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:
Aug. 24, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 12, 1998
David G Mead, Naperville, IL (US);
Eric Walter, Westchester, IL (US);
Donald W Duda, Williams Bay, WI (US);
Wenzong Chen, Darien, IL (US);
Amphenol Corporation, Wallingford, CT (US);
Abstract
An adhesiveless fiber optic connector includes a collet mechanism having cable gripping fingers for initially gripping a fiber buffer upon movement of the collet into a body of the connector, and which is subsequently secured within the connector by crimping, includes keying tabs which cooperate with slots in the main body of the connector for retaining the collet within the connector prior to termination, and for preventing rotation of the collet during termination, the keying tabs being pushed out of the slots during termination to adhere to the main body of the connector following crimping. An apparatus for facilitating termination of a fiber optic cable to such an adhesiveless connector includes a transport mechanism to which the fiber buffer is clipped, and a guiding mechanism in the form of separable jaws for the exposed fiber, as well as a crimp mechanism and fiber cutting and polishing apparatus. The apparatus can be used to carry out a method involving the steps of preparing the fiber cable for termination, capturing a bare fiber in a guiding mechanism, securing the fiber buffer to a transporting mechanism, and transporting the cable so that the cable is guided by the guiding mechanism into the collet, after which the transporting mechanism is used to push the collet into the connector and force keys of the collet out of their slots and grip the fiber buffer.