Optical waveguides – Accessories – Splice box and surplus fiber storage/trays/organizers/ carriers
Patent
1995-09-28
1998-05-12
Lee, John D.
Optical waveguides
Accessories
Splice box and surplus fiber storage/trays/organizers/ carriers
G02B 636
Patent
active
057518823
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an organizer for optical fibres or other conductors, particularly for use in a telecommunications network.
Optical fibre organizers are required wherever fibres are to be joined or to be stored outside of the protective jacket of a cable. Care must be taken when storing lengths of optical fibre since a bend in a fibre at a radius smaller than its critical bend radius will cause light to be lost from the fibre, and consequential degradation of the signal to be transmitted. Wherever optical fibres are to be spliced together it will be necessary for a length of free fibre to be stored because the operation of fibre splicing will in general need to be carried out away from the cables whose component fibres are being spliced. This is because bulky equipment is needed for the fibre alignment and splicing processes. Thus, where two optical fibre cables are to be spliced a splice closure will be provided having the following features. A cable will enter the closure through a cable entry port and be mechanically secured and generally environmentally sealed. The cable jacket will terminate at the inlet port leaving long lengths of largely unprotected fibre. Each of these fibres will then be spliced to a similar length of unprotected fibre leaving another cable which leaves the splice closure through an exit port. Each spliced fibre will then be coiled at a radius of curvature greater than its critical radius and the coils will be stored on organizer trays. In some fibre architectures incoming fibre carrying many signals will be split into several outgoing fibres, and each outgoing fibre may be coiled on its own organizer tray where it is spliced to an appropriate outgoing fibre.
The nature of the closure which protects the fibre splices and organizers will depend on where the closure is to be situated. If it is to be situated outside a building an environmentally sealed closure will be required, and where it is situated within a building a simple box or rack might be sufficient.
An example of an environmentally sealed splice closure, incorporating organizer trays, is disclosed in EP 0159857 (Raychem). There, a base having inlet and outlet ports carries a support to which a series of organizer trays is pivotally attached. A dome-shaped cover encloses the trays and is attached to the base. Various designs of hinged organizer trays are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,131,066 (Bowthorpe-Hellerman), 4,266,853 (Northern Telecom), 4,373,776 (Northern Telecom) and 4,840,449 (AT&T).
Whilst the designs disclosed in these prior art specifications are satisfactory for dealing with fibre splices, some disadvantages are apparent. For example, they are not easily able to incorporate fibre splitters without a considerable amount of work being required in the field.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We believe that an organizer system would be beneficial that could be deal in a flexible fashion with various types of splitter, particularly if the splitter and associated fibres could be pre-installed in the factory. In that way, the amount of work required in the field could be considerable reduced.
We have therefore devised organizers which can deliver incoming fibres from a single bundle, cable or set of loose tubes to a set of spaced apart organizer trays. We have also devised organizers that can be built up in modular fashion depending on the number of incoming fibres and on the splitter ratio of any splitter present. Our preferred organizers are provided with pre-determined fibre paths which can accommodate a variety of fibre configurations.
Thus, the invention provides an optical fibre organizer having a plurality of substantially mutually adjacent inlet ports and a plurality of mutually separated outlet ports, and means connecting the inlet ports and the outlet ports such that a fibre inserted into each inlet port will emerge from a pre-determined outlet port.
Whether a given port is referred to as an inlet port or an outlet port is generally arbitrary, since it may refer to t
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Patent Abstracts of Japan vol. 8, No. 219 (P-306) (1656) 5 Oct. 1984 & JP,A,59 102 208 (N.D.D.K.) 13 Jun. 1984.
Daems Daniel
Macken Luk
Burkard Herbert G.
Kang Ellen E.
Lee John D.
N.V. Raychem S.A.
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