Universal polishing fixture for holding optical fibre connectors during polishing operation

摘要

A polishing fixture (20) has nests (48) for releasably holding optical fiber connectors during polishing. At least portions of the nests are moveable by deflection of deflectable beams (44a), the beams being deflectable to narrow the nests and hold optical fiber connectors received in the nests. Each of the beams is deflectable by engagement with at least one of multiple protruding working surfaces spaced apart along a force transmitting body (26), and the force transmitting body avoiding jamming against the beams by being moveable beside each of the beams in a direction that unopposes a direction toward which respective deflected portions of the inclined beams point. This disengages the working surfaces from the beams and allows release of optical connectors in respective nests. The force transmitting body is moveable beside each of the beams in repeated increments of movement to engage each beam with consecutive working surfaces. The indicator marks on the force transmitting body indicate increments of movement of the force transmitting body. The beams are angularly spaced apart along a perimeter of a plate, and the working surfaces are along a rim of a ring encircling the perimeter.