Abstract: In an optical fiber cabling line where a grooved ring is axially drawn at a translational speed, there is provided a device designed to insert optical fibers in helical grooves of the ring. The fibers are unwound, are drawn through a rotating plate and converge following cone generating lines towards the device. In order to avoid the use of fiber-guides coupled directly in rotation with the ring, the device comprises a quill rotationally stationary and coaxial with the ring for laying the fibers into the grooves of the ring, and means, such as two worm screws set orthogonally to the ring, arranged after the quill in the travel direction of the ring and mechanically uncoupled from the ring for thrusting the fibers to the bottoms of the grooves. The worm screw also contributes to align the fibers as they leave the plate, with the ring grooves within the quill.

Abstract: An apparatus accumulating a filiform element in order to absorb differences in input and output travel speeds of the element, without tangling and damaging the element. Mechanical means located above an accumulation container draw the filiform element at the input speed and wind the filiform element in layers of coils stacked on the bottom of the container following an epicycloid or hypocycloid path. Two stationary concentric rings, respectively, attached to and suspended above the bottom of the container, guide the filiform element unwound at the output speed through the bottom of the container to the outside. The apparatus is particularly designed for a very fine and fragile filiform element such as an optical fiber, and is inserted between a multifibering machine and a cabling line.

Abstract: There is provided a device for dispensing optical fibers into helical grooves of a ring drawn through optical fiber cabling lines. The dispensing device comprises a holder rotating about the ring and including conduits each containing a grooved fiber-guide receiving at least one optical fiber. The fiber-guides are arranged along generating lines of a cone coaxial with the ring and have first fiber-output ends designed to engage in the ring grooves. To disengage the first ends of the fiber-guides from the ring grooves while feeding the ring through the cabling line, the fiber-guides are slidably mounted in the conduits and the device comprises a nut means enclosing a washer in which second ends of the fiber-guides radially, thereby translationally moving the fiber-guides along generating lines of the cone respectively.

Abstract: A drawing wheel is intended for exerting tension on a grooved ring while optical fibers are being laid in helical grooves in the core, in order to stretch the ring in a cabling line. The invention is aimed at defining a radius for the wheel in terms of the dimensional characteristics of the ring so that the fibers are kept longer than the grooves as the ring leaves the cabling line and reverts to an initial tension-free state. The radius of the wheel is such thatR'>(p.sup.2 /(4.pi..sup.2 r))-(r+h)where p and h respectively denotes pitch and depth of the helical grooves, and r denotes radius of a central portion of the core circumscribed by bottoms of the grooves. The wheel radius is preferably on the order of one meter or more.

Abstract: In an optical fiber cabling line where a ring having helical grooves is drawn at a constant translational speed by a main motor, there is provided a system for slaving a rotational speed of an optical fiber feeding and dispensing device driven by motor means to a number of ring groove pitches per second in order to compensate for groove pitch fluctuations resulting from the ring production process. The system comprises roller and cam means coupled to the ring and to the feeding and dispensing device for detecting a difference between the rotational speed and the number of pitches per second thereby converting the speed difference into a voltage variation. The motor means comprises a differential coupled to a gearbox connected to the main motor, and a corrector motor linked to the detecting means so as to drive rotationally the feeding and dispensing means at a rotational speed proportional to a rotational speed set by the gearbox and continuously corrected by the detected speed difference.

Abstract: This invention relates to manufacturing a grooved cylindrical core by extrusion. The manufacturing device comprises a single rotating integral die that has a tapered rear portion and a grooved cylindrical front portion. The tapered portion surrounds a stationary central member and guides the material from a main extruder. The front portion has a bore including linear or helical channels. The sealing problems are obviated since the tapered portion and the grooved portion make up an integral die. This die further enables to produce a grooved core perfectly gauged. According to another aspect, the threads or stripes between core grooves are identified by means of auxiliary extruders feeding predetermined die channels with extrusion materials having different colours. This stripe identification is particularly used for a core constituting the central strand of an optical cable.