JP4053368B2 - Optical connector boot and optical connector - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a boot for an optical connector that is attached to an optical connector in which optical fiber holes opened in a joining end face are two-dimensionally arranged, and an optical connector using the same.
[0002]
[Prior art]
FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional two-dimensional array type optical connector, and FIG. 1B is a partial cutaway view. This optical connector 10 is an MT-type multi-fitting pin alignment system having an optical fiber hole 12 and a guide pin hole 13 that are opened in the joint end face 11 in the same manner as the F12 type optical fiber connector defined in JIS C 5981. Although it is a cardiac optical connector (MT: Mechanically Transferable), in particular, the optical fiber holes 12 are two-dimensionally arranged, and a plurality of stages D are formed with a pitch P (for example, 0.25 mm, 0.5 mm, etc.) at equal intervals. Is.
[0003]
As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the optical connector 10 corresponds to each stage D of the optical fiber hole 12, and is an optical fiber 20 (here, an optical fiber tape core wire. Are arranged), and optical fibers (bare optical fibers, etc.) 21 led out from the respective tape cores 20 are inserted into the optical fiber holes 12 so that these tape cores 20 are stored together. And enables high-density batch connection.
Reference numeral 14 denotes a window for allowing an optical fiber 20 or the like to be inserted into the optical connector 10 and for injecting an adhesive for fixing the optical fiber 21 or the like. , A boot insertion hole 15 for inserting the boot 1, and a reference numeral 16 is a guide groove for allowing the tip of the optical fiber 21 to be easily inserted into the optical fiber hole 12. The guide groove 16 forms a shelf-like step S corresponding to each step D of the optical fiber hole 12.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in this type of optical connector 10, in order to protect the tape core wire 20, a sleeve-like boot 1 having a through hole 2 for collectively storing and holding the tape core wire 20 is used. Is inserted into a boot insertion hole 15 provided on the rear end side of the optical connector 10 for attachment.
However, when the pitch P of the stage D of the optical fiber hole 12 is larger than the thickness of the tape core wire 20, there are the following inconveniences.
[0005]
(1) As shown in FIG. 5, when the height H of the through hole 2 of the boot 1 is about the same as the total thickness of the tape core wire 20, the tape core wire 20 is brought into close contact with each other to boot 1. However, when the optical fiber 21 led out at the tip of the tape core wire 20 is inserted into the optical fiber hole 12, the tape core wire 20 extends in the vertical direction in the optical connector 10 and is bent. As a result, the optical loss increases.
[0006]
(2) As shown in FIG. 6, when the height H of the through hole 2 of the boot 1 has a margin according to the pitch P of the optical fiber hole 12, the tape core wire 20 is straightly extended in the optical connector 10. Although the gap 30 is formed between the tape core wires 20 when the adhesive is injected from the window 14 of the optical connector 10, the adhesive is passed through the gap 30 from the rear end portion of the boot 1. May leak.
[0007]
In this case, if the positioning of the tape core wire 20 is not particularly performed due to the gap 30, as shown in FIG. As a result, bending is applied to the tape core wire 20 to increase optical loss, and the tape core wires 20 are bonded to each other, so that the flexibility of the tape core wire 20 drawn out behind the optical connector 10 is achieved. May decrease.
[0008]
This invention is made | formed in view of the said situation, and makes it a subject to provide the boot for optical connectors which can prevent the bending of an optical fiber, or the leakage of an adhesive agent.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an optical connector boot that is attached to an optical connector in which optical fiber holes opened in a joining end face are two-dimensionally arranged. accommodating a plurality of optical fibers to be inserted from the end side is formed in a sleeve-shaped having a through hole for holding, opening of the optical connector side of the through hole, by a partition formed in the through hole, It is divided into a plurality of optical fiber insertion holes through which optical fibers can be inserted, and at the front end of the boot, the partition is formed over the entire length in the width direction, and at the rear end of the boot The partition has a notch in the center in the width direction, and is a ridge-like protrusion along the side walls on both sides in the width direction of the boot.
According to such an optical connector boot, the gaps of the optical fibers inserted into the respective optical fiber insertion holes can be closed by the partitions, so that bending of the optical fibers and leakage of the adhesive can be prevented.
[0010]
The optical fiber insertion holes of the boot are preferably arranged in parallel with the shape viewed from the optical connector side as a long hole. Thereby, the manageability of the optical fiber pulled out from the boot can be improved.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments.
2 to 4 are views showing an example of the optical connector boot of the present invention (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as a boot), FIG. 2 is a perspective view from the front end side, and FIG. 3 is a view from the rear end side. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the boot 1 is attached to the optical connector 10.
The front end side of the boot 1 refers to a side toward the joining end surface 11 of the optical connector 10 when the boot 1 is inserted into the optical connector 10, and the rear end side refers to a side opposite to the front end side. Point to.
[0012]
An optical connector 10 to which the boot 1 is applied is, for example, an optical connector 10 as shown in FIG. 1, and an optical opening at the joining end face 11 as in the F12 type optical fiber connector defined in JIS C 5981. A fitting pin alignment type MT type multi-fiber optical connector (ferrule) having a fiber hole 12 and a guide pin hole 13, wherein the optical fiber holes 12 are two-dimensionally arranged so as to form a plurality of stages D. . That is, these optical fiber holes 12 form a plurality of steps D along the direction connecting the two guide pin holes 13, and each step D has a pitch P (for example, 0.25 mm, 0.5 mm) at equal intervals. Etc.).
Further, the guide groove 16 is provided so as to form a step S in a shelf shape inside the optical connector 10 corresponding to each step D of the optical fiber hole 12.
[0013]
In the following description, in the state where the optical connector 10 and the boot 1 are assembled, the extending direction of the step D of the optical fiber hole 12 (in the present embodiment, the direction connecting the two guide pin holes 13) has a width. The direction in which the stage D of the optical fiber hole 12 is juxtaposed (the vertical direction in FIGS. 1 to 3 in this embodiment) is referred to as the height direction.
[0014]
The optical connector 10 shown in the figure is of a type having optical fiber holes 12 of 12 stages × 2 stages (total of 24 cores). In the present invention, the number of optical fiber holes 12 (the number of cores of each stage D) × stage number) is not particularly limited. The number of stages may be two or more, for example, two stages, three stages, and five stages. Although the number of hearts in each stage can be changed as appropriate, examples include 2 hearts, 4 hearts, 8 hearts, 10 hearts, 12 hearts, and 16 hearts.
In the present embodiment, one optical fiber 20 is an optical fiber tape core corresponding to each stage D of the optical connector 10, and hereinafter, the optical fiber 20 may be referred to as a tape core.
[0015]
The boot 1 of the present embodiment is a sleeve-like molded body made of rubber or plastic (elastomer) and having a through-hole 2 for housing and holding the tape core wire 20, and the front end side of the through-hole 2 The openings 3 are divided into a plurality of optical fiber insertion holes 5 through which the optical fibers 20 can be inserted, respectively, by a partition 4 formed in the through hole 2.
[0016]
The partition 4 is formed to extend in the width direction of the boot 1 so as to separate the tape core wire 20 accommodated in the optical fiber insertion hole 5.
In the boot 1 of the present embodiment, the front end portion of the boot 1 is formed over the entire length in the width direction as shown in FIG. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the rear end portion has a notch 4 a at the center in the width direction, and is a ridge-like protrusion along the side walls on both sides in the width direction of the boot 1.
[0017]
By providing the cutout 4a in this way, when the tape core wire 20 is inserted into the boot 1, the boot 1 remains in the width direction even if the width of the tape core wire 20 and the width of the optical fiber insertion hole 5 are close to each other. The tape core 20 can be easily inserted.
In addition, the partition 4 is generally formed to be relatively thin. However, by providing the partition 4 with the notch 4a, the partition 4 that is not easily broken against the contact of the optical fiber 20 inserted into the boot 1 is more reliably obtained. be able to.
That is, when the boot 1 is manufactured by molding with a mold, the partition 4 can be formed by filling a resin in a gap between the inserts corresponding to the optical fiber insertion holes 5. Since the gap becomes very narrow, it is difficult to uniformly fill the entire gap with resin. By providing the notch 4a, it becomes unnecessary to fill the resin into the notch 4a, eliminate the molding of the portion that is likely to cause molding defects, and easily fill the molded resin, that is, one end in the front-rear direction of the boot 1. The part (here, the front end) is molded. Thereby, the partition 4 which is hard to be damaged can be obtained reliably.
[0019]
The optical fiber insertion holes 5 are provided in the same number as the number of stages (two stages in the figure) corresponding to each stage D of the optical fiber hole 12. The shape of these optical fiber insertion holes 5 viewed from the front end side of the boot 1 is an elongated hole shape so that the outer peripheral surface of the tape core wire 20 is substantially in close contact with the pitch Q as shown in FIG. It is arranged in parallel through. That is, the length directions are aligned so as to be substantially parallel. Further, the pitch Q of the optical fiber insertion holes 5 is matched with the pitch P of the optical fiber holes 12 of the optical connector 10.
[0020]
According to the boot 1 having such a structure, as shown in FIG. 4, the tape core wire 20 is accommodated in the boot 1, the optical fiber 21 is led out, and the front end portion of the boot 1 is connected to the boot insertion hole of the optical connector 10. When inserted into the optical fiber 15, the tape core wire 20 can be stored in the optical fiber insertion hole 5 and can be stored straight in the optical connector 10. For this reason, the tape core wire 20 is hardly bent, and the tape core wire 20 is arranged without any gap without causing a gap between the tape core wires 20 or between the inner wall of the boot 1 and the tape core wire 20. Can be made. For this reason, the low-loss optical connector 10 can be easily assembled.
Further, since the optical fiber insertion holes 5 are arranged in parallel, the tape core wires 20 drawn from the boot 1 can be laminated in the thickness direction, and the collectability is good.
[0021]
Next, an example of a procedure for assembling the optical connector 10 using the boot 1 of the present embodiment will be described. Needless to say, this assembly procedure does not limit the present invention in any way and can be modified as appropriate.
[0022]
First, the tape core wire 20 is inserted into the through hole 2 of the boot 1 from the rear end side of the boot 1 and pulled out from the front end side, and then the coating of the tip end portion of the tape core wire 20 is removed to remove the optical fiber 21. The end face is cut out to an appropriate length, and the squeezing is performed.
Next, after an adhesive is injected into the optical fiber hole 12 of the optical connector 10 in advance, the boot 1 is inserted into the boot insertion hole 15 of the optical connector 10 from the front end side thereof, and the optical fibers 21 are collectively bundled into the optical fiber hole. 12 is inserted. At this time, as described above, since the position of the optical fiber insertion hole 5 of the boot 1 is aligned with the position of the optical fiber hole 12 of the optical connector 10, the tape core wire 20 is stored straight in the optical connector 10. And can be positioned easily.
[0023]
Further, after injecting an adhesive for fixing the optical fiber 21 from the window 14 of the optical connector 10, the optical connector 10 is heated to cure the adhesive, and the optical fiber 21 is adhesively fixed to the optical fiber hole 12. At this time, since the tape cores 20 or between the inner wall of the boot 1 and the tape core 20 are closed by the partition 4, the adhesive does not leak out and the tape core 20 within the boot 1. Are prevented from being adhered to each other. As finishing, the joining end face 11 of the optical connector 10 is polished, whereby the assembly of the optical fiber with the optical connector is completed.
[0024]
As an example of modification of the assembling method, for example, after the boot 1 is inserted into the boot insertion hole 15 of the optical connector 10, the tape core wire 20 is inserted one by one into each stage D of the optical fiber hole 12 of the optical connector 10. How to go.
[0025]
As described above, according to the optical connector boot of the present embodiment and the boot using the same, the opening on the side of the optical connector of the through hole is separated by one partition formed in the through hole. The optical fiber insertion hole is divided into a plurality of optical fiber insertion holes that can be inserted into the tape core wire, and the shape of the optical fiber insertion hole viewed from the optical connector side is an elongated hole shape similar to the cross-sectional shape of the tape core wire. Since the optical fiber hole stages D are arranged in parallel along the parallel direction, there is no gap between the tape cores or between the inner wall of the boot and the tape core, and the tape cores are arranged straight. Inconveniences such as leakage of adhesive from the rear end of the boot and offset of the tape core wire can be prevented, and a low-loss optical connector can be easily assembled.
Further, since the tape core wires drawn from the boot can be laminated in the thickness direction, the bending characteristics of the boot and the collectability of the optical fiber are extremely good.
[0026]
Although the present invention has been described based on the preferred embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.
For example, the boot 1 can have various shapes, and in the above embodiment, the flat boot having a small height with respect to the width is exemplified, but the present invention is not limited to this. The width and height may be the same, or the width and height may be large.
[0027]
Further, as the optical fiber 20, in the above-described embodiment, a tape core wire that is inserted one by one into each optical fiber insertion hole 5 of the boot 1 is used, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, each optical fiber insertion hole 5 has one or more types of single-core or multi-core (two-core, four-core, etc.) optical fiber cores or optical fiber strands in close contact with each other in one direction. It can also be inserted in a state of being allowed.
[0028]
Further, the formation direction of the step D of the optical fiber hole 12 of the optical connector 10 is not particularly limited, and may be another direction such as a direction perpendicular to the direction connecting the two guide pin holes 13. Good. Also in this case, it is preferable to provide the partition 4 in the boot 1 so that each optical fiber insertion hole 5 corresponds to each stage D of the optical fiber hole 12.
[0029]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the optical connector boot of the present invention, the opening on the optical connector side of the through hole that houses and holds the optical fiber is separated from the optical fiber by the partition formed in the through hole. It is divided into a plurality of optical fiber insertion holes that can be inserted, and at the front end of the boot, the partition is formed over the entire length in the width direction, and at the rear end of the boot, the partition is , Because it has a notch in the center in the width direction and is a ridge-like projection along the side walls on both sides in the width direction of the boot, there is a gap between the optical fibers or between the inner wall of the boot and the optical fiber The optical fiber can be arranged straight. For this reason, inconveniences such as leakage of the adhesive from the rear end of the boot and deviation of the optical fiber are prevented, and a low-loss optical connector can be easily assembled.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing an example of an optical connector (ferrule), and FIG.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical connector boot of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical connector boot of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of an optical connector assembled using the optical connector boot of the present invention.
5A is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a state where an optical connector is assembled using a conventional optical connector boot, and FIG. 5B is a transverse sectional view taken along line AA.
6A is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a state where an optical connector is assembled using a conventional optical connector boot, and FIG. 6B is a transverse sectional view taken along line BB.
7A is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a state where an optical connector is assembled using a conventional optical connector boot, and FIG. 7B is a transverse sectional view taken along line CC.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical connector boot (boot), 2 ... Through-hole, 3 ... Opening of optical connector side of through-hole, 4 ... Partition, 4a ... Notch, 5 ... Optical fiber insertion hole, 10 ... Optical connector, 11 ... Joining End face, 12 ... optical fiber hole, 20 ... optical fiber (tape core wire).

Claims (3)

An optical connector boot (1) attached to an optical connector (10) in which optical fiber holes (12) opened in a joining end face (11) are two-dimensionally arranged,
The optical connector has a through hole (2) for storing and holding a plurality of optical fibers (20) inserted from the rear end side of the optical connector, and is formed in a sleeve shape ,
The opening (3) on the optical connector side of the through hole is divided into a plurality of optical fiber insertion holes (5) through which optical fibers can be inserted, respectively, by a partition (4) formed in the through hole ,
At the front end of the boot, the partition is formed over the entire length in the width direction, and at the rear end of the boot, the partition has a notch (4a) at the center in the width direction, And the boot for optical connectors characterized by it being the protrusion-like protrusion along the side wall of the width direction both sides of a boot.   2. The optical connector boot according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber insertion hole has an elongated shape when viewed from the optical connector side and is arranged in parallel.   An optical connector comprising the optical connector boot according to claim 1.

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