JPH0968628A - Optical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to easily execute alignment even a ferrule and container housing are integrally molded by forming this ferrule of a soft resin having elasticity and forming this housing of a rigid resin. SOLUTION: The ferrule 11 and the connector housing 12 are integrally molded by a two-color injection molding method using respectively different synthetic resins. A rigid compd., such as PBT, is used for the connector housing 12 part and a soft compd., such as styrene ethylene-butyrene ethylene copolymer having good compatibility with the rigid compd., such as PBT, used for the connector housing 12 part and having elasticity is used for the ferrule 11 part. Then, the connector housing 12 part is hardly deformable but the ferrule part 11 is deformable to some extent. Some degree of freedom is eventually imparted to the ferrule part 11 as compared to heretofore.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical connector used as a connection terminal of an optical fiber cable used in an optical communication network or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an optical connector used as a connection terminal of an optical fiber cable, as shown in FIG. 14, a ferrule 51 for fixing an optical fiber cable A and a connector housing 52 formed separately from the ferrule 51. As shown in the figure, a ferrule 51 having an optical fiber cable A inserted and fixed therein is fitted into a connector housing 52 via a spring 53, and the spring 53 is pressed and fixed by a fixing member 54. By doing so, the ferrule 51 is held in the connector housing 52.

As another type, a ferrule and a connector housing are integrally molded of hard resin, and an optical fiber cable is inserted into the ferrule and fixed to the connector housing by a fixing member. Has become.

[0004]

By the way, in the case where the ferrule 51 and the connector housing 52 are separate bodies, since the ferrule 51 is held by the connector housing 52 via the spring 53, the degree of freedom of the spring 53 causes the connector 53 to move. Ferrule 5 for housing 52
Since the position of 1 slightly fluctuates, there is an advantage that alignment can be easily performed when connecting to another optical connector or a relay connector, but conversely the number of parts increases and the structure becomes complicated. There are drawbacks.

On the other hand, in the case where the ferrule and the connector housing are integrally molded, there is an advantage that the number of parts is reduced, but the ferrule does not move with respect to the connector housing, so that the ferrule itself is misaligned. If so, alignment may be difficult when connecting to another optical connector or a relay connector. For this reason, it is necessary to use a relay connector or the like having a special mechanism such as an elastic sleeve that absorbs the positional deviation of the ferrule, as disclosed in JP-A-3-237409.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an optical connector which can be easily aligned even though the ferrule and the connector housing are integrally molded.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an optical connector in which a ferrule and a housing are integrally molded, wherein the ferrule is formed of elastic soft resin and the housing is formed. It was made of hard resin.

More specifically, a hard compound is used for the housing part and a soft compound having elasticity that is compatible with the hard compound is used for the ferrule part by a two-color injection molding method. It is conceivable to integrally mold both. Polybutylene terephthalate may be used as the hard compound, and styrene / ethylene / butylene / styrene copolymer may be used as the soft compound.

Further, if a lock portion for fixing to the housing of another optical connector or the housing of the relay connector is provided in the housing, the lock portion is made of a hard resin, so that another light The connection state with the connector or the relay connector can be reliably maintained.

[0010]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, this optical connector 1 is a full lock type in which both connectors are firmly fixed by a locking arm when connected to a receiving module side connector 30 (see FIG. 10) provided with a light emitting element. Connector body 10 in which the ferrule 11 and the connector housing 12 are integrally molded.
And a fixing member 20 housed and fixed in the connector body 10.

The fixing member 20 is made of a hard resin such as polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the optical fiber cable A is used.
And a holding plate 21 having a through hole 21a
A pair of flexible core wire gripping pieces 2 provided on the
2, the covering portion gripping piece 23, the retaining piece 24, and the locking arm 25.

As shown in the figure, the pair of core wire gripping pieces 22 are provided so as to face each other at positions sandwiching the insertion hole 21a of the holding plate 21, and the optical fibers passed through the insertion holes 21a, respectively. It protrudes forward along the cable A. Further, the core wire gripping piece 22 is provided with a protrusion 22a for pressing the core wire portion a of the optical fiber cable A from which the covering portion b is stripped off, on the inner surface side of the tip end portion, and the tip end corner portion on the outer surface side. Taper surface 22b
Are formed. The interval between the protrusions 22a is set to be equal to or larger than the outer diameter of the core wire portion a by about 0.1 mm.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the gripping piece 22 has a step portion 22c formed on the tip side of the gripping piece 23, and the covering portion b of the optical fiber cable A inserted into the insertion hole 21a is formed. The end face comes into contact with the step portion 22c and is naturally positioned.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pair of covering portion gripping pieces 23 are provided at positions sandwiching the insertion hole 21a of the holding plate 21 like the core wire gripping piece 22. It is provided at a position deviated from the core wire gripping piece 22 by 90 ° about the insertion hole 21a. Further, the covering portion gripping piece 23 has projections 23a that fit into the introducing groove 12c of the connector body 10 described later and a projection 23b that presses the covering portion b of the optical fiber cable A on both inner and outer surfaces of the tip end portion thereof.
Is provided, and the projection 23a on the outer surface side is formed with a taper surface 23c that spreads outward from the tip side toward the rear. The interval between the protrusions 23b is determined by the covering portion b.
The outer diameter is set to be equal to or larger than 0.1 mm. Further, since the covering portion gripping piece 23 grips a portion of the optical fiber cable A where the covering portion b is not stripped, the optical fiber cable A is gripped on the rear side of the core wire gripping piece 22. It is necessary, and the protruding length is shorter than that of the core wire gripping piece 22.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 8, the retaining piece 24 has a U-shape with a bent tip portion and is provided so as to project forward from both side portions of the holding plate 21. There is. In addition, on both sides of the tip of the retaining piece 24,
Protrusions 24a that engage with stepped portions 12h of the connector body 10 to be described later are respectively formed (see FIG. 8A).

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the locking arm 25 is composed of an arm body 26 connected to the retaining piece 24 and a lock claw 27 provided at the tip of the arm body 26. Has been done.

The arm body 26 has a first arm 26a, one end of which is connected to the outer surface of the distal end of the retaining piece 24, and extends to the vicinity of the holding plate 21 while opening slightly outward along the retaining piece 24, The second arm 26b is bent outward from the other end of the first arm 26a, extends forward, and is bent slightly inward on the way, and the lock claw 27 is formed on the inner surface of the tip of the second arm 26b. Is formed in. Therefore, when the rear end of the second arm 26b is pushed inward, the first arm 26a bends inward, and the tip of the second arm 26b opens outward accordingly.

The connector body 10 is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 5, the core portion a of the optical fiber cable A with the covering portion b stripped off is inserted, and the optical fiber cable A is inserted.
The ferrule 11 for positioning the optical fiber cable A and the connector housing 12 for accommodating the fixing member 20 holding the optical fiber cable A are integrally molded with a synthetic resin. The module side connector 3 shown in FIG.
There is provided a protrusion 13 as a lock portion that presses the inner surface of the fitting hole 31 when it is fitted in the fitting hole 31 of 0 and is connected, and simply fixes the connected state by the frictional force.

The ferrule 11 and the connector housing 12 are integrally molded by a two-color injection molding method using different synthetic resins, and a hard compound such as PBT is used for the connector housing 12 portion, and the ferrule is used. Styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene copolymer (11) (the cross-hatched portion in FIGS. 2 and 3) has good compatibility with a hard compound such as PBT used in the connector housing 12 and has elasticity and ( A soft compound such as SEBS) is used. Therefore, the connector housing 12 portion is difficult to be deformed, but the ferrule 11 portion can be deformed to some extent, and compared with the conventional optical connector 1 in which both the ferrule 11 and the connector housing 12 are integrally molded with the same hard resin, the ferrule 11 is formed. A certain degree of freedom will be given to the part.

The connector housing 12 is a first accommodating portion 12a serving as a pressing portion of the core wire gripping piece 22, and a size larger than the first accommodating portion 12a, and is a pressing portion of the covering portion gripping piece 23. It has the 2nd accommodating part 12b used as the introduction part of the core wire part holding piece 22, and this 2nd accommodating part 12b.
The guide groove 12c of the covering portion gripping piece 23 into which the protrusion 23a is fitted is formed in the groove. In addition, the second housing portion 12
b from the b to the first accommodating portion 12a and the introduction groove 1
In the step-down portion from the front end portion of 2c to the second accommodating portion 12b,
Tapered surfaces 12d and 12e are formed to extend outward from the front to the rear, respectively.

Further, a projection 12f that engages with the retaining piece 24 of the fixing member 20 is provided on the outer surface of the connector housing 12, and the projection 12f is outwardly directed from the rear to the front. A widened tapered surface 12g is formed. A step portion 12h that engages with the protrusion 24a is formed behind the protrusion 12f (see FIG. 8A).

As shown in FIG. 8A, the connector body 10 and the fixing member 20 have the protrusion 24a and the step portion 1
By engaging with 2h, the fixing member 20 is prevented from falling off the connector body 10, and the fixing member 20 is temporarily fixed to the connector body 10. In addition, at this time, as shown in FIG.
a is loosely fitted in the introduction groove 12c of the connector body 10, and the optical fiber cable A is set in the fixing member 10 by inserting the optical fiber cable A from the insertion hole 21a of the holding plate 21. You can In addition,
In the temporarily fixed state, as described above, the intervals between the protrusions 22a and between the protrusions 23b are the core portion a and the covering portion b, respectively.
Since the outer diameter is equal to or slightly wider than the outer diameter, the optical fiber cable A can be easily inserted.

When the optical fiber cable is attached to the optical connector 1 of the optical fiber cable constructed as described above, as shown in FIG. (A) and (b) are inserted into the insertion hole 21a of the fixing member 20 that is temporarily fixed to the connector body 10 to insert the core wire portion a and the covering portion b into the core wire portion gripping piece 22 and the covering portion gripping, respectively. It is held by the piece 23. Then, the fixing member 20 is attached to the protrusion 23.
When a is pushed forward with a being fitted in the introduction groove 12c,
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the tapered surfaces 22b, 12d and 23c, 12e allow the leading ends of the core wire gripping piece 22 and the covering gripping piece 23 to smoothly enter the first storage portion 12a and the second storage portion 12b. Then, the core wire gripping piece 22 and the covering wire gripping piece 23 are pressed inward. At this time, since the second storage portion 12b of the connector body 10 restricts the outward bending of the gripping piece 22, the end face of the covering portion b does not come off from the step portion 22c by the force even if it is strongly inserted. The optical fiber cable A is reliably positioned and the gripping piece 22 is not damaged.

As a result, the protrusions 22a and 23b press the core wire portion a and the covering portion b of the optical fiber cable A, and the optical fiber cable A is securely fixed to the fixing member 20. At this time, the retaining piece 24 is also smoothly engaged with the projection 12f by the tapered surface 12g, and the fixing member 20 is securely fixed to the connector housing 12 to be in the state shown in FIG.

When the tip end portion of the optical connector 1 assembled in this way is inserted into the fitting hole 31 of the module side connector 30 which is the receiving side shown in FIG. 10, the projection 13 provided on the connector body 10 is The optical connector 1 is simply fixed to the module side connector 30 by pressing the inner surface of the fitting hole 31 and the frictional force thereof, and the fixing member 2
Lock claw 2 of the locking arm 25 provided at 0.
7 engages with the engagement protrusion 32 of the module side connector 30, and both connectors are firmly fixed. At this time, the protrusion 13 acts like a spring and always pushes the ferrule 11 forward. Further, since the ferrule 11 is formed of an elastic soft resin, there is a certain degree of freedom, and there is an advantage that alignment can be easily performed when connecting the optical connector 1 and the module side connector 30.

When detaching the optical connector 1 in the connected state from the module side connector 30, by pushing the rear end of the second arm 26a of the locking arm 25 inward,
The tip portion of the second arm 26a spreads outward and the lock claw 2
Since the engagement between 7 and the engagement projection 32 is released, they can be easily separated.

Further, instead of the fixing member 20, FIG.
A locking member 20 'without a locking arm as shown in FIG.
(The fixing member 20 except that there is no locking arm)
By using the same structure and the same reference numerals are given to the same elements), it can be used as a friction type optical connector that is simply fixed by the protrusion 13. At this time, since the connector body 10 can be shared, the ferrule 11 can be attached to the receiving module side connector 30.
The relative position of the light emitting element does not shift, and there is no variation in optical coupling between the light emitting element and the optical fiber cable A.

In the above embodiment, the case where the optical connector 1 is connected to the module side connector 30 has been described as described above, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a normal relay connector shown in FIG. If 40 is used, it is also possible to connect the optical fiber cables to each other.

As shown in the figure, the relay connector 40 has a cylindrical connector housing 41 with both ends open.
And formed inside the connector housing 41,
The sleeve 42 into which the ferrule 11 of the optical connector 1 is inserted is integrally molded of the same hard resin (PBT or the like), and is formed between the inner peripheral surface of the connector housing 41 and the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve 42. Has a space 43 into which the tip of the connector housing 12 of the optical connector 1 is fitted.

When the optical fiber cables are connected to each other, the optical connectors 1 are attached to the connection ends of both the optical fiber cables A, and as shown in FIG. 1
As described above, the ferrule 11 is inserted into the sleeve 42, and the distal end portion of the connector housing 12 is fitted into the space 43 formed between the connector housing 41 and the sleeve 42 as described above. The optical fiber cable A is connected in a state where the end faces of the optical fiber cable A are butted against each other. Also in this case, since the ferrule 11 portion of the optical connector 1 is formed of an elastic soft resin, the ferrule 11 has a certain degree of freedom,
Easy alignment. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a special relay connector having an elastic sleeve unlike the conventional optical connector.

[0031]

As described above, in the optical connector of the present invention, the ferrule portion is formed of the elastic soft resin, and the housing is formed of the hard resin, so that both are integrally molded. Nevertheless, a certain degree of freedom can be obtained in the ferrule part. Therefore, there are advantages that the number of parts of the optical connector itself is reduced, the structure is simplified, and the alignment can be easily performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line WW of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line XX of FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line YY of FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line TT of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line U-U of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a temporarily fixed state of the above.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a completed state of the above.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a module side connector which is a receiving side.

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view showing a case of using as a friction type.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a relay connector.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which optical fiber cables are connected to each other using the above relay connector.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 connector 11 ferrule 12 connector housing 13 protrusion 20 fixing member 21 holding plate 22 core wire gripping piece 23 covering part gripping piece 24 retaining piece 25 locking arm 26 arm body 26a first arm 26b second arm 27 lock claw 30 module side connector 40 Relay connector A Optical fiber cable a Core wire part b Cover part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical connector in which a ferrule and a housing are integrally molded, wherein the ferrule is formed of an elastic soft resin and the housing is formed of a hard resin. 2. An optical connector in which a ferrule and a housing are integrally molded, wherein a hard compound is used for the housing part, and an elastic soft compound having good compatibility with the hard compound is used for the ferrule part. An optical connector characterized in that both are integrally molded by a two-color injection molding method. 3. The optical connector according to claim 2, wherein polybutylene terephthalate is used as the hard compound, and styrene / ethylene / butylene / styrene copolymer is used as the soft compound. 4. The optical connector according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the housing includes a lock portion for fixing to a housing of another optical connector or a housing of a relay connector.