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:
Mar. 05, 1991
Filed:
Nov. 03, 1989
James Rochester, Tucson, AZ (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
The elastic properties of an optical fiber (10) are determined from measurements of the contact area (20, 24) of the optical fiber (10) against a surface (16, 22), under a loading perpendicular to the surface. In a preferred approach, an optical fiber is passed over a curved surface (22) of a transparent lens in the form of a pulley (38), with a tension applied to the optical fiber (10). The buffer layer (14) of the optical fiber (10) is flattened against the curved contact surface (22), forming a contact region (24) whose area is measurable. The relative elastic deformability of the buffer layer (14), a function of its elastic modulus, is determined from the contact area and other measurable parameters. Contact area measurement is performed continuously as the optical fiber (10) is passed over the pulley (38) by monitoring the amount of light that is transmitted through the contact region (24). The variations in the elastic properties of the optical fiber (10) may therefore be measured continuously as the optical fiber (10) is transported over the pulley (38).