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:
Dec. 09, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 28, 1999
Christian Jakobsen, Copenhagen, DK;
Flemming Pedersen, Farum, DK;
Fitel USA Corp., Norcross, GA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for measuring the diameter and/or eccentricity of the one or more coating layers of a coated optical fiber. The present invention preferably is utilized to measure the diameter of the primary coating layer of a coated optical fiber after the primary and secondary coating layers have been applied to the optical fiber. The primary coating layer is disposed about the optical fiber and the secondary coating layer is disposed about the primary coating layer. When a beam of light is projected by a light source through the optical fiber in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axial direction of the optical fiber, an image is formed on an optical detector, which is disposed opposite the light source and substantially perpendicular to the axial direction of the optical fiber. The light passing through the coated optical fiber is focused by a lens onto the optical detector. The lens is coaxially aligned with the beam of light projected by the light source. The image is analyzed by a signal processor to determine the diameter and/or eccentricity of the primary coating layer of the coated optical fiber. The image generated by the optical detector includes first and second bright lines at the interfaces of the primary and secondary coating layers. The relative locations of one or both of these bright lines in the image are utilized to determine the diameter and/or eccentricity of the primary coating layer.