JPH10319270A - Heating device for heat-shrinkage sleeve for optical fiber connection reinforcement - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the heating device for a heat-shrinkage sleeve for optical fiber connection part reinforcement which can shorten the temperature rising or lowering time of a heater and also reduce the power consumption. SOLUTION: This device performs a heating process by arranging a heater 10 opposite the sleeve 3 made of heat-shrinkable resin reinforcing the connection part between the coated optical fibers 1a by covering the connection part from the outer peripheral side. A spot heater 12 is fitted to the center part of a thin plate type heat conductor 11 to constitute the heater 10 for sleeve heating. A metal plate of tungsten, brass, etc., is used for the thin plate type heat conductor 11. Further, a film heater, nichrome wire heater, or ceramic heater is used as the spot heater.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for heating a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection portion, which heats a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing a connection portion between optical fiber cores.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a heat fusion spliced portion between optical fibers has been provided with a sleeve on the outer peripheral side thereof and reinforced by this sleeve.

FIGS. 2 and 4 show an example of a concrete reinforcing method. First, the one shown in FIG. 2 will be described. The ends of optical fiber cores 1a, 1a extending from the left and right optical fibers 1, 1 so as to approach each other are fused and connected. Core wires 1a, 1
a reinforcing sleeve 3 on the outer peripheral side of the fusion spliced portion 2
The sleeve 3 is heated by a heater 4 arranged close to the sleeve 3.

[0004] The sleeve 3 is made of a heat-shrinkable resin, contracts when heated, and comes into close contact with the inner optical fiber cores 1a, 1a and the fusion spliced portion 2 between the cores. They are integrated to reinforce them.
Further, an inner tube (not shown) made of a hot-melt resin such as a hot melt resin and a rod-shaped reinforcing material 5 made of stainless steel, glass, ceramic or the like are provided in advance inside the sleeve 3, and these are also provided on the outer sleeve. 3 to reinforce the fusion spliced portion 2 of the optical fiber.

Generally, the heater 4 has a heater pattern 4b on a ceramic base material 4a along its length direction.
Is used, and here, a heat radiating member 4c, 4
c is attached. The reason why the heat radiating members 4c and 4c are attached to both ends of the heater 4 is that when the sleeve 3 is heated, heating is performed from the central portion of the sleeve 3 in order to prevent bubbles from remaining in the sleeve 3. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to obtain a heater 4 having a temperature gradient such that the center is the highest and then gradually decreases toward the left and right sides as shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the vertical axis represents temperature, and the horizontal axis represents the distance from the left end of the heater.

On the other hand, the one shown in FIG. 4 realizes the temperature gradient shown in FIG. 3 without using the heat radiating members 4c and 4c by shortening the heater pattern 6b. That is, here, the ceramic heater 6 is used in which a heater pattern 6b of a predetermined length is integrated integrally at substantially the center of the ceramic base material 6a.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional sleeve heating apparatus, since the ceramic heater is used, the ceramic base materials 4a, 6a capable of forming the heater patterns 4b, 6b into an arbitrary shape are used. Although it has the advantage that it can be used as it is as the sleeve heating surface and that it can be reduced in cost, it has the following disadvantages.

In other words, in order to heat the sleeve 3, it is necessary to first heat the ceramic base materials 4a and 6a. However, since the ceramic has a relatively large heat capacity, it takes time to heat or cool. There are disadvantages such as a large power loss. In order to obtain a necessary temperature distribution for the heaters 4 and 6, heat radiating members 4c are attached to both ends as shown in FIG. However, in any case, if the thermal conductivity is high, a temperature difference between the central portion and both ends is unlikely to occur, so it is desirable to lower the thermal conductivity. For this purpose, it is conceivable to make the ceramic as thin as possible. However, another problem arises in that the ceramic is inherently brittle and has poor durability.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber capable of shortening a heating or cooling time of a heater and reducing power consumption. An object of the present invention is to provide a heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing a connection portion.

[0010]

The present invention has the following features to attain the object mentioned above. That is, the heating device of the heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing the optical fiber connection portion of the present invention includes a heater disposed opposite to a sleeve made of a heat-shrinkable resin for covering and reinforcing the connection portion of the optical fiber core wires from the outer peripheral side. A heating device for heating, wherein the heater is:
It is characterized in that a spot heater is attached to the center of a thin plate-shaped heat conductor. A metal plate may be used for the thin plate-shaped heat conductor, and any of a film heater, a nichrome wire heater, and a ceramic heater may be used for the spot heater.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the same components as those of the heating device for the heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing the optical fiber connection portion described in the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In the heating device of the present invention, a heater 10 for heating the sleeve 3 is provided with a spot heater 12 attached to a central portion of a thin plate-shaped heat conductor 11. As the thin plate-shaped heat conductor 11, a metal plate is preferable. Specifically, from the viewpoint that the heat capacity is small, the heat conductivity is high, and processing into a thin plate is easy,
A metal plate such as tungsten, brass, or aluminum is preferred. The plate thickness t is set to 0.5 mm or less, preferably 0.5 mm to 0.1 mm in order to minimize the heat capacity and obtain the required strength.

The material of the spot heater 12 is not limited as long as the heater pattern can be realized with a small area and the heat capacity is small. For example, a film heater, a nichrome wire heater, a ceramic heater or the like is used.

Next, the operation will be described. According to the heating method using the above-described heating device, the thin plate-shaped heat conductor 1
The heat conductor 11 heats the sleeve 3 and the heat conductor 11 in the form of a thin plate has a smaller heat capacity than that using a conventional ceramic. For this reason, the heating rate and the cooling rate of the heater 10 increase. In addition, since the spot heater 12 is used as a heat source, and the spot heater 12 has a small heat capacity, the heating rate and the cooling rate of the heater 10 are further increased in this regard. Therefore, the time for contracting the sleeve 3 can be significantly reduced.

The temperature at both ends of the heater 10 can be arbitrarily adjusted by changing the thickness t of the thin plate-shaped heat conductor 11 or changing the heat generation amount of the spot heater 12 as shown in FIG.
A member such as the heat radiation member 4c shown in FIG. Also,
The temperature gradient of the heater 10 can be freely adjusted by changing the thickness of the heat conductor 11.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be obtained. According to the first aspect of the present invention, a heater for heating the sleeve is formed by attaching the spot heater to the center portion of the thin plate-shaped heat conductor, so that the heat capacity of the heater itself can be reduced. The time required for raising and lowering the temperature of the heater can be shortened, and the time required for the shrinkage of the sleeve can be shortened. Further, as described above, since the heat capacity of the heater itself can be reduced and the time required for the shrinking process of the sleeve can be reduced, the power consumption required for the shrinking process of the sleeve can be reduced. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the metal plate is used as the heat conductor in the form of a thin plate, and since the heat capacity is small, the time required for the shrinkage processing of the sleeve can be further reduced. The required power consumption can be reduced. Claim 3
According to the invention described above, any one of a film heater, a nichrome wire heater, and a ceramic heater is used as the spot heater, and these heaters have a relatively small heat capacity and high reliability. Can be easily achieved, and the object of reducing the power consumption required for the shrinkage processing of the sleeve can be easily achieved.
In addition, a heating device having excellent durability can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection portion, showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a conventional heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection portion.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a temperature gradient of a heater for heating a sleeve.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing another example of a conventional heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 3 sleeve 10 heater 11 thin plate-shaped heat conductor 12 heater

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A heating device for heating a heater by opposing a heater to a sleeve made of a heat-shrinkable resin that covers and reinforces a connection portion between optical fiber core wires from an outer peripheral side, wherein the heater is a thin plate. A heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connecting portion, wherein a spot heater is attached to a central portion of a heat conductor in a shape of a circle. 2. A heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection part according to claim 1, wherein a metal plate is used as said thin plate-shaped heat conductor. 3. The heating device for a heat-shrinkable sleeve for reinforcing an optical fiber connection part according to claim 1, wherein the spot heater is one of a film heater, a nichrome wire heater and a ceramic heater. .