Textiles: spinning – twisting – and twining – Apparatus and processes – Covering or wrapping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-03
2003-09-09
Olms, Douglas (Department: 2661)
Textiles: spinning, twisting, and twining
Apparatus and processes
Covering or wrapping
C057S011000, C057S013000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06615571
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for assembling an optical cable. In the optical cable, a grooved spacer has an elongated plastic rod with a plurality of spiral grooves in its circumferential surface and optical fiber ribbons are held within the respective spiral grooves of the spacer.
Optical cables, in which a grooved spacer has an elongated plastic rod with a plurality of spiral grooves in its circumferential surface and optical fiber ribbons are held within the respective spiral grooves, are now widely employed as a representative example of the optical cable shown in FIG.
9
.
FIG.
9
(A) is a perspective view of a spacer, FIG.
9
(B) is a transverse sectional view of an optical fiber ribbon, and FIG.
9
(C) is a transverse sectional view of an optical cable.
As shown in
FIG. 9
, an optical cable comprises a spacer
30
, an anti-tension element
31
, a plastic molded element
32
, a plurality of spiral grooves
33
, optical fiber ribbons
34
, wires
34
a
, a wire covering
34
b
, an upper winding tape
35
, a cable core
36
, and an outer covering
37
.
In this optical cable, the spacer
30
is formed from the plastic molded element
32
and the anti-tension element
31
.
The anti-tension element
31
is formed of a steel wire, a twisted wire, FRP or the like. The plastic molded element
32
is made of polyethylene or the like, and has a single or a plurality of spiral grooves
33
in the periphery of the anti-tension element
31
. In this case, the outer diameter of the spacer ranges from about 5 mm to 30 mm. A plurality of wires
34
a
is formed by covering glass fiber of quartz or the like with ultraviolet curing resin or the like. The optical fiber ribbons
34
are formed by disposing the plurality of wires
34
a
in parallel and then covering all the wires
34
a
with the wire covering
34
b
made of ultraviolet curing or the like.
The optical fiber ribbons
34
are laminated and held within the spiral groove
33
of the spacer
30
, and the upper winding tape
35
is applied to the outer periphery of the plastic molded element
32
to make the cable core
36
. Then the plastic or metal outer covering
37
is applied to the perimeter of the cable core
36
to complete the optical cable. Although there has been shown an exemplary optical cable in which the laminated optical fiber ribbons
34
are respectively held within the spiral grooves
33
of the spacer
30
in
FIG. 9
, a single optical fiber ribbon having one wire
34
a
may be used. Further, the optical fiber ribbons held within the spiral grooves
33
may be formed by twisting a plurality of single wires and then press-winding the single wires. Moreover, the spiral direction of the spiral groove of the spacer may be set to the opposite direction to that shown in FIG.
9
(A).
In the case of such the optical cable as mentioned above, a step of holding the optical fiber ribbons within the spiral grooves of the spacer to manufacture cable cores is called a cable assembly step. The cable assembly step is carried out by an optical cable assembly apparatus.
FIG. 10
is an elevational view of a main part of an optical cable assembly apparatus. The optical cable assembly apparatus comprises a supply reel
41
, supplying a spacer
42
, a dancer roller
43
, brake rollers
44
, a guide roller
45
, a brake mechanism
46
, a spacer paying-out portion
47
, a stationary ribbon supply unit
48
, supply reels
49
supplying optical fiber ribbons
50
, a gathering die
51
, a gathering portion
53
winding an upper winding tape
52
onto the spacer
42
to make a cable core
54
, a guide roller
55
, capstan rollers
56
, a dancer roller
57
, a take-up mechanism
58
, a taking-up reel
59
, and a taking-up portion
60
. In
FIG. 10
, X-X is a line axis around which the spacer paying-out portion
47
and the taking-up portion
60
revolve.
A main part of the optical cable assembly apparatus includes the spacer paying-out portion
47
, the stationary ribbon supply unit
48
, the gathering portion
53
and the taking-up portion
60
. The spacer paying-out portion
47
comprises the supply reel
41
and the brake mechanism
46
. The supply reel
41
revolves around the line axis X-X in the direction of the spiral groove of the spacer
42
. The number of revolutions thereof is in synchronization with the number of rotations of the spiral groove thereof. The brake mechanism
46
comprises the dancer roller
43
, the brake rollers
44
and the guide roller
45
. The brake mechanism
46
is used to apply back tension to the spacer
42
sent out of the supply reel
41
. That is, the spacer
42
sent out of the supply reel
41
is wound on the brake rollers
44
via the dancer roller
43
, so that the back tension is applied to the spacer
42
. The diameters of the dancer roller
43
and the brake roller
44
ranges from 600 to 800 mm, and the diameter of the guide roller
45
ranges from about 100 to 600 mm.
The spacer
42
applied back tension is sent out of the spacer paying-out portion
47
via the guide roller
45
toward the gathering portion
53
. The difference between speed in extending the spacer
42
from the supply reel
41
and speed in transferring the spacer
42
on the brake roller
44
is temporarily adjusted by displacing the position of the dancer roller
43
. The guide roller
45
is used to make a direction of letting out the spacer
42
from the brake rollers
44
coincide with the direction of the line axis X-X.
The spacer
42
sent out of the spacer paying-out portion
47
runs forward along the line axis X-X while rotating on its center axis. However, as the rotation on its center axis coincides with the rotation of the spiral groove, the spiral groove spatially appears stationary even though it runs forward. Accordingly, the spiral groove of the spacer
42
always stays at the same position in the circumferential direction.
On the other hand, the optical fiber ribbons
50
are sent out of a plurality of supply reels
49
and then guided to the spiral groove of the spacer
42
. The plurality of supply reels
49
are installed in the stationary ribbon supply unit
48
fixed to the ground. The optical fiber ribbons
50
and the spacer
42
are gathered at the gathering die
51
, and then the upper winding tape
52
is wound thereon in the gathering portion
53
. Since the spiral groove of the spacer
42
stays at the same position in the circumferential direction at the place of the gathering die
51
of the gathering portion
53
, the optical fiber ribbons
50
can be held within the spiral groove by only guiding the optical fiber ribbons
50
to the same position. Next, the upper winding tape
52
is wound on the spacer
42
in the gathering portion
53
after the optical fiber ribbons
50
are held within the spiral groove, so that the cable core
54
is completed. In this case, it may be arranged to hold the spacer
42
with a coarse winding element or the like instead of winding the spacer
42
with the upper winding tape
52
.
The cable core
54
completed in the gathering portion
53
runs forward to the taking-up portion
60
. The taking-up portion
60
comprises the take-up mechanism
58
and the taking-up reel
59
, and revolves around the line axis X-X in synchronization with the revolution of the spacer paying-out portion
47
. The take-up mechanism
58
is used to add a take-up force to the cable core
54
. The take-up mechanism
58
comprises the guide roller
55
, the capstan rollers
56
and the dancer roller
57
. The cable core
54
that has entered the take-up mechanism
58
of the taking-up portion
60
along the line axis X-X is wound on the capstan rollers
56
via the guide roller
55
.
Then the cable core
54
is wound on the taking-up reel
59
via the dancer roller
57
. In this case, the guide roller
55
is used to guide the cable core
54
to the capstan rollers
56
. The capstan rollers
56
is used to add the take-up force to the cable core
54
. The dancer roller
57
is used to temporarily adjust the difference between sp
Okada Takehiko
Suemori Shigeru
Watanabe Masakazu
Blount Steven
McDermott & Will & Emery
Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd.
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