Heat shrink tubing

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a heat shrinkable tube, the heat shrinkable tube having a hollow area extending along a preset direction, comprising: a first annular structure and a second annular structure surrounding the hollow area, the hardness of the first annular structure being lower than the hardness of the second annular structure. The present invention is conducive to improving the toughness of the heat shrinkable tube.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The embodiments of the present invention relate to the packaging field, and in particular to a heat shrink tube. Background Art

[0002] In the process of connecting and arranging optical cables, it is usually necessary to connect multiple sections of optical cables to achieve a longer optical fiber transmission distance. When connecting different sections of optical cables, it is necessary to first strip off the protective layer at the interface of the optical cable to expose the fiber core, and then use the optical fiber fusion splicer to perform fusion splicing of different sections of the fiber core. After the fusion is completed, a heat shrink tube needs to be installed on the exposed fiber core to protect the fiber core.

[0003] Currently, a joint plate is usually used to fix the optical cable after fusion to avoid displacement of the optical cable and ensure that the optical cable has good signal transmission performance. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiment of the present invention provides a heat shrinkable tube, which is beneficial to improving the toughness of the heat shrinkable tube.

[0005] To solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a heat shrinkable tube, which has a hollow area extending along a preset direction, including: a first annular structure and a second annular structure surrounding the hollow area, and the hardness of the first annular structure is lower than the hardness of the second annular structure.

[0006] In addition, the wall thickness of the first annular structure is smaller than the wall thickness of the second annular structure.

[0007] In addition, the wall thickness of the first annular structure is 0.8 mm to 1.2 mm, and the wall thickness of the second annular structure is 1.6 mm to 2.4 mm.

[0008] In addition, the length of the heat shrink tube in the preset direction is 20 mm to 30 mm.

[0009] In addition, a plurality of the first annular structures and a plurality of the second annular structures enclose the hollow area, the first annular structures and the second annular structures are spaced apart, the second annular structure includes a protruding portion protruding relative to the first annular structure, and a recessed portion is provided between adjacent second annular structures, and the recessed portion can accommodate the protruding portion.

[0010] In addition, the first film layer surrounds the hollow area and the second film layer covers a portion of the surface of the first film layer, the second annular structure is composed of the second film layer and the portion of the first film layer covered by the second film layer, and the first annular structure is composed of the remaining first film layer.

[0011] In addition, the second film layer is located on a side of the first film layer away from the hollow area.

[0012] In addition, the second film layer is located on a side of the first film layer close to the hollow area.

[0013] In addition, the heat shrinkable tube further includes: a third film layer, the third film layer surrounds the first film layer, and the second film layer is located between the first film layer and the third film layer.

[0014] In addition, the center position of the first annular structure is different from the center position of the second annular structure.

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention has the following advantages:

[0016] In the above technical solution, the heat shrink tube includes a first annular structure and a second annular structure with different hardness. Setting the first annular structure with lower hardness is beneficial to reducing the overall hardness of the heat shrink tube, so that the heat shrink tube has higher toughness; setting the second annular part with higher hardness is beneficial to avoiding excessive bending of the fiber core under the action of bending moment force and generating breakpoints, thereby ensuring that the fiber core has good signal transmission performance.

[0017] In addition, the wall thickness of the first annular structure is relatively thin, which is conducive to reducing the weight and volume of the heat shrink tube, thereby reducing the difficulty of fixing the optical cable and enabling the connector plate to accommodate more optical cables. In addition, it is also conducive to reducing the material cost of the heat shrink tube; the wall thickness of the second annular structure is relatively thick, which is conducive to avoiding excessive bending of the fiber core under the action of bending moment force. There is no need to set an additional reinforcing core, saving the volume occupied by the reinforcing core. Compared with the prior art, the outer diameter of the heat shrink tube is reduced, making the heat shrink tube miniaturized, saving the material of the reinforcing core, and reducing the overall cost of the heat shrink tube. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] One or more embodiments are exemplarily described by pictures in the corresponding drawings, and these exemplified descriptions do not constitute limitations on the embodiments. Elements with the same reference numerals in the drawings represent similar elements, and unless otherwise stated, the figures in the drawings do not constitute proportional limitations.

[0019] Figure 1 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 2 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in a second embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 3 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in a third embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 4 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 5 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in a fifth embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] In order to make the purpose, technical scheme and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that in the embodiments of the present invention, many technical details are provided to enable the reader to better understand the present application. However, even without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments, the technical scheme claimed in the present application can be implemented.

[0025] Figure 1 A schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a heat shrink tube provided in the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] refer to Figure 1 The heat shrinkable tube has a hollow area 13 extending along a preset direction. The heat shrinkable tube includes: a first annular structure 11 and a second annular structure 12 surrounding the hollow area 13 . The hardness of the first annular structure 11 is lower than that of the second annular structure 12 .

[0027] In this embodiment, the wall thickness of the first annular structure 11 is smaller than the wall thickness of the second annular structure 12. This is conducive to reducing the weight of the heat shrink tube, and when fixing multiple optical cables coated with the heat shrink tube, it is conducive to reducing the difficulty of fixing; in addition, since the wall thickness of the first annular structure 11 is thinner, the overall size of the heat shrink tube is smaller, and when the internal space of the connector plate accommodating the optical cable is fixed, it is conducive to allowing the connector plate to accommodate more optical cables, thereby ensuring the safety of the optical cable.

[0028] In this embodiment, the length of the heat shrink tube in the extension direction is 20 mm to 30 mm, such as 23 mm, 25 mm or 27 mm. With the advancement of optical fiber fusion splicers, when performing optical fiber fusion splicing, the length of the protective layer that needs to be stripped becomes shorter, and the length of the exposed fiber core also gradually becomes shorter. In this way, using the heat shrink tube of the above length to coat the fiber core is conducive to ensuring that the length of the redundant heat shrink tube is reduced on the basis of completely coating the fiber core, which is conducive to further reducing the weight of the optical cable and reducing the size of the optical cable. At the same time, it is also conducive to reducing the cost of a single heat shrink tube and reducing the waste caused by cutting redundant heat shrink tubes.

[0029] In this embodiment, the wall thickness of the first annular structure 11 is 0.8 mm to 1.2 mm, for example, 0.9 mm, 1 mm or 1.1 mm, and the wall thickness of the second annular structure 12 is 1.6 mm to 2.4 mm, for example, 1.8 mm, 2 mm or 2.2 mm. The first annular structure 11 adopts the above wall thickness, which is conducive to ensuring that the heat shrink tube has a good protective effect on the fiber core and is conducive to making the heat shrink tube have a smaller volume size; the second annular structure 12 adopts the above wall thickness, which is conducive to avoiding excessive bending of the heat shrink tube under the action of bending moment force, and ensuring that the fiber core has good performance.

[0030] It should be noted that the magnitude of the bending moment force borne by the heat shrinkable tube is related to the length of the heat shrinkable tube, and the wall thickness of the first annular structure 11 is also related to the length of the heat shrinkable tube. Specifically, the shorter the length of the heat shrinkable tube, the smaller the bending moment force borne by the heat shrinkable tube; at the same time, since the bending moment force borne by the heat shrinkable tube is small, the use of a thinner first annular structure 11 can also meet the purpose of avoiding excessive bending of the fiber core.

[0031] In this embodiment, the first annular structure 11 and the second annular structure 12 are made of the same material; in other embodiments, the material of the first annular structure is different from that of the second annular structure, and the wall thickness of the first annular structure may be the same as that of the second annular structure.

[0032] In this embodiment, the center positions of the first annular structure 11 and the second annular structure 12 are the same, which is conducive to forming a hollow area 13 whose cross-sectional figure is a standard circle, ensuring that the heat shrink tube can be evenly sleeved on the outside of the cylindrical fiber core; in other embodiments, the center positions of the first annular structure and the second annular structure are different, which is conducive to further reducing the volume of the heat shrink tube and improving the bending moment resistance of the heat shrink tube by adjusting the center position.

[0033] In this embodiment, the second annular structure 12 has a first wrap angle θ 1 , the first annular structure 12 has a second surrounding angle θ 2 , the first wrap angle θ 1 Greater than the second wrap angle θ 2 This helps ensure that the heat shrink tube can resist bending moments from more directions and ensures that the fiber core has good optical properties.

[0034] In other embodiments, the first rotation angle θ 1 Less than or equal to the second wrap angle θ 2 .

[0035] In this embodiment, a first annular structure 11 and a second annular structure 12 enclose a hollow area 13. In other embodiments, refer to Figure 2The two first annular structures 21 and the two second annular structures 22 enclose a hollow area 24, and the first annular structure 21 and the second annular structure 22 are arranged at intervals. In this way, when the total angle of the second annular structure 22 remains unchanged, the heat shrink tube can resist bending moments from more directions, thereby ensuring that the fiber core has good optical properties.

[0036] Specifically, the second annular structure 22 includes a base 221 parallel to the first annular structure 21 and a raised portion 222 raised relative to the first annular structure 21, and a recessed portion 23 is provided between adjacent second annular structures 22, and the recessed portion 23 can accommodate the raised portion 222. Since the heat shrink tube has a recessed portion 23 that can accommodate the raised portion 222, the relative positions between different optical cables can be limited by controlling the recessed portion 23 of the heat shrink tube of one optical cable to accommodate the raised portion 222 of the heat shrink tube of another optical cable. In this way, it is conducive to fixing the relative positions of multiple parallel optical cables; in addition, since the relative positions between different optical cables can be fixed, an interface array with relatively fixed interface positions can be set, and then multiple optical cables can be docked with multiple interfaces in the interface array at the same time, which is conducive to reducing the difficulty of docking and improving the docking accuracy.

[0037] In this embodiment, the heat shrink tube is an integrated structure, that is, the first annular structure 11 and the second annular structure 12 are formed in an integrated manner, and the two characteristics of anti-bending moment and toughness are achieved by utilizing the thickness difference of the integrated structure itself, which is conducive to improving the structural stability and reliability of the heat shrink tube, and making the heat shrink tube have the characteristics of intensiveness; in other embodiments, the heat shrink tube is composed of multiple film layers. Specifically, refer to Figure 3 The heat shrink tube includes: a first film layer 31 surrounding the hollow area 33 and a second film layer 32 covering a portion of the surface of the first film layer 31. The second annular structure is composed of the second film layer 32 and the portion of the first film layer 31 covered by the second film layer 32, and the first annular structure is composed of the remaining first film layer 31.

[0038] The second film layer 32 is located on the side of the first film layer 31 away from the hollow area 33, the hardness of the material of the second film layer 32 is greater than the hardness of the material of the first film layer 31, the material of the second film layer 32 includes a metal material or a bamboo material, the metal material includes iron, and the material of the first film layer 31 includes plastic; in other embodiments, refer to Figure 4 The second film layer 42 is located on a side of the first film layer 41 close to the hollow area 43 .

[0039] Among them, using metal material as the material of the second film layer 32 is beneficial for the second film layer 32 to have the anti-fatigue characteristics unique to metal materials, that is, it can withstand a certain number of repeated bending. In addition, metal materials are easy to obtain and have low costs, which is beneficial to reducing the cost of heat shrink tubes.

[0040] In addition, using bamboo material as the material of the second film layer 32 is conducive to making the heat shrink tube have the rebound characteristics of bamboo material. When the heat shrink tube is subjected to reversible bending, since the second film layer 32 can rebound to restore its original shape, the heat shrink tube as a whole can restore to its original shape according to the rebound of the second film layer 32, thereby ensuring that the fiber core has good optical transmission characteristics.

[0041] In addition, a third film layer may be provided to fix the second film layer 32. Specifically, refer to Figure 5 The heat shrink tube further includes a third film layer 53, the third film layer 53 surrounds the first film layer 51, and the second film layer 52 is located between the first film layer 51 and the third film layer 53. In this way, it is helpful to prevent the second film layer 52 from falling off, thereby ensuring that the optical cable interface with the heat shrink tube has good anti-bending moment characteristics, thereby ensuring that the fiber core has good optical transmission performance.

[0042] In this embodiment, the heat shrink tube includes a first annular structure and a second annular structure with different hardness. Setting the first annular structure with lower hardness is beneficial to reducing the overall hardness of the heat shrink tube, so that the heat shrink tube has higher toughness; setting the second annular part with higher hardness is beneficial to avoiding excessive bending of the fiber core under the action of bending moment force and generating breakpoints, thereby ensuring that the fiber core has good signal transmission performance.

[0043] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above embodiments are specific examples of the present invention, and in practical applications, various changes may be made to the embodiments in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and therefore the scope of protection of the present invention shall be subject to the scope defined in the claims.

Claims

1. A heat shrinkable tube having a hollow area extending along a preset direction, characterized in that: include: A first annular structure and a second annular structure enclosing the hollow area, wherein the hardness of the first annular structure is lower than the hardness of the second annular structure; The first annular structure and the second annular structure are made of the same material, and the first annular structure and the second annular structure are integrally formed.

2. The heat shrink tube according to claim 1, characterized in that: The wall thickness of the first annular structure is smaller than the wall thickness of the second annular structure.

3. The heat shrink tube according to claim 2, characterized in that: The wall thickness of the first annular structure is 0.8 mm to 1.2 mm, and the wall thickness of the second annular structure is 1.6 mm to 2.4 mm.

4. The heat shrinkable tube according to claim 1 or 3, characterized in that: The length of the heat shrink tube in the preset direction is 20 mm to 30 mm.

5. The heat shrinkable tube according to claim 1, characterized in that: A plurality of the first annular structures and a plurality of the second annular structures enclose the hollow area, the first annular structures and the second annular structures are arranged at intervals, the second annular structure includes a protruding portion protruding relative to the first annular structure, and a recessed portion is provided between adjacent second annular structures, and the recessed portion can accommodate the protruding portion.

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