Optical Fiber take-up assembly

• US 5,894,540 A
• Filed: 05/22/1997
• Issued: 04/13/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Furukawa Electric North America Incorporated (Furukawa Electric Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Drewing, Dennis D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Palmer, Phan T. H.
• Application Number:
  US08/862,014
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: 385/135, 385/134, 385/136, 385/137
• US Class Current: 385/135
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/444 Systems or boxes with surplus lengths
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4452 Distribution frames
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4453 Cassettes
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4457 Bobbins; Reels

Abstract

An optical fiber take-up assembly including a plurality of adjustably positionable spools mounted to a support plate. When the fiber has a rigid fusion splice protector, the spacing between the spools is adjusted so that the splice protector is positioned along a straight length of the fiber between a pair of spools.

Claims

1. An assembly for holding a length of filamentary material in a wrapped configuration with a minimum bend radius, comprising:

a support plate;

at least two spools each having a radius of at least said minimum bend radius and each subtending an arc of at least 180°

; and

mounting structure associated with said support plate and said spools and adapted to secure said spools to said support plate with the center of radius of each of said spools lying along a straight line, said mounting structure further adapted to allow selective adjustment of the spacing between said spools;

whereby the filamentary material can be wrapped around the spools and the spacing between the spools can be adjusted so as to take up the slack in the filamentary material.

2. The assembly according to claim 1 wherein said mounting structure includes:

a pair of rails on said support plate extending parallel to said straight line; and

a respective pair of fasteners associated with each of said spools, each of said pair of fasteners adapted to secure its respective spool to a respective one of said pair of rails along the length of said one rail, said pair of fasteners being secured to the respective spool along a straight line which is orthogonal to a radius of the respective spool which bisects the arc subtended by the respective spool.

3. The assembly according to claim 2 wherein:

said pair of rails are in the form of a pair of elongated slots through said support plate;

each of said fasteners includes a threaded rod having an enlarged head at one end and a mating nut threaded thereon at another end; and

each of said spools is formed with a pair of apertures each on said orthogonal straight line;

wherein each of the rods extends through a respective spool aperture and a respective slot to clamp the spool to the support plate between the enlarged head and the mating nut.

4. The assembly according to claim 1 wherein each of said spools subtends an arc of 180°

.

5. The assembly according to claim 4 wherein there are three spools.

6. The assembly according to claim 4 wherein there are four spools.

7. A method for wrapping a length of filamentary material which is fixed at two points, the wrapping being effected with a minimum bend radius and without slack between the two points, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a support plate;

(b) providing at least two spools, each of the spools having a radius of at least the minimum bend radius and each of the spools subtending an arc of at least 180°

;

(c) mounting the spools to the plate with their centers along a straight line and in such manner that the spacing between the spools is adjustable, the spools being so oriented that the subtended arcs of the two outer spools provide at least 180°

of wrap at opposite ends of the straight line;

(d) wrapping the filamentary material around the spools without slack until a final complete wrap cannot be attained;

(e) adjusting the spacing between the spools and rewrapping the filamentary material around the spools without slack until a final complete wrap with slack is attained; and

(f) adjusting the spacing between the spools to take up all slack in the filamentary material.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the filamentary material includes a rigid straight portion, and wherein the steps (d) and (e) include insuring that the rigid straight portion is maintained along a straight length of said filamentary material between a pair of said spools.