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US 2012/0067997 A1Published application
Optical Fiber Spool Inspection System
AssigneeOFS Fitel, LLC
InventorAndrew L. Ingles
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for inspecting a bare optical fiber spool are disclosed. The system inspects the bare optical fiber spool prior to optical fiber winding and determines whether the bare optical fiber spool is acceptable for the winding.
Claims20
A method for inspecting a bare optical fiber spool comprising the steps of:
- inspecting the bare optical fiber spool with a visual inspection system, which has ideal shape information and associated tolerance limits stored therein, to obtain inspection data;
- comparing the inspection data with the ideal shape information;
- determining if the bare optical fiber spool is within the stored tolerance limits;
- and
- indicating pass or fail of the bare optical fiber spool based on the determination step.
2 more elements
An optical fiber spool inspection system comprising:
- a spool mounting unit configured to mount a bare optical fiber spool;
- a visual inspection unit facing the bare optical fiber spool;
- and
- a computer connected to the visual inspection unit for obtaining inspection data wherein the computer compares the inspection data with stored data for an ideal shape of the bare optical fiber spool and determines if the bare optical fiber spool is within stored tolerance limits.
1 more element
A method for fabricating an optical fiber spool comprising the steps of:
- measuring a spool surface of a bare optical fiber spool on which an optical fiber is to be wound to obtain shape data;
- comparing the measured shape data against stored shape data to determine whether the surface is acceptable for winding the optical fiber thereon;
- and
- winding the optical fiber onto the bare optical fiber spool after the spool surface has been determined to be acceptable.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.