Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Masakazu Watanabe

Ken Takahashi

Koichi Saito

Shigeru Suemori

Satoshi Ogawa

Takehiko Okada

Masanori Fujikawa

Masatoshi Yasui

An apparatus for assembling an optical cable comprises a spacer paying-out portion , a stationary ribbon supply unit , a gathering portion and a taking-up portion . The spacer paying-out portion supplies a spacer having a spiral groove in the surface of a long spacer body from a supply reel while revolving around a line axis X-X. The stationary ribbon supply unit supplies a plurality of optical fiber ribbons . The gathering portion forms the optical fiber ribbons sent out of the stationary ribbon supply unit into a cable core by holding the optical fiber ribbons within the spiral groove of the spacer sent out of the spacer paying-out portion and running forward while rotating on its center axis. The taking-up portion winds the cable core on a taking-up reel while revolving around the line axis. A winding roller ( ) having an rotational direction identical to an rotational direction of the supply reel of the spacer and used for winding the spacer or the cable core is installed adjacently before and after the gathering portion whereby to revolve the winding roller around the line axis in synchronization with the revolution of the spacer paying-out portion . Accordingly, it is possible to prevent a twisting of the spacer in the gathering portion resulting from a winding habit of the spacer during a step of assembling cables.

Apparatus and method for assembling optical cable

In order to superimpose and store optical fiber ribbons in a corresponding one of spiral grooves provided in the outer circumferential surface of a spacer, an optical fiber ribbon stranding device includes: a device for advancing the spacer straight while rotating the spacer around the center axis of the spacer, the advancing device being constituted by, for example, a tension giving device and a take-up device; a device for feeding a plurality of optical fiber ribbons; a guide die for guiding the optical fiber ribbons into the corresponding one of the spiral grooves; and an alignment keeping guide disposed upstream of the guide die. A rectangular hole is provided to extend through the alignment keeping guide, and the optical fiber ribbons are passed through and superimposed by the hole. The optical fiber ribbons kept in a superimposed state by the alignment keeping guide is introduced and accommodated into the corresponding one of the grooves of the spacer through the guide die.

Optical fiber ribbon stranding method and device

An apparatus and method for inserting optical fibers into a spacer having spiral grooves to produce a spacer type optical fiber cable wherein a torsional force detecting device is formed integrally with the optical fiber gathering device for inserting optical fibers into the spiral grooves. The torsional force exerted on the device by the spacer is detected by a tension/compression measuring device and the axial speed of the spacer is controlled in response to the measured torsional force so as to reduce the torsional force to zero.

Apparatus for inserting optical fibers into a spacer having spiral

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Kanagawa, Japan

Masakazu Watanabe