Method and apparatus for passing optical fibers through tubular products.

摘要

A tube (1) is wound into a coil, and the resulting coil of tube (5) is vibrated so that a given point of the tube reciprocates along a helical path. An optical fiber (7) is fed into the coil of tube that is being thus vibrated. Because of the vibration, the inner wall of the tube exerts such a force as to move the optical fiber diagonally upward and forward. This force causes the optical fiber to jump in the tube diagonally upward and forward and slide forward along the inner wall of the tube. The intermittent conveying force exerted by the inner wall of the tube in the direction of the circumference of the coil causes the optical fiber in the tube to travel forward, thereby pulling in additional length of the optical fiber from outside the tube.