layer having a high Young's modulus is sequentially formed on the outer periphery thereof) 1a. ~ 1h has been wound up.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the fiber core wire.

As shown in FIG. 3, the fiber core wire is, for example, an SM fiber (single mode) having an optical wavelength λ of 1.3 μm band.
The primary material 11 and the secondary material 12 are coated with urethane acrylate resin such that the coating outer diameters φ are 200 μm and 250 μm, respectively.

In FIG. 1, four delivery bobbins 2a are provided.
~ 4d four fiber core wires 1a ~ 1d sent from
Are adjacently arranged in parallel by the roller 3a, and the four fiber core wires 1e to 1h sent from the sending bobbins 2e to 2h are adjacently arranged in parallel by the roller 3b.

The fiber core wires 1a to 1d arranged in alignment by the roller 3a are one of the plurality (two in the figure) of the extrusion holes 13 and 14 formed in the molding die 4 and the extrusion hole 1 is formed.
It is led to 3 sequentially. Similarly, the fiber core wires 1e to 1h aligned by the roller 3b are sequentially guided to the other extrusion hole 14 formed in the molding die 4.

Here, FIG. 2A is a plan view of a die used in an apparatus to which the method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape according to the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2B is AA of FIG. 2A. It is a line sectional view.

Two extrusion holes 1 formed in the die 4
Reference numerals 3 and 14 are connected to pressure tanks (not shown) via supply pipes 15 and 16, respectively. UV for pressure tank
The cured resin is stored, and the UV cured resin J is pressure-fed into the die 4 by a pressure feeding device (not shown). Pressure sensors 17 and 18 for detecting the pressure of the UV curable resin J are attached to the extrusion holes 13 and 14, respectively. The amount of the UV resin fed under pressure is controlled by the signals from the pressure sensors 17 and 18 so that the resin pressure in the extrusion holes 13 and 14 becomes constant.

In FIG. 2, the fiber core wires 1a to 1d,
When 1e to 1h enter into the extrusion holes 13 and 14, respectively, the outer circumference is covered with the UV curable resin J to form the tape-shaped fibers 19a and 19b, respectively.

Here, the UV curable resin J is one which is cured by irradiation with ultraviolet rays, and examples thereof include urethane acrylate resin, epoxy acrylate resin, polyester acrylate resin, polybutadiene acrylate resin, and silicon acrylate resin.

The tape-shaped fibers 19a and 19b are cured by the UV lamp 5, and two flat optical fiber tapes 20a and 20b as shown in FIG. 4 are simultaneously formed. The optical fiber tapes 20a and 20b are separate dancers 6a and 6b.
And is wound around the winding drums 8a and 8b.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the optical fiber tape formed by the apparatus shown in FIG.

Fiber cores 1a to 1 having the structure shown in FIG.
d are arranged in parallel, and the outer circumference is covered with a UV curable resin Ja that is cured by ultraviolet rays.

The thickness of this optical fiber tape is 0.4 mm
And the width was 1.3 mm. Linear velocity is 100 mm /
Went in minutes.

With this structure, the tape-shaped fibers are extruded from the two extruding holes at a time, so that two optical fiber tapes can be manufactured at the same time by irradiating ultraviolet rays.

In this embodiment, the case where the number of extrusion holes is two has been described, but the number is not limited to this. Further, the sizes of the extrusion holes do not have to be the same, and may be changed according to the number of core wires of the tape. Further, the number of tape cores can be increased or decreased to 4, 8, 10, 12, ...

[0028]

In summary, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects are exhibited.

Since a plurality of optical fiber tapes are simultaneously manufactured by using a die having a plurality of extrusion holes, the productivity of the optical fiber tapes can be improved and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an apparatus to which a method for manufacturing an optical fiber tape according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2A is a plan view of a die used in an apparatus to which the method for producing an optical fiber tape according to the present invention is applied,
(B) is the sectional view on the AA line of (a).

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an optical fiber before being made into a tape fiber.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an optical fiber tape formed by the device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a to 1h Fiber core wire 2a to 2h Sending bobbin 4 Die 5 UV lamp 7a, 7b Optical fiber tape 8a, 8b Winding drum 13, 14 Extrusion hole J UV curable resin (UV curable resin)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of fiber core wires are arranged in parallel, passed through an extrusion hole of a die, and an ultraviolet curable resin is coated in the extrusion hole to form a tape, and ultraviolet rays are extruded from the die. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber tape, which comprises simultaneously manufacturing a plurality of optical fiber tapes by using a die in which a plurality of extrusion holes are formed in the method of manufacturing an optical fiber tape by irradiation and curing. 2. The method for producing an optical fiber tape according to claim 1, wherein a resin pressure sensor is provided in each of the extrusion holes to detect the pressure of the ultraviolet curable resin.