TWI805234B - Fiber Optic Connectors with Adjustable Sleeves - Google Patents

Abstract

An optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve, comprising: a carrier, an optical fiber cable and an adjustable sleeve, the carrier has a first fixed end and a second fixed end along an optical fiber extending direction, the optical fiber cable has A cable part and an optical fiber outlet part, the optical fiber outlet part extends from the cable part and is fixed to the first fixed end, the adjustable sleeve is set on the cable part, and the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is provided with a plurality of clips There are joint parts, wherein in the extending direction of the optical fiber, the positions of the joint parts on the adjustable sleeve are offset from each other by a certain distance, and one of the joint parts is fixed to the second fixed end. The optical fiber joint with the adjustable sleeve of the present invention solves the problem that the optical fiber length is relatively large and easily bent or pulled due to large manufacturing tolerances.

Description

Fiber Optic Connectors with Adjustable Sleeves

The present invention relates to an optical fiber connector, more particularly to an optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve.

The optical fiber connector is located at the end of the optical fiber transmission line and is a component that converts optical signals into electrical signals or electrical signals into optical signals. The current design of the optical fiber connector is that the last optical fiber in the optical fiber cable is exposed and fixed to a photoelectric conversion device, and at the same time the optical fiber cable is also fixed to a fixed point of the carrier. However, the length of the exposed optical fiber has a large manufacturing tolerance, and sometimes cannot fully match the distance from the photoelectric conversion device to the aforementioned fixed point. When the length of the exposed optical fiber is short, it cannot be assembled or damaged due to excessive pulling; when the length of the exposed optical fiber is long, the optical fiber is bent and the signal is poor, and it may be damaged after a long time.

Therefore, in order to solve various problems of the conventional optical fiber connector, the present invention provides an optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve.

In order to achieve the above purpose and other purposes, the present invention proposes an optical fiber joint with an adjustable sleeve, which includes: a carrier, which has a first fixed end and a second fixed end along the extending direction of an optical fiber; an optical fiber cable cable, the optical fiber cable has a cable portion and an optical fiber outlet portion, the optical fiber outlet portion extends from the cable portion and is fixed at the first fixed end; and an adjustable sleeve is sleeved on the wire The outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is provided with a plurality of clamping parts, wherein in the extending direction of the optical fiber, the positions of the clamping parts on the adjustable sleeve are offset from each other by a certain distance, and the clamping parts One of the hinge parts is fixed on the second fixed end.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is rectangular, and the upper and lower surfaces of the adjustable sleeve are respectively provided with a locking portion.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is square, and the four sides of the adjustable sleeve are respectively provided with a locking portion.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is annular, and the adjustable sleeve is provided with a plurality of engaging portions offset from each other by a certain distance in the extending direction of the optical fiber.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the second fixed end is a convex portion, and the engaging portions are concave portions whose shapes match the second fixed end.

In one embodiment of the present invention, an auxiliary fixing part is further included, and the auxiliary fixing part is sleeved on the cable part and engaged with the carrier.

In an embodiment of the present invention, two side surfaces of the adjustable sleeve are engaged with the auxiliary fixing member.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the carrier includes a base, an upper cover and a circuit board, the base and the upper cover are relatively covered, and the circuit board is located on the base.

Thereby, the optical fiber connector with adjustable sleeve of the present invention allows the outlet position of the fiber outlet part to It can be adjusted to adapt to the fiber outlet part with large manufacturing tolerance, and avoid assembly damage caused by too long or too short fiber outlet part.

In order to fully understand the present invention, the present invention will be described in detail by the following specific embodiments and accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art can understand the purpose, features and effects of the present invention from the content disclosed in this specification. It should be noted that the present invention can be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made to the details in this specification based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The following embodiments will further describe the relevant technical content of the present invention in detail, but the disclosed content is not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. The instructions are as follows:

As shown in FIG. 1 , an optical fiber connector 100 with an adjustable sleeve according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a carrier 1 , an optical fiber cable 2 and an adjustable sleeve 3 .

The carrier 1 is used to accommodate and fix the remaining components of the optical fiber connector 100 of the adjustable sleeve. The carrier 1 has a first fixed end 111 and a second fixed end 121 along an optical fiber extending direction d. The first fixing end 111 and the second fixing end 121 are two positions for fixing the optical fiber cable 2 . In this embodiment, the carrier 1 includes a base 11, an upper cover 12 and a circuit board P, the base 11 and the upper cover 12 are relatively covered, the circuit board P is located on the base 11, the first fixed end 111 and the second fixed end 121 They are respectively located on the circuit board P and the upper cover 12 . However, the present invention is not limited thereto, the circuit board P can be located on the upper cover 12 instead, the first fixed end 111 and the second fixed end 121 can be located on the base 11, the circuit board P, or both on the upper cover 12, and the type of the carrier 1 Can be changed as needed.

The optical fiber cable 2 has a cable part 21 and an optical fiber outlet part 22. The cable part 21 refers to the part where one or more optical fibers are covered with a protective layer and is insulated. The optical fiber outlet part 22 refers to one or more optical fibers. The exposed portion of multiple optical fibers (usually at the end of a fiber optic connector). The fiber outlet portion 22 extends from the cable portion 21 and is fixed to the first fixed end 111 . The optical fiber converts the optical signal at the first fixed end 111 , for example, converts the optical signal transmitted by the optical fiber cable 2 into an electrical signal, or converts the electrical signal into an optical signal, and then transmits it through the optical fiber cable 2 .

The adjustable sleeve 3 is sleeved on the cable portion 21 . As shown in FIG. 3 , the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve 3 is provided with a plurality of engaging parts. In this embodiment, the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve 3 is rectangular (at least double-symmetrical), and the upper and lower surfaces of the adjustable sleeve 3 are respectively provided with a first engaging portion 31 and a second engaging portion 32 . In the extending direction d of the optical fiber, the positions of the first engaging portion 31 and the second engaging portion 32 on the adjustable sleeve 3 are offset from each other by a certain distance, and one of these engaging portions is fixed to the first engaging portion of the carrier 1 . Two fixed ends 121 . In this embodiment, the second fixing end 121 is a columnar protrusion, and the first engaging portion 31 /second engaging portion 32 is a concave portion whose shape matches the second fixing end 121 . When the carrier 1 covers the end of the optical fiber cable 2, the convex part of the carrier 1 fits into the concave part of the adjustable sleeve 3, so that the optical fiber cable 2 can be fixed on the second fixed end 121 by the adjustable sleeve 3 . However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the shape and structure of the second fixing end 121 and each engaging portion can be simply changed as required. For example, the second fixing end 121 is a convex/concave structure of other shapes, and the first engaging portion 31 /second engaging portion 32 is a concave/convex structure matching the shape of the second fixing end 121 .

Next, how to use the adjustable sleeve 3 to adapt to different lengths of the fiber outlets 22 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the long dotted line in the figure indicates the location of the second fixed end 121 . Both the second fixed end 121 and the first fixed end 111 are located on the carrier 1 , and the distance between them is a fixed value. In FIG. 2 , the length of the fiber outlet portion 22 of the upper optical fiber cable 2 is in the normal range or slightly longer. At this time, the first engaging portion 31 is used. After the adjustable sleeve 3 is fixed on the end of the cable portion 21, It is fixed to the second fixed end 121 by the first engaging portion 31 . If the length of the optical fiber outlet part 22 is relatively short, such as the optical fiber cable 2 below, the adjustable sleeve 3 can be turned over 180 degrees during assembly (for example, turned over 180 degrees from the side marked with "A" in the figure To the surface marked with "B", the "A" and "B" marks can be replaced with other patterns or identifiable marks) and then fixed at the end of the cable part 21, and fixed on the second engaging part 32 Two fixed ends 121 . Since the position of the second fixed end 121 remains unchanged, the fiber optic cable 2 is now pushed forward along the fiber extension direction d (as shown by the arrow in the figure) to fit the shorter fiber outlet portion 22 .

To sum up, the present invention allows the position of the end of the cable portion 21 (that is, the fiber outlet portion) to 22) becomes adjustable to adapt to the fiber outlet portion 22 with large manufacturing tolerances, and avoid assembly damage caused by the fiber outlet portion 22 being too long or too short.

It should be noted that, for the convenience of understanding, the offset distances of the first engaging portion 31 and the second engaging portion 32 in the fiber extending direction d are exaggerated in the drawings, but in fact, the offset usually falls below 5% of the length of the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve 3 in the fiber extending direction d, or 1% of the length of the fiber outlet portion 22 . However, the present invention does not limit the numerical range of the offset.

Further, based on the same concept, the number of engaging parts is not limited to two, and the shape of the adjustable sleeve can also be changed as required. For example, Figure 4 proposes an adjustable sleeve 5 in another embodiment. The outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve 5 is a square (fourfold symmetry, that is, it is still coincident when rotated 90 degrees around the optical fiber extension direction d), and the four sides of the adjustable sleeve 5 There are respectively a first engaging portion 51 , a second engaging portion 52 , a third engaging portion 53 and a fourth engaging portion 54 , and the engaging portions are offset from each other by a certain distance in the optical fiber extending direction d. Depending on the length of the fiber outlet portion 22 of each engaging portion, the most suitable one of the engaging portions is matched with the corresponding second fixed end 121 .

The maximum number of engaging parts that can be provided for various forms of adjustable sleeves is related to the geometric symmetry of the outer peripheral surface. The adjustable sleeve 5 with a square outer peripheral surface can have two to four engaging parts. For example, as shown in FIG. 5 , the adjustable sleeve 6 having an annular outer peripheral surface with infinitely many symmetry axes can have any number of engaging parts more than two. These engaging portions are offset from each other by a certain distance in the fiber extending direction d. In this embodiment, the adjustable sleeve 6 has three engaging parts, and the offsets of the first engaging part 61, the second engaging part 62, and the third engaging part 63 are gradually changed to facilitate the assembler. Select Configuration. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the offset can be changed in other ways or irregularly, and the number of engaging parts and the angle of the setting positions can also be increased or decreased as required.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1 , the optical fiber connector 100 with an adjustable sleeve further includes an auxiliary fixing member 4 . The auxiliary fixing part 4 is sheathed on the cable part 21 and engaged with the third fixing end 122 of the carrier 1 through an auxiliary fixing part 41 . The auxiliary fixing member 4 provides another anchor point for the optical fiber cable 2 to be fixed on the carrier 1 .

Further, as shown in FIG. 3 , a connecting arm 3 a protrudes from two sides of the adjustable sleeve 3 , and the connecting arm 3 a is engaged with the auxiliary fixing member 4 . Since the distance between the adjustable sleeve 3 and the auxiliary fixing member 4 will vary slightly (depending on which engaging part of the adjustable sleeve 3 is engaged with the second fixed end 121), the connecting arm 3a is engaged The tenon on the auxiliary fixing member 4 is preferably set to tolerate the aforementioned distance variation. For example, the groove of the connecting arm 3a is set wider in the fiber extending direction d, so as to allow the protrusion on the side of the auxiliary fixing member 4 to slide in the groove of the connecting arm 3a.

The present invention has been disclosed by the embodiments above, but those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments are only for describing the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that all changes and substitutions equivalent to the embodiment should be included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the scope of the patent application.

100: Fiber optic connector with adjustable sleeve 1: carrier 11: base 111: the first fixed end 12: Upper cover 121: the second fixed end 122: The third fixed end 2: Fiber optic cable 21: Cable Department 22: Fiber outlet part 3: Adjustable sleeve 31: The first engaging part 32: The second engaging part 3a: Connecting arm 4: Auxiliary fixture 41: Auxiliary fixing part 5: Adjustable sleeve 51: The first engaging part 52: The second engaging part 53: The third engaging part 54: The fourth engaging part 6: Adjustable sleeve 61: The first engaging part 62: The second engaging part 63: The third engaging part d: Fiber extension direction P: circuit board

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a comparison diagram of different engaging parts according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view of an adjustable sleeve according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 4 is a schematic perspective view of an adjustable sleeve according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view of an adjustable sleeve according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

111: the first fixed end

21: Cable department

22: Fiber outlet part

3: Adjustable sleeve

31: The first engaging part

32: The second engaging part

4: Auxiliary fixture

41: Auxiliary fixing part

Claims (8)

A fiber optic connector with an adjustable sleeve comprising: A carrier, the carrier has a first fixed end and a second fixed end along an optical fiber extending direction; An optical fiber cable, the optical fiber cable has a cable portion and an optical fiber outlet portion, the optical fiber outlet portion extends from the cable portion and is fixed to the first fixed end; and An adjustable sleeve is sleeved on the cable part, and the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is provided with a plurality of engaging parts, wherein in the extending direction of the optical fiber, the engaging parts on the adjustable sleeve The setting positions are offset from each other by a certain distance, and one of the engaging parts is fixed on the second fixed end. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as described in claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is rectangular, and the upper and lower surfaces of the adjustable sleeve are respectively provided with a locking portion. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as described in claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is square, and the four sides of the adjustable sleeve are respectively provided with an engaging portion. An optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as described in claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral surface of the adjustable sleeve is annular, and the adjustable sleeve is provided with a plurality of the adjustable sleeves that are offset from each other by a certain distance in the extending direction of the optical fiber snap part. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second fixed end is a convex portion, and the engaging portions are concave portions whose shape matches the second fixed end. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as described in claim 1 further includes an auxiliary fixing part, the auxiliary fixing part is sleeved on the cable part and engaged with the carrier. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as claimed in claim 6, wherein two sides of the adjustable sleeve are engaged with the auxiliary fixing member. The optical fiber connector with an adjustable sleeve as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carrier includes a base, an upper cover and a circuit board, the base and the upper cover are relatively covered, and the circuit board is located on the base.

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