Optical Fiber Cable Assembly with Arbitrary Bending Connectors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Optical signal connection members with directionality in bending characteristics and difficulties in processing optical fibers with large cores, making them unsuitable for flexible use as relay cables between bundle fibers.
Innovation Solution
An optical fiber cable assembly with optical connectors at both ends, featuring insertion holes arranged in predetermined intervals, allowing optical fibers to be inserted and fixed arbitrarily without maintaining specific arrangement orders between connectors, enabling flexible bending and easy assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If optical fiber sheets with curve parts are used to connect bundle fibers, then optical connection loss is reduced through precise fiber positioning, but the connection member loses bending flexibility and becomes difficult to handle
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the connection member into multiple independent optical fiber groups (first group and second group) with different bending directions. Each group can be bent independently without affecting the other, allowing the connection member to adapt to various installation geometries while maintaining precise fiber-to-fiber alignment through the ferrule structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces spatial separation by arranging optical fiber groups in different directions (first group in one direction, second group in another direction). This dimensional arrangement allows the connection member to bend in multiple directions simultaneously, transforming a planar constraint into a three-dimensional flexible structure.
2Ease of operation
If a single long bundle fiber is used to avoid segmentation, then handling is simplified, but the entire fiber must be replaced when damage occurs and installation space increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the optical connection system into multiple independent bundle fibers (first bundle fiber, second bundle fiber, third bundle fiber) that can be handled and replaced individually. This allows localized maintenance where only the damaged segment needs replacement rather than the entire long fiber, while still achieving the desired fiber-to-fiber connections through the multi-group connection member.
3Ease of operation
If optical fiber groups with different bending directions are arranged in the same connector, then bending flexibility is improved, but the connector structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a universal ferrule structure that can accommodate multiple optical fiber groups with different bending directions. The ferrule provides a standardized interface with multiple insertion holes that can receive fibers from different bundle groups, simplifying the overall structure by using a single multi-functional component rather than multiple specialized connectors.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of optical fiber groups are housed in an optical fiber cable and which of the optical fiber groups optical fibers, which constitute the optical fiber groups, belong to can be identified depending on a covering of the optical fibers. Each of optical connectors (plug, receptacle) which are respectively attached to both ends of the optical fiber cable has regions, in which insertion holes in which the optical fibers are inserted and fixed one by one are formed to be arranged in a predetermined interval, in the same number as the number of the optical fiber groups, and even though the optical fibers in one optical fiber group are inserted and fixed in the insertion holes in an identical region, an arrangement order of the optical fibers in the region of the optical connector provided on one end is not maintained as an arrangement order of the optical fibers in the region of the optical connector provided on the other end.