The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 29, 1987
Filed:
Oct. 24, 1986
Daryl L Myers, Lawrenceville, GA (US);
American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Technologies, Inc., Berkeley Heights, NJ (US);
Abstract
A spool (20) which is used in the taking up and the paying out of a relatively long length of optical fiber includes two flanges (24, 26) and a hub (22) with each flange being tapered. The spool includes a collector (30) which is formed adjacent to one of the two tapered flanges of the spool and which provides access to the initial or leading end portion of the length of optical fiber which is wound on the spool. A groove (32) of the collector communicates with the hub of the spool through each of the two diametrically opposed slots (28--28) in the adjacent tapered flange (24). This allows the optical fiber to be wound on one of two coaxially mounted spools and to be transferred to the other spool with the first few convolutions being received in the groove and then passed through one of the slots in the adjacent tapered flange onto the hub. In order to prevent losses in the optical fiber portion (44) which extends through one of the slots, each slot is sufficiently wide to avoid unduly sharp curvature of the optical fiber portion. The spool with outwardly sloped flanges provides for a stable winding pattern which prevent snags in pay out operations. The capacity of this spool with a stable winding pattern may be maximized by optimizing the slope of the tapered flanges.