Optical fiber dispensing, routing and termination apparatus and method

摘要

An optical fiber filament dispensing apparatus (10) includes a dispensing head (33) mounted on x and y axis carriage members (22, 28) and supported for rotation about a z axis (36). An optical fiber dispensing spool (42) is mounted on the dispensing head and is operable to dereel a continuous length of optical fiber filament (47) which is wound around a drive roller (48), is routed through a cut and polish assembly (56) and is further routed through a guide member (58). The cut and polish assembly includes a motor driven cut and polish wheel (70) which is supported for rotation and wobble movement to cut a predetermined length of filament and to polish the ends of the cut lengths whereby the ends preferably have a convex surface geometry generated by the wobbling cut and polish wheel.