Societe Nouvelle De Connexion

Yves Bellemon

Jean-Claude Prunier

A connector for optical conductors including two bodies provided with a complimentary fixing device for urging them together under axial pressure and a coupling member to receive the ends of the tubular members. Each body carries a tubular member which is adapted to receive and to have fixed therein an end of one of the optical conductors to be connected. The coupling member includes a transparent elastomeric pad having a refractive index close to or substantially the same as that of the optical conductors which are to be connected and brought into engagement under the action of the complimentary fixing device, and the coupling member and/or the elastomeric pad is so shaped as to define between them a space traversed by a portion of the pad and into which the pad can deform under the axial contact pressure exerted thereon by the tubular members. The pad has a generally cylindrical shape in its rest position and passes through the sleeve into the space into which it may deform whereby the axial contact pressure exerted on the pad by the tubular members is insufficently significant to introduce into the pad constraints giving rise to deterioration in the transmission of light.

Connectors for optical conductors utilizing elastomeric pads

A connector for optical conductors, comprising a casing formed by two opposite bodies provided with complementary means for assembly of one to the other with axial pressure, each body receiving a cylindrical member comprising a shoulder portion and a barrel portion, the member being retained by the shoulder portion and disposed with the barrel portion directed toward the corresponding barrel portion of the cylindrical member mounted in the opposite body, each cylinder member further being adapted to receive an end of an optical fiber within a central bore at the end of the barrel portion in such a manner that the conductor is fixed therein with its end being flat and located in the plane of the end of the barrel portion of the cylinder, having at least two annular grooves in the barrel portion and longitudinally spaced along the length of the latter, the bases of the grooves being concentric with the central bore and the grooves containing torroidal joint means, and the connector further comprising a coupling member into which the barrel portions of the cylindrical members extend opposite to one another, the arrangement being such that the torroidal joint means, when under compression, allow self-centering of the cylindrical members within the coupling member when the members are engaged against one another under the action of complementary fixing means.

Growing community of inventors

Le Pecq, France

Yves Bellemon