Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Loop forming – By orbital guide
Patent
1993-08-25
1994-12-20
Stodola, Daniel P.
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Loop forming
By orbital guide
242129, 242171, 2541344, B65H 5100
Patent
active
053740050
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to coiling and storage of filamentary material and especially of optical fibres and optical fibre packages, and to installation systems for optical fibres.
Published European Patent application 108590 describes an apparatus and method for installing optical fibres in ducts by propelling the fibre along the duct by virtue of viscous drag of an injected gaseous propellant. In such installation the length of duct along which a fibre can be propelled or `blown` depends upon the number of bends in the duct but typically may be 500 to 800 meters. It is often the case, however, that a much greater length of continuous fibre needs to be installed and in this instance several ducts are placed in series and the additional fibre for subsequent ducts is blown through the first duct and wound on to a drum. Once the fibre for the subsequent ducts has been blown through the first duct it is then blown through the next duct, and so on. However, before the second and subsequent blowing stages can be performed it is necessary to fleet the fibre from the drum to free the end and introduce the fibre to the duct in the correct manner. This means that between each blowing stage there is a delay while the fibre is fleeted and also both reeling and fleeting equipment is required.
It is also found that during fibre blowing installation the fibre package tends to move into the duct at varying speeds. When the fibre package has to be unwound from a reel the inertia of the reel presents significant problems when subject to frequent changes in feed rate, the reel either retarding the fibre or continuing to unwind at too great a rate giving rise to loose turns. One way of preventing the latter problem is to incorporate a friction brake on the reel, but this has the disadvantage of increasing tension on the fibre package making it more liable to damage should it rub on or be bent around an object in its path.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a system that enables optical fibre to be blown into a duct directly from a coil.
When a filamentary material is laid in a coil, then unless the container into which the filamentary material is laid is rotated each turn of the coil contains 360 degrees of torsion. It has previously been generally recognized as disadvantageous to have containers of filaments with stored torsion: in the case of metal filaments they can be springy and unmanageable and with Optical fibres it has been recognized, for example as in EP 0039140, as a potential contributor to entanglement. Various techniques have been devised to prevent this storage of torsion in which the container or platform on to which the coil is laid is rotated in order to reduce or eliminate the torsion. Such a system is described in EP 0039140. However when filamentary material is stored in a coil without torsion, or with less than 360 degrees of torsion per turn, simple pulling of the turns to unwind the coils reintroduces torsion unless the container or platform is again rotated, this time in the opposite direction to that in which it was rotated during coiling. For use in fibre blowing it is undesirable to have torsion in the fibre that is being installed in the duct as this may lead to greater lateral fibre movement and reduce blowing distances. This means that equipment for container rotation would be required both for winding and unwinding, and especially the latter can be inconvenient for in-field use. There is also the disadvantage that rotating the container can suffer from inertial problems the same as those previously mentioned for reels.
Accordingly the invention provides an apparatus for forming a coal of filamentary material, the apparatus comprising an annular container with an outer side wall and an inner wall substantially concentric with the outer side wall, and means for distributing the filamentary material into the container in which the filamentary material is laid in the annular container in a sequence of turns about the inner wall, each turn having 360 degrees of torsion and bein
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Jenkins Peter D.
Wettengel Paul F.
British Telecommunications public limited company
Mansen Michael R.
Stodola Daniel P.
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