OPTICAL CONNECTOR CLEANING TOOL

• US 20110047731A1
• Filed: 03/19/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsubamoto, Mieko, Kobayashi, Masaru, Konishi, Masaaki, Sugita, Naoki
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,587 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 15/97.1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3807 Dismountable connectors, i.e. comprising plugs
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3866 Devices, tools or methods for cleaning connectors cleaning in general B08B

Abstract

An optical connector clearing tool (1) includes a holder (2), cleaner (5), and cap (6). The holder (2) includes, e.g., a cylindrical slider (10), a cylindrical body (12) installed to be rotatable and movable in the axial direction with respect to the slider (10), and a slider return spring (13) which biases the body (12) forward to return the slider (10) to the initial position. The slider (10) has a pair of elastic pieces (16) having guide projections (17). In the outer circumferential surface of the body (12), spiral grooves (25, 26) with which the guide projections (17) engage are formed within the angular range of 360°. When the slider (10) moves forward, the body (12) rotates by the cam action of the guide projections (17) and spiral grooves (25, 26). The cleaner (5) includes, e.g., a cleaning thread (41) accommodated in a rotary pod (40), a supply reel (42), a take-up reel (43), and a cleaning pin (44), and is connected to the body (12). The rotary pod (40) and cleaning pin (44) rotate together with the body (12), and the cleaning thread (41) supplied to the distal end face of the cleaning pin (44) cleans the connection surface of an optical connector. The cleaning thread (41) is supplied from the supply reel (42) and taken up to the take-up reel (43) by being given tension by the rotation of the cleaner (5).

Claims

1. An optical connector cleaning tool comprising a holder, and a cleaner which is rotatably attached to said holder and cleans a connection surface of an optical connector by a cleaning thread,

said holder including a cylindrical slider including an elastic piece having a guide projection on a circumferential wall, a cylindrical body having, in an outer circumferential surface, a spiral groove with which said guide projection engages, and installed in said slider such that said cylindrical body is rotatable and movable forward and backward, a slider return spring which returns said slider to an initial position, and a shaft accommodated in said slider,

said cleaner including a rotary pod connected to said body, a supply reel around which said cleaning thread is wound, a take-up reel which has one end connected to said shaft and takes up a used cleaning thread, and a cleaning pin which brings said cleaning tread into contact with the connection surface of the optical connector, and

said cleaning pin including a thread support portion having, on a distal end face, a thread support surface which supports said cleaning thread, and protruding from said rotary pod,

wherein said rotary pod gives tension to said cleaning thread by rotating together with said body during cleaning, thereby supplying an unused cleaning thread from said supply reel, and taking up a used cleaning thread to said take-up reel.

2. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said cleaner is attached to said holder such that said cleaner is replaceable.

3. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said slider moves forward against said slider return spring during cleaning while said cleaning thread is in contact with the connection surface of the optical connector, thereby integrally rotating said body, said rotary pod, and said cleaning pin.

4. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said take-up reel rotatably axially supports said supply reel and said cleaning pin.

5. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein

said cleaning pin includes a thread supporting groove formed in the distal end face of said thread support portion, and a thread feedout slit and a thread feedin slit formed in an outer circumferential surface, and

said cleaning thread is fed outside said cleaning pin from inside said cleaning pin through said thread feedout slit, engaged with said thread supporting groove, and fed into said cleaning pin again through said thread introducing groove.

6. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein

said cleaner further includes a thread swinging member which swings, in an axial direction of said take-up reel, a used cleaning thread to be taken up to said take-up reel, and

said thread swinging member includes a supply-reel-side hole into which a cleaning thread supplied from said supply reel is to be inserted, and a take-up-reel-side hole into which a used cleaning thread is to be inserted, and is accommodated in a guide hole formed in said cleaner such that said thread swinging member is slidable in an axial direction of said body.

7. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 6, wherein said thread swinging member is made of a transparent material, and makes said supply reel visually checkable from outside said cleaner.

8. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 6, wherein said rotary pod further includes a thread insertion hole into which a used cleaning thread is to be inserted, and the used cleaning thread is inserted into the take-up-reel-side hole of said thread swinging member through the thread insertion hole.

9. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said cleaner further includes a cap which is detachably attached to a distal end of said rotary pod and protects a distal end portion of said cleaning pin, and said cap includes a hole into which a distal end portion of an optical fiber of a male optical connector is to be inserted, and a lid which closes the hole.

10. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein

said cleaner further includes a guide portion which guides said cleaning pin to a receptacle of a female optical connector,

said guide portion includes a guide member fitted on an outer circumferential surface of said rotary pod such that said guide member is movable forward and backward, and having a front end normally positioned before said rotary pod, and a guide member biasing spring which biases said guide member forward, and

said cleaning pin is installed to be movable forward and backward in said rotary pod, and, when said cleaning pin is biased forward by a pin biasing spring, said thread support portion protrudes from said rotary pod and is normally positioned in a distal end portion of said guide member.

11. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein

said cleaner further includes a thread slack preventing mechanism which prevents a slack of said cleaning thread, and

said thread slack preventing mechanism includes a reel accommodating member which rotatably accommodates said take-up reel and said supply reel and rotates together with said body, a latch mechanism which inhibits idling of said supply reel, a first unidirectional clutch which transmits rotation of said reel accommodating member to said take-up reel when said slider moves forward, and a second unidirectional clutch which transmits rotation of said reel accommodating member to said take-up reel when said slider moves backward.

12. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 11, wherein an axis of said supply reel is perpendicular to an axis of said take-up reel.

13. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said cleaning pin has a tapered surface around the thread support surface.

14. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said cleaning pin further includes an outer cylinder fitted on an outer circumferential surface of said thread support portion, and a gap between said thread support portion and said outer cylinder forms a thread passage.

15. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 14, wherein said thread support portion of said cleaning pin further includes, at a distal end, a head configured to tilt in all directions, and a front surface of said head forms the thread support surface.

16. An optical connector cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein said body further includes a straight groove formed parallel to the axis in an outer circumferential surface and connecting a start end and terminal end of said spiral groove.