Base layer for an optical fiber wound pack
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorsGregory LoStracco, George W. LeCompte
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A winding form baselayer (20) has a flexible insulative substrate (22) on which a plurality of parallel spaced apart filament cable guides (24) are located. Optionally, the guides (24) can be formed by depositing a metal layer and etching out spaces (W) between the guides or plating the individual guides. A wound pack (28) is produced by winding a first filament layer (26) into the spaces (W) with subsequent layers wound over the first layer in conventional manner. In an alternate version, the filament cable guides (52) are etched into the top side of a metal sheet and the opposite side is etched into a diagonally arranged set of struts (56) which provide lateral resiliency for the entire baselayer (46).
Claims14
A winding form on which a filament pack is wound for properly positioning the individual turns in the innermost layer of said pack, comprising:
- a mandrel having a smooth outwardly directed peripheral surface;
- a flexible sheetlike support means having flat smooth opposite major surfaces one of which is disposed in intimate contacting relation with the mandrel smooth outwardly directed peripheral surface;
- a plurality of parallel spaced apart guides on an outwardly direct major surface of said support means defining spaces therebetween for receiving a first layer of the filament wound within said spaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.