METHOD FOR RETRIEVING APPROPRIATE HEATING CONDITION AT CONNECTION OF OPTICAL FIBER

摘要

PURPOSE:To easily obtain the appropriate heating conditions of optical fibers by regulating a discharge current in accordance with the way how the ends of the optical fibers melt. CONSTITUTION:The end face of the optical fiber 1 is positioned between a pair of discharge electrodes 3. This end part of the optical fiber 1 is melted by electric discharge heating and whether the discharge heating conditions of the end part of the optical fiber are suitable or not is discriminated by the distance DELTAL1 at which this end face retreats. Namely, the fusion splicing of the optical fibers is previously executed and a number of the retreat distances DELTAL1 when the permissible connection loss is obtd. are determined and the max. value among these distances is designated as Lmax and the min. value as Lmin. The end part of the optical fiber is melted and the retreat distance DELTAL1 is determined prior to the fusion splicing of the optical fibers. The discharge current is then so regulated that this retreat distance DELTAL1 is maintained at >=Lmin and <=Lmax. The appropriate heating conditions are easily obtd. in this way.