| 摘要 |
PURPOSE:To eliminate a failure in connection and to reduce connection loss by measuring maximum and minimum gaps between the end surfaces of a couple of opposite multicore optical fibers and welding the end surfaces with a specified press-in quantity and a specified draw-back quantity based upon the measured values. CONSTITUTION:After (n)-core optical fibers 1 are cut and set on a welder, they are sent in from left and right. At this time, the enlarged image of the fibers 1 is formed on a CCD element 9 through an objective lens 8. While surface gaps D1-Dn are measured between couples of fibers are measured through a CPU connected to the element 9, the fibers are stopped from being sent in when the end surface gaps Di (1<=i<=n) reach a specified value. At this time, the maximum value Dmax and minimum value Dmin among D1-Dn are detected to determine the press-in quantity S0=Dmax-Dmin. The end surfaces are fused with a forward movement quantity F=Dmax+S0, connected with a forward movement quantity F, and draw back by the specified draw-back quantity L. Here, L is determined by finding the value of L at which the minimum value of connection loss is obtained from the experimental expression of the connection loss as the function of S0 and L. |
