Optical waveguides – With disengagable mechanical connector
Patent
1998-07-24
2000-10-10
Healy, Brian
Optical waveguides
With disengagable mechanical connector
385 76, 385 77, 385100, 385114, 385123, 226 1, 226 2, 226 7, 2541343R, 2541344, G02B 636, B65H 1600, B63B 3503
Patent
active
061309753
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the provision of buildings and other locations with optical fibre elements.
A method for providing a building or other location with an optical fibre element by propelling the element along a previously installed duct using the fluid drag of a gaseous medium is described in European Patent Application NO: 108,590. This method has a number of advantages over prior methods of installation of optical fibres such as pulling the fibre cables by means of a pulling rope. In particular, because the gaseous medium imparts a distributed motive force along the length of the optical fibre clement, stresses on optical fibre are reduced, especially where the route that the optical fibre is to take contains a number of bends. In such a case, pulling the optical fibre element along the route with a pulling cord would cause frictional drag on the fibre at the bends in the duct and, as stated in the application, only a few bends would be sufficient to cause locking of the optical fibre element.
Although this method of installing optical fibres is very successful, it has the disadvantage that the optical fibres must be terminated with connectors on site with the result that the quality of the termination may be poor and in any case is not under the control of the cable or connector manufacturer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a method of providing a building or other location with an optical fibre element that is terminated by a connector which comprises: a duct and propelling the element along the duct by fluid drag of a gaseous medium, the element being terminated at at least its leading end by an insert for the connector; and of the connector about the insert to form the connector.
According to another aspect, the invention provides an assembly which comprises: an insert for a connector, and form a composite connector; fluid drag of a gaseous medium.
Normally the duct will have been installed in the building or other location before the terminated optical fibre element is installed therein, but this will not always be the case.
Although it is only necessary according to the invention to terminate the leading end of the optical fibre element before it is blown along the duct it is preferred to terminate both ends of the optical fibre element before it is introduced into the duct. The or each optical connector is preferably provided on the optical fibre element in a production facility before the element is transported to the building or other location. The ability to terminate the optical fibre elements under factory conditions and to test the termination enables a significantly higher level of quality to be guaranteed in respect of the termination. The invention has the advantage that it enables the optical fibre elements to be terminated off site under factory conditions even though they may require connectors that are larger than the bore of the duct. Thus, the insert will have a maximum lateral dimension that is smaller than the bore of the duct while the housing of the connector will normally have a maximum lateral dimension that is greater than the bore of the duct.
The method according to the invention may employ any optical fibre elements that are installed by "blowing-in" methods for example single jacketed fibres (single buffered fibres), or optical fibre cables having a plurality of fibres. Preferably, the element is an optical ribbon cable that comprises a plurality of fibres. It may have any number of fibres provided that it can be installed by blowing although it preferably comprises not more than eight fibres and especially two fibres. The ribbon cable may be in the form described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,860 in which the individual fibres forming the cable are jacketed with a jacket to assist their blowing or the fibres may be assembled together to form a ribbon cable and the cable as a whole may be provided with single jacket to assist blowing of the cable.
The jacket that may be provided on the optica
REFERENCES:
patent: 4930860 (1990-06-01), Tansey et al.
patent: 4990033 (1991-02-01), Handley et al.
patent: 5234198 (1993-08-01), Heal et al.
patent: 5253315 (1993-10-01), Fentress
patent: 5467968 (1995-11-01), Proud et al.
patent: 5503369 (1996-04-01), Frost et al.
BICC Public Limited Company
Healy Brian
Kang Gregory B.
Nath Gary M.
LandOfFree
Method of installing an optical fibre element and optical fibre does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method of installing an optical fibre element and optical fibre , we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method of installing an optical fibre element and optical fibre will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2262583