Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Ykk Corporation

Ntt Advanced Technology Corporation

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Co.

Etsuji Sugita

Ryo Nagase

Kazunori Kanayama

Yasuhiro Ando

Shinichi Iwano

Shin'ichi Iwano

Hideki Takeda

Juichi Noda

Masayuki Kobayashi

Takeshi Taniguchi

Hidenobu Nagahama

Ryou Nagase

Hitoshi Goto

Taisei Miyake

Isao Iwakane

Kenichi Nakano

Ai Fukuhara

Shiniichi Iwano

Kou Niida

Yuji Takaoka

In the production of a hollow cast article having a slit, the release of a hollow cast product from a mold is carried out while opening the hollow cast product. In one embodiment, a core provided with recessed parts (or projected parts) formed in a slit forming part (or an outer peripheral part) is used and the drawing out of the core from the hollow cast product is carried out while opening the hollow cast product by means of the recessed parts (or projected parts) mentioned above. By such a method, a hollow cast article having a slit and projected parts (or recessed parts) formed in a slit part or/and an inner peripheral part thereof is obtained. In the case of the use of a core having a slit forming part of a taper-shaped ridge of which width gradually decreasing from a large width at one end to a small width at the other end, the core is drawn out from the hollow cast product in the direction to the other end of small width to open the hollow cast product by means of the slit forming part of the taper-shaped ridge.

Hollow cast article with slit, method and apparatus for production thereof

A conversion adapter to be used for connecting opposed optical connector ferrules having different diameters is formed of an amorphous alloy possessing at least a glass transition region, preferably a glass transition region of not less than 30 K in temperature width. Particularly, the amorphous alloy of M &mdash;M system or M &mdash;M &mdash;La system (M : Zr and/or Hf, M : Ni, Cu, Fe, Co, Mn, Nb, Ti, V, Cr, Zn, Al, and/or Ga, La: rare earth element) possesses a wide range of &Dgr;Tx and thus can be advantageously used as a material for the conversion adapter. Such a conversion adapter can be manufactured with high mass-productivity by a mold casting method or molding method.

Conversion adapter for ferrules having different diameters and method for production thereof

A cleaning tool for cleaning optical fiber connectors exposes a cleaning sheet in a window of the case. A winding pulley is operable to wind the cleaning sheet upon rotation at a constant pitch. A rotation mechanism, that is operated by a lever, rotates the winding pulley. The case is constructed of a first front plate and a second front plate which are closed off by a perimeter wall along their outer circumference. The case has an open portion in a part of the perimeter wall, and the lever is disposed in the open portion in an inclined orientation.

Cleaning tool for optical fiber connectors

To realize an optical fiber connector coupled or decoupled by simple insertion and removal operation without applying ferrule connecting force to other elements (package board or back panel), the optical connector comprises a first housing (33); a second housing (34); a third housing (36) slidably housed within the second housing; a first engage mechanism (37, 38) provided between the second and third housings, for engaging these two housings when the first and third housings are not coupled; a second engage mechanism (39, 40) provided between the first and third housings, for engaging these two housings when the first housing is coupled to second and third housings; a first release member (41) provided for the first housings, for releasing the first engage mechanism when the third housing is engaged to the first housing; and a second release member (42) provided for the second housing, for releasing the second engage mechanism when the second housing is coupled to the third housing or the first housing is decoupled from the second and third housings. Further, to allow the optical connector to be preferably applicable to a plug-in connector with the smallest possible dimensions and with the highest possible package density, a novel connector floating structure, a novel slidable ferrule supporting structure, a strong optical plug connecting mechanism, a reliable optical plug or jack insertion structure, a cleanable and replaceable connector jack, etc. are also disclosed.

Optical jack for plug-jack optical connector

Optical connector

Optical connector for connecting a plurality of optical plugs to a

To provide an optical connector which can slidably and stably support the optical connector element (ferrule) within the connector housing without increasing the axial length of the ferrule, the optical connector plug comprising: (a) a plug housing (202) formed with a shoulder portion (253) between a large hollow portion (254) and a small hollow portion (252) and formed with no projection between said two portions; (b) a plug ferrule (201) connected to an optical fiber (204) and formed with a flange portion (201b) slidably fitted into the large hollow portion of said plug housing and an end portion (201a) passed through the small hollow portion of said plug housing; and (c) a spring (203) housed within said plug housing to urge the flange portion of said plug ferrule against the shoulder portion (253) of said plug housing. A mated jack ferrule (201) is fitted to the small hollow portion (252) of said plug housing (202) via a sleeve holder (206) having a floating slit sleeve (205) therewithin so as to absorb an axial dimensional fitting error between the plug ferrule and the jack ferrule by axially urging the flange portion (201b) of said plug ferrule by an inner end of the sleeve holder (206) against said spring (203).

Optical connector plug

To microscopically clean the ferrule end surface of an optical connector simply, uniformly and securely, the optical connector cleaner comprises a cleaning cloth woven with ultrafine fiber less than 0.1 denier; a casing formed with at least one opening for protecting the cleaning cloth from dust; and a mechanism for shifting the cleaning cloth exposed in the opening for cloth renewing, after the ferrule end surface has been rubbed with the cleaning cloth for cleaning. Further, it is preferable to provide an elastic member under the cleaning cloth for applying a constant cleaning pressure against the cloth and a guide member over the cleaning cloth for securely cleaning the ferrule end surface. The cloth shift mechanism is operated manually by the user or automatically by a motor. A holder jig holds the optical connector to facilitate cleaning of the ferrule end surface. The holder jig supports the optical connector such that the ferrule projects from the holder jig.

Combination of optical connector cleaner and holder jig

To microscopically clean the ferrule end surface of an optical connector simply, uniformly and securely, the optical connector cleaner comprises a cleaning cloth woven with ultrafine fiber less than 0.1 denier; a casing formed with at least one opening for protecting the cleaning cloth from dust; and a mechanism for shifting the cleaning cloth exposed in the opening for cloth renewing, after the ferrule end surface has been rubbed with the cleaning cloth for cleaning. Further, it is preferable to provide an elastic member under the cleaning cloth for applying a constant cleaning pressure against the cloth and a guide member over the cleaning cloth for securely cleaning the ferrule end surface. The cloth shift mechanism is operated manually by the user or automatically by a motor.

Optical connector cleaner

A cylindrical split alignment sleeve of ceramic material has an axial slit and is used in an optical fiber connector for connecting optical fibers to each other. In order to establish the strength reliability of the split ceramic alignment sleeve, a predetermined stress is applied to it by a test procedure ensuring no damage to the sleeve. According to the invention, a test load is applied to the inner circumferential surface of the split ceramic alignment sleeve by a loading part which includes stationary and movable members having inclined slidable contact surfaces. The sleeve is applied onto the load part and the movable member is displaced to apply load to the sleeve. The magnitude of load can be detected by deformation of the loading part or by displacement of the movable member.

Method of testing split ceramic alignment sleeve and apparatus therefor

A ferrule for optical fibers transmitting linearly polarized light capable of preventing deterioration and fluctuation of the extinction ratio. The ferrule incorporates at least two paths connecting a region in a vicinity of an end of a puncture for an optical fiber inside the flange portion with outside of the ferrule. These paths effectively enable the removal of air in such a region which could have caused an extraneous stress on the optical fiber resulting in deterioration of the extinction ratio. An optical fiber connector using this ferrule is also disclosed.

Ferrule for optical fiber transmitting linearly polarized light and

In a plug-in connector for connecting elements mounted on a backage board to other elements arranged on a back wiring board disposed perpendicular to the package board, the guide pin and the connector housing fixing screw are formed integral with each other to realize a floating connector coupling structure which is high in mounting efficiency and precision and small in size. Further, the plug-in connector can connect two different, optical and electrical connectors. Further, there is disclosed a novel optical connector plug whose radial eccentricity direction can be matched with that of a mated optical connector jack with an optical fiber aligning jig to minimize the optical fiber coupling power loss.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Etsuji Sugita