Optical fiber connector assembly having fiber saver

Details Optical fiber connector assembly having fiber saver Optical fiber connector assembly having fiber saver

2002-08-12

2004-05-11

Patel, Tulsidas C. (Department: 2839)

Optical waveguides

With disengagable mechanical connector

Structure surrounding optical fiber-to-fiber connection

Reexamination Certificate

active

06733185

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber connector assembly and particularly to an optical fiber connector assembly having a fiber saver for storing an optical fiber.
2. Description of Related Art
Present day telecommunication technology utilizes, to an increasing extent, optical fibers for signal transmission. The use of optical fibers, in turn, requires numerous optical components adapted to handle optical signals, such as optical switches, optical couplers, optical circulators, optical isolators and so on.
A typical optical component has at least one input port and one output port. When the optical component is used in an optical network, the input port and the output port must be connected in an optical path of the optical network. For example, an optical isolator
10
as shown in
FIG. 1
has an input fiber
102
and an output fiber
101
. Optical signals transmitting through input fiber
102
pass through the optical isolator
10
and then travel through the output fiber
101
. To connect this optical isolator
10
to an outer optical network, it is necessary to connect connectors (not shown) in the network to the two ends of the optical isolator
10
. However, if any one of the connectors is damaged during assembly, or gives substandard optical performance because of bad polishing or for other reasons, the user will have to disassemble the connector from the optical isolator and reassemble a new optical connector to the optical isolator. But the length of the fiber available attached to the optical isolator will become shorter since some will have been wasted replacing the old connector, so that when the new connector is ready to be assembled to the optical isolator
10
, insufficient optical fiber may be available, which finally lead to waste of the isolator
10
.
Therefor, an optical fiber connector assembly is desired which can store extra optical fiber to allow a reuse of the optical connector assembly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved optical fiber connector assembly having a fiber saver, which provides for reuse of the optical fiber connector assembly.
An optical fiber connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises: an optical isolator, a fiber saver and an optical connector.
The optical isolator is mounted in an isolator tube and has an input fiber. The input and output fibers are individually received in optical connectors to connect the optical isolator in an optical network.
The fiber saver includes a helical block, a helical block tube, a pair of cone members and an extender. The fiber can wrap around the helical block, which is received in the helical block tube. The extender is used to receive the helical block tube and to connect to the isolator tube and to an adaptor, to which the optical connector is coupled.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 4601536 (1986-07-01), Guazzo
patent: 4863235 (1989-09-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 5046811 (1991-09-01), Jung et al.
patent: 5052775 (1991-10-01), Bossard et al.
patent: 5115483 (1992-05-01), Morency et al.
patent: 5363467 (1994-11-01), Keith
patent: 5778122 (1998-07-01), Giebel et al.

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