阅读说明：本技术 对排板后的光学纤维丝进行捆绑的方法和装置 (Method and device for binding optical fiber filaments after arranging boards ) 是由 赵越 贾金升 张磊 张弦 汤晓峰 石钰 许慧超 于浩洋 张敬 樊志恒 宋普光 于 2021-09-06 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明是关于对排板后的光学纤维丝进行捆绑的方法和装置,该方法包括：获取排板后的光学纤维丝的状态信息以及其对应的排板模具的状态信息；根据所述排板后的光学纤维丝的状态信息以及其对应的排板模具的状态信息,确定对所述排板后的光学纤维丝进行捆绑的捆绑位置及所需捆绑件的长度；所述捆绑件为热缩膜；用所述捆绑件在所述捆绑位置在垂直光学纤维丝的方向上捆绑所述排板后的光学纤维丝,并将所述捆绑件的两端捏合在一起；加热所述捆绑件,使其受热收缩,直至所述捆绑件完全贴合在所述排板后的光学纤维丝上,捆绑牢固。该方法采用热缩膜捆绑,增大捆绑件与光学纤维丝的接触面积,以保证光学纤维丝排板结构的稳定。(The invention relates to a method and a device for binding optical fiber filaments after being arranged, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mould corresponding to the optical fiber filaments; determining the binding position for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the length of a required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding arrangement of the plate die; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film; binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of plates in the direction vertical to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by using the binding piece, and kneading two ends of the binding piece together; and heating the binding piece to be heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments behind the row plate, and binding firmly. The method adopts the thermal shrinkage film for binding, and increases the contact area between the binding piece and the optical fiber to ensure the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board.)

1. A method of binding optical fiber filaments after board arraying, comprising:

acquiring the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mould corresponding to the optical fiber filaments;

determining the binding position for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the length of a required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding arrangement of the plate die; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of plates in the direction vertical to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by using the binding piece, and kneading two ends of the binding piece together;

and heating the binding piece to be heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments behind the row plate, and binding firmly.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the heat shrinkage film has a heat shrinkage temperature of 80-100 ℃ and a heat shrinkage rate of 1-2%.

3. The method for binding the arrayed optical fibers according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the heat-shrinkable film is a silicone film modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane, a fluororubber heat-shrinkable film or a polytetrafluoroethylene heat-shrinkable film.

4. The method for binding the arrayed optical fibers according to claim 3, wherein the heat-shrinkable film is a silicone film modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane, and the preparation method of the silicone film modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane comprises the following steps: under the condition of stirring, sequentially adding the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane and the heat conducting filler into the vinyl silicone rubber, uniformly mixing, pressing to form a film, and curing at 40-60 ℃ for 2-6 h to obtain the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel film.

5. The method for binding the arrayed optical fiber yarns as claimed in claim 4, wherein the weight parts of the vinyl silicone rubber are 80-100 parts, the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is 10-30 parts, and the heat conductive filler is 5-10 parts.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the thermally conductive filler is selected from one or more of boron nitride, aluminum nitride and zinc oxide.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the thickness of the heat shrink film is 0.8-1.0mm, the width of the heat shrink film is 0.5-1 times the cross-sectional circumference of the arrayed optical fiber, and the length of the heat shrink film is 1.2-1.5 times the cross-sectional circumference of the arrayed optical fiber.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the heating is radiant heating at a rate of 5-10 ℃/min.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information of the arrayed optical fiber filaments comprises: arranging plate structure and size information of the optical fiber yarns after the arrangement of the plates;

the state information of the plate arranging mold comprises: shape and size information of the panel mould.

10. A device for binding optical fiber filaments after board arrangement, comprising:

the acquisition unit is used for acquiring the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mold corresponding to the optical fiber filaments;

the determining unit is used for determining the binding position and the length of the required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding arrangement plate die; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

a binding unit for binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of boards in a direction perpendicular to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by the binding member and pinching both ends of the binding member together;

and the heating unit is used for heating the binding piece to ensure that the binding piece is heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments behind the row of plates, and the binding is firm.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of manufacturing of optical fiber panels, in particular to a method and a device for binding optical fiber filaments after arrangement.

Background

The optical fiber panel (hereinafter referred to as optical fiber panel) is an optical fiber element formed by processing thousands of optical fibers which are regularly and closely arranged through the processes of plate arrangement, hot melt pressing, annealing, rough machining, finish machining and the like, and has the characteristics of high light transmission efficiency, small interstage coupling loss, clear and real image transmission, zero thickness and the like in optics. Fiber optic panels are widely used in various cathode ray tubes, camera tubes, CCD couplings, and other instruments and devices that require the transmission of images. The large-area optical fiber panel is a key device for manufacturing the large-field-of-view low-light-level imager. The application field is very wide: the product can be used in the medical field (such as an X-ray machine), the industrial X-ray scanning field, the industrial X-ray detection field, the palm print scanning field and the like. With the development of science and technology, the requirements of the devices in these fields on the imaging field of view are continuously expanded, so the research and development of larger-area optical fiber panels are increasingly important.

In the manufacture of fiber optic panels, bundling is a necessary link between the gang plates and hot melt pressing. In the prior art, the optical fiber board is fastened by adopting wire materials or wire rods, the optical fiber wires are generally in prism shapes (such as quadrangular prism, hexagonal prism and the like), and the wire materials or wire rods are used for bundling the board at the present stage, so that the stress can be formed only at the contact points of the wire rods and the prisms, and then the internal optical fiber wires are compressed through pressure conduction among the optical fiber wires, so that the stability of the board arrangement structure of the whole optical fiber board is kept. The wire or the wire rod is in point or line contact with the optical fiber filaments at the edge of the optical fiber board, the closer to the optical fiber filaments at the center, the higher the risk of relative sliding and loosening is, and before the optical fiber board enters a hot melting and pressing process, the sliding and loosening are easily generated on the internal optical fiber filament array plate structure, so that the optical fiber image transmission element cannot be normally used. In addition, in the prior art, the plates are bundled by wires or wires through manual operation, and the internal structure of the optical fiber panel product is unstable due to the difference of the tightness of the plates bundled by different people, so that the final quality of the optical fiber panel product is influenced, and the working efficiency is not high.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly aims to provide a method and a device for binding optical fiber wires after arrangement, and aims to solve the technical problems that the optical fiber wires are bound by a heat-shrinkable film, the contact area between a binding piece and the optical fiber wires is increased, the stability of the structure of an optical fiber wire arrangement plate is ensured, and the production loss caused by loose sliding of the structure of the optical fiber wire arrangement plate is reduced.

The purpose of the invention and the technical problem to be solved are realized by adopting the following technical scheme. The invention provides a method for binding optical fiber yarns after arrangement of boards, which comprises the following steps:

acquiring the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mould corresponding to the optical fiber filaments;

determining the binding position for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the length of a required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding arrangement of the plate die; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of plates in the direction vertical to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by using the binding piece, and kneading two ends of the binding piece together;

and heating the binding piece to be heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments behind the row plate, and binding firmly.

The object of the present invention and the technical problems solved thereby can be further achieved by the following technical measures.

Preferably, in the method for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement, the heat shrinkage temperature of the heat shrinkage film is 80 to 100 ℃, and the heat shrinkage rate is 1 to 2%.

Preferably, in the method for binding the optical fiber after the arrangement of the boards, the heat-shrinkable film is a silicone film, a fluororubber heat-shrinkable film or a polytetrafluoroethylene heat-shrinkable film modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane.

Preferably, in the method for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement, the heat-shrinkable film is a silicone membrane modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane, and the preparation method of the silicone membrane modified by cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane comprises: under the condition of stirring, sequentially adding the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane and the heat conducting filler into the vinyl silicone rubber, uniformly mixing, pressing to form a film, and curing at 40-60 ℃ for 2-6 h to obtain the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel film.

Preferably, the method for binding the optical fiber yarns after the arrangement of the boards comprises 80-100 parts by weight of vinyl silicone rubber, 10-30 parts by weight of cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane and 5-10 parts by weight of heat conducting filler.

Preferably, the method for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the boards is performed, wherein the heat conductive filler is selected from one or more of boron nitride, aluminum nitride and zinc oxide.

Preferably, in the method for binding the optical fiber filaments after the board arrangement, the thickness of the heat-shrinkable film is 0.8-1.0mm, the width of the heat-shrinkable film is 0.5-1 times the circumference of the cross section of the optical fiber filaments after the board arrangement, and the length of the heat-shrinkable film is 1.2-1.5 times the circumference of the cross section of the optical fiber filaments after the board arrangement.

Preferably, the method for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the boards is adopted, wherein the heating is radiation heating, and the heating rate of the radiation heating is 5-10 ℃/min

Preferably, in the method for binding the aligned optical fiber filaments, the state information of the aligned optical fiber filaments includes: arranging plate structure and size information of the optical fiber yarns after the arrangement of the plates;

the state information of the plate arranging mold comprises: shape and size information of the panel mould. The object of the present invention and the technical problem to be solved are also achieved by the following technical means. According to the invention, the device for binding the optical fiber yarns after the arrangement of the boards comprises:

the acquisition unit is used for acquiring the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mold corresponding to the optical fiber filaments;

the determining unit is used for determining the binding position and the length of the required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding arrangement plate die; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

a binding unit for binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of boards in a direction perpendicular to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by the binding member and pinching both ends of the binding member together;

and the heating unit is used for heating the binding piece to ensure that the binding piece is heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments behind the row of plates, and the binding is firm.

By the technical scheme, the method and the device for binding the optical fiber yarns after the arrangement of the optical fiber yarns have the following advantages:

1. according to the invention, the thermal shrinkage film is adopted to bind the optical fiber wire serving as the binding piece in the preparation process of the optical fiber panel, the thermal shrinkage film is completely attached to the periphery of the optical fiber wire after being heated and shrunk and firmly binds the optical fiber wire, so that the binding piece and the bound optical fiber plate are completely attached, the contact area between the binding piece and the optical fiber wire is increased, the stability of the optical fiber wire arrangement plate structure is ensured, the production loss caused by loose and sliding of the optical fiber wire arrangement plate structure is reduced, and the quality of an optical fiber product and the quality stability of the product are improved.

2. According to the invention, the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel membrane is adopted to bind the optical fiber, so that the contact area between the silica gel membrane and the optical fiber board can be increased, and in the stage of thermal shrinkage of the silica gel membrane, reactive groups in the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane can be used as cross-linking points to continuously perform chemical reaction, and the chemical reaction is represented as shrinkage (chemical shrinkage) in a macroscopic view, so that uneven heating of the thermal shrinkage membrane caused by inherent temperature field error of heating equipment is avoided, different thermal shrinkage amounts at different positions are avoided, and therefore, the board arrangement structure of the optical fiber is prevented from being damaged in the thermal shrinkage process, the damage to the board arrangement structure of the optical fiber caused by uneven stress during binding is avoided, and compared with a silk thread material in the prior art, the stability of the structure of the optical fiber board arrangement can be better maintained.

2. According to the invention, the proper heat-shrinkable film is selected, so that the heat-shrinkable film which plays a role of maintaining the structure has enough heat stability and basically does not decompose and carbonize before the optical fiber is fully melted, pressurized and cured into a whole, thereby obtaining an optical fiber panel product with excellent internal quality; the row's board structure of binding completion simultaneously is getting into the fuse-pressing process after, and the modified silica gel pyrocondensation membrane of cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is heated and can produce the composite bed of silica and filler to the separation surface has decomposed the pyrocondensation membrane of carbonization to the inside infiltration of optical fiber base board, when stablizing fixed optical fiber board inside optical fiber panel base board row board structure, can not cause the pollution to optical fiber board inner structure.

4. According to the invention, manual operation is replaced by an automatic device, and a technician does not need to manually contact the optical fiber panel blank in a plate bundling ring section, so that the automatic production degree is improved, the product quality stability can be greatly improved, the damage to the surface of the optical fiber panel blank caused by the operation of the technician is reduced, the loss and waste of the optical fiber panel blank are reduced, and the production cost of the optical fiber panel blank is reduced.

The foregoing description is only an overview of the technical solutions of the present invention, and in order to make the technical solutions of the present invention more clearly understood and to implement them in accordance with the contents of the description, the following detailed description is given with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method for binding optical fiber filaments after arranging boards according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional optical fiber bundle after being bundled by wires or wires;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a bundled optical fiber filament after being arranged in a board by a heat-shrinkable film according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a plate arranging mold according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram illustrating an apparatus for binding optical fiber filaments after arranging boards according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another apparatus for binding optical fiber filaments after board arrangement according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

To further illustrate the technical means and effects of the present invention adopted to achieve the predetermined objects, the following detailed description will be given of the method and apparatus for binding optical fiber filaments after arranging boards according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments, and the detailed description thereof. In the following description, different "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" refers to not necessarily the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

As shown in fig. 1, one embodiment of the present invention provides a method for binding optical fiber filaments after board arrangement, which includes:

s101, acquiring state information of the optical fiber filaments after plate arrangement and state information of the plate arrangement mold corresponding to the optical fiber filaments;

in step S101, the state information of the arrayed optical fiber filaments includes: the plate arrangement structure and size information of the optical fiber filaments after plate arrangement, such as the opposite side size of the optical fiber filaments, the filament diameter, the number and distribution of the optical fiber filaments, the surface area of the optical fiber blank after plate arrangement, the cross-sectional shape, the cross-sectional perimeter and the length of the optical fiber blank after plate arrangement, and the like; the state information of the plate arranging mold comprises: the shape and size information of the plate arranging mold, such as the shape of the plate arranging mold, the inclination angle (inclination angle) of the plate arranging inclined plane of the plate arranging mold, the length of the plate arranging inclined plane (the length of the plate arranging mold from the bottom plate to the edge of the wire inserting groove), and the like, as shown in fig. 4, is a schematic structural diagram of the plate arranging mold according to one embodiment.

S102, determining the binding position for binding the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the length of a required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the plate arrangement mold corresponding to the optical fiber filaments; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

in step S102, the determining of the binding position and the length of the required binding member specifically includes: the binding positions are at least two and are respectively positioned at two ends of the optical fiber filaments behind the row plate, and at least one binding position is positioned outside the row plate mould, namely the part of the optical fiber filaments behind the row plate extending out of the row plate mould is used as one binding position. The method for determining the position of one bundling plate specifically comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that firstly, a positioning module determines the edge position of one end, extending out of a die, of an optical fiber board, then the position is taken as a datum point, a position which is 5-10mm according to the datum point is selected along the radial direction of the optical fiber board, the positioning module positions the position by laser, and finally a calculating module obtains the length and the width of a required binding piece according to state information of optical fiber wires after board arrangement and obtained by an obtaining unit and the state information of the corresponding board arrangement die; the other plate bundling position is a position where the optical fiber filaments contact with the bottom plate of the plate arranging mold and extend 5-10mm towards the extending direction of the bottom plate. The positioning and calculation module works as above.

Then, properly increasing binding position points according to the length of the optical fiber filament, for example, when the length of the optical fiber filament is less than 50cm, only the binding positions are determined at two ends, and when the length of the optical fiber filament is 50-100cm, the binding positions are determined at two ends, and a binding position is further set in the middle; when the length of the optical fiber filament is more than 100cm, one binding position is added for every increase of about 50 cm.

S103, binding the optical fiber filaments after the plate arrangement in the direction vertical to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position by using the binding piece, and kneading two ends of the binding piece together;

in step S103, after the bundled optical fibers are bundled by the bundling member, two ends of the bundling member are heated by a local heating method, such as heating wire, and when the two ends of the bundling member are melted, the two ends of the bundling member are rapidly pinched together;

during binding, according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the optical fiber filaments and the state information of the corresponding arrangement of the optical fiber filaments, the part extending out of the arrangement of the optical fiber filaments serves as a first binding position, the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the optical fiber filaments are taken out slowly from the arrangement of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the optical fiber filaments are bound firmly, and then a second binding position and a third binding position are bound in sequence.

S104, heating the binding piece to be heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and is firmly bound.

In the embodiment, the thermal shrinkage film is used as the binding piece, the thermal shrinkage film meets a certain thermal shrinkage rate, carbon elements contained in the material molecular structure are as less as possible, the optical fiber board is decomposed as late as possible in the fusion pressing process, the thermal shrinkage film has excellent heat resistance, so that the internal boundary of the optical fiber board is fully fused and solidified when some unavoidable carbon elements are diffused, and the internal quality of the optical fiber board is not polluted to the maximum extent.

In some embodiments, the heating is radiant heating.

In some preferred embodiments, the radiant heating is at a heating rate of 5 to 10 deg.C/min. Preferably, the heating is by radiation using an infrared radiation heater.

In the embodiment of the invention, the binding piece is slowly and uniformly heated in a radiation heating mode, so that the binding piece is completely attached to the periphery of the optical fiber yarn after being heated and shrunk and firmly binds the optical fiber yarn. But to ensure that the optical fiber filaments are not overheated to maintain the shape of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement without deformation.

In some embodiments, the heat shrinkable film has a heat shrinkage temperature of 80 to 100 ℃ and a heat shrinkage of 1 to 2%.

In some embodiments, the thickness of the heat shrinkable film is 0.8-1.0mm, and the width and length of the film are selected according to the size of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement, wherein the length of the film can be determined according to the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement, and the length of the film is generally 1.2-1.5 times of the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement, for example, when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is less than 10mm, the length of the film is selected to be about 12-15mm, and when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is 10-20mm, the length of the film is selected to be 12-30 mm; the width of the film may be determined according to the cross-sectional perimeter and the length of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement, when the length of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is about 100mm, the width of the film is selected to be 0.5 to 1 times of the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement, for example, when the length of the optical fiber filament is 10cm, the width of the film is selected to be 5 to 10mm when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is less than 10mm, the width of the film is selected to be 5 to 20mm when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is 10 to 20mm, the width of the film is selected to be 10 to 30mm when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is 20 to 30mm, and the width of the film is selected to be 15 to 40mm when the cross-sectional perimeter of the optical fiber filament after the board arrangement is 30 to 40 mm. When the length of the optical fiber filaments after arranging the boards is longer, for example, the length is greater than 100mm, the width of the film can be increased appropriately, for example, the width of the film is increased by 2-5mm for each 10cm increase of the length of the optical fiber filaments after arranging the boards, and preferably, the width of the film is 10-50mm according to the cross-sectional perimeter and the length of the optical fiber filaments after arranging the boards in common use.

In some embodiments, the heat shrinkable film has a heat shrinkage temperature of 80 to 100 ℃ and a heat shrinkage of 1 to 2%.

Since the width and length of the film do not affect the degree of shrinkage at the same temperature and time, only the range of the irradiation-heated area needs to be changed during the binding process to complete the heat-shrinkage binding.

After the optical fiber yarns arranged on the plates are bound, the optical fiber yarns are inclined, and if the optical fiber yarns do not slip out, the optical fiber yarns are bound firmly.

In some embodiments, the heat-shrinkable film is a composite heat-shrinkable silicone film satisfying the conditions, including but not limited to a silicone film modified with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane, a fluororubber heat-shrinkable film, or a polytetrafluoroethylene heat-shrinkable film.

The thermal shrinkage film needs to meet the following conditions: when the thickness of the thermal shrinkage film is 0.3-1.5mm, the thermal shrinkage rate at 90-100 ℃ is about 1-2%, and the shrinkage time is about 3-10 min.

Preferably, the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel membrane needs to meet the following conditions: when the thickness of the heat shrinkable film was 0.9mm, the heat shrinkage at 90 ℃ was about 1.2%, and the shrinkage time was about 6.5 min.

In the prior art, a heat-shrinkable film generally adopts physical shrinkage, namely, a shape memory polymer material is used for coating an object, the mode is easily influenced by factors such as a heating mode, a heating condition and the like, and the shrinkage precision needs to be further improved. Thus, in some preferred embodiments, the heat-shrinkable film uses a silicone membrane modified with a cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane, in which the Si — H bonds are the crosslinking points, i.e., the sites of reaction with the vinyl groups in the vinyl silicone rubber. With the increase of the addition amount of the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane, the content of Si-H bonds is increased, the number of cross-linking points is increased, the cross-linking density of the vinyl silicone rubber is increased, and the flexibility of a silicone rubber membrane molecular chain is reduced. Therefore, the thermal stability and the binding stability are comprehensively considered when the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane composite heat-shrinkable film is used.

In some embodiments, the preparation method of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone membrane composite heat-shrinkable silicone membrane comprises the following steps:

under the condition of stirring, sequentially adding the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane and the heat conducting filler into the vinyl silicone rubber, uniformly mixing, pressing to form a film, and curing at 40-60 ℃ for 2-6 h to obtain the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel film. Wherein, the weight portion is that vinyl silicone rubber 80-100, oligomeric silsesquioxane 10-18 and heat conductive filler 5-10.

Further, the preparation method of the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane comprises the following steps:

in N₂Under the protection of gas, 25g ferric trichloride and 10mL concentrated hydrochloric acid are added into a three-neck flask, then 20mL methanol, 25mL toluene and 150mL n-hexane are added into the three-neck flask, and after the mixture is uniformly stirred, 10mL HSiCl is added₃Dissolving in 50mL of n-hexane, slowly dropwise adding into a three-neck flask within 3h, continuously and rapidly stirring after dropwise adding, wherein the stirring speed is 1120rpm, heating to 30 ℃, and reacting for 2h at 30 ℃; separating n-hexane layer, adding anhydrous CaCl into filtrate₂And anhydrous K₂CO₃Stirring, standing for 8h, and filtering; and distilling the liquid obtained by filtering at 70 ℃ under reduced pressure for 2h until crystals are separated out, collecting the separated product, washing with n-hexane, and drying at 50 ℃ for 8h to obtain the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane.

In the above embodiment, the thermal stability and the binding stability of the polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone film-heat-shrinkable silicone film are both good. When the vinyl silicone rubber is 100 parts and the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is about 18-22 parts, the thermal shrinkage rate of the composite thermal shrinkage film is low, and the binding stability is poor.

According to the invention, the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel membrane is adopted to bind the optical fiber, so that the contact area between the silica gel membrane and the optical fiber board can be increased, and in the stage of thermal shrinkage of the silica gel membrane, reactive groups in the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane can be used as cross-linking points to continuously perform chemical reaction, and the chemical reaction is represented as shrinkage (chemical shrinkage) in a macroscopic view, so that uneven heating of the thermal shrinkage membrane caused by inherent temperature field error of heating equipment is avoided, different thermal shrinkage amounts at different positions are avoided, and therefore, the board arrangement structure of the optical fiber is prevented from being damaged in the thermal shrinkage process, the damage to the board arrangement structure of the optical fiber caused by uneven stress during binding is avoided, and compared with a silk thread material in the prior art, the stability of the structure of the optical fiber board arrangement can be better maintained.

The method of the invention uses a film material to replace a silk thread material, completely coats the surface of the optical fiber, and is uniformly stressed in the thermal shrinkage process, so that the plate arrangement structure of the optical fiber is protected to the maximum extent, the plate arrangement structure of the optical fiber in the optical fiber plate is not easy to relatively slide and loosen during plate bundling, the plate bundling requirement of an optical fiber panel blank plate can be better met, after the plate arrangement structure after being bundled enters a fusion pressing process, a cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel thermal shrinkage film is heated to generate a composite layer of silica and filler, thereby preventing the thermal shrinkage film with the decomposed and carbonized surface from permeating into the optical fiber blank plate, and not polluting the internal structure of the optical fiber plate while stably fixing the optical fiber panel blank plate arrangement structure in the optical fiber plate.

The polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane is added into the silica gel heat-shrinkable film as a heat-resistant auxiliary agent, so that the heat resistance of the silica gel heat-shrinkable film is improved. Boron nitride is added into the silica gel heat-shrinkable film as a heat-conducting filler, the boron nitride has good high-temperature stability and high heat conductivity coefficient, the heat conductivity coefficient of the composite material can be improved, the ground heat transfer of the whole composite material is more uniform, the phenomenon that the composite layer of silicon dioxide and boron nitride generated by heating is damaged due to burnthrough caused by local overheating is avoided, and carbon is led to a channel for diffusing into the optical fiber board.

The silica gel heat-shrinkable film is modified by polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), which is an organic-inorganic hybrid system on molecular level and has a structure between that of silicon dioxide (SiO)₂) And silicone resin (R)₂SiO)_nAnd has the comprehensive performance of organic and inorganic materials. Silica gel takes a silicon-oxygen bond (-Si-O-Si-) as a main chain, and because the silicon-oxygen bond is larger than a carbon-carbon bond, a silica gel product has very strong high temperature resistance of an inorganic material and also has comprehensive properties of an organic material, such as film forming property, high elasticity, air tightness and the like.

The thermal shrinkage film used in the method can not introduce organic groups on the premise of ensuring the binding stability of the thermal shrinkage film, and can avoid forming more carbon in the melt-pressing procedure. The method can reduce dark spots caused by abrasion among optical fiber wires and improve the quality of the optical fiber image transmission element.

This embodiment adopts pyrocondensation membrane to bind the optical fiber silk behind the row board, has following advantage:

firstly, according to the embodiment of the invention, the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is introduced as the heat-resistant auxiliary agent to obtain the silica gel heat-shrinkable film, so that the high-temperature resistance of the silica gel film is improved. The silica gel heat-shrinkable film is an organic-inorganic hybrid system, and the structural analysis can judge that the main chain is mainly silicon-oxygen bonds and contains a small number of carbon-carbon bonds. Because self carbon content is less, even it is heated and decomposed, part diffusion to the optical fiber board in, the degree of depth of its diffusion also can not reach the inner quality and detects the active area, and peripheral 3 ~ 5 millimeters optical fiber board finally can be ground off when cold working, consequently, this silica gel pyrocondensation membrane can satisfy the requirement of fiber panel melt-pressing technology. The heat resistance of the existing common silica gel film can not meet the temperature requirement in the production process of the optical fiber panel, and in the fusion pressing process of the optical fiber panel, the optical fiber panel is not fully solidified into a whole, and carbon generated by thermal decomposition of the optical fiber panel can be diffused into the optical fiber panel, so that the quality of an optical fiber product is influenced.

Secondly, in the embodiment of the present invention, a flexible heat-shrinkable film material is used to replace a wire material, as shown in fig. 3, 1 is an optical fiber, 2 is a binding member of the present invention, which is a heat-shrinkable film, the heat-shrinkable film is in surface contact with the edge of the optical fiber at the periphery of the optical fiber board, and can be completely engaged, and on this basis, the flexible heat-shrinkable film material can be heated to shrink, and generates sufficient binding force by heating to maintain the stability of the board arrangement structure of the optical fiber inside the optical fiber board. In the prior art, the optical fiber wires after the plate arrangement are fastened by adopting wire materials and wires, as shown in fig. 2, 1 is the optical fiber wire, 3 is the wire material or the wire material used in the prior art, a large number of gaps are left between the wire materials and the edge of the optical fiber wires at the periphery of the optical fiber plate, and the structural stability of the plate arrangement of the optical fiber wires inside the optical fiber plate is greatly influenced. The wire material and the optical fiber filaments at the edge of the optical fiber board in the hexagonal shape are in point contact, the closer the optical fiber filaments at the center, the higher the risk of relative sliding and loosening, and before the optical fiber board enters a fusion pressing process, the sliding and loosening of the internal optical fiber filament board arrangement structure are easy to generate, so that the optical fiber image transmission element cannot be normally used.

And thirdly, selecting a heat-shrinkable film as a binding piece, wherein the heat-shrinkable film is completely attached to the periphery of the optical fiber after being heated and shrunk and firmly binds the optical fiber, the point contact of the existing silk thread material is changed into the surface contact of the film material, and the contact area of the binding piece and the optical fiber is increased, so that the stability of the structure of the optical fiber row plate is ensured, and the production loss caused by the loose sliding of the structure of the optical fiber row plate is reduced. The method of the invention selects proper thermal shrinkage film, preferably compound thermal shrinkage silica gel film, so that the thermal shrinkage film which plays a role of maintaining the structure has enough thermal stability and basically does not generate decomposition and carbonization before the optical fiber is fully melted, pressurized and cured into a whole, thereby obtaining the optical fiber panel product with excellent inner quality. The optical fiber filaments are bound by the thermal shrinkage film in the preparation process of the optical fiber panel, so that the binding piece and the bound optical fiber board are completely attached, the stable structure of the blank board of the optical fiber panel is ensured, and the quality of the optical fiber product and the quality stability of the product are improved.

And fourthly, the automatic device replaces manual operation, and the plate bundling ring does not need technicians to manually contact the optical fiber panel blank, so that the automatic production degree is improved, the product quality stability can be greatly improved, the damage to the surface of the optical fiber panel blank caused by the operation of the technicians is reduced, the loss and the waste of the optical fiber panel blank are reduced, and the production cost of the optical fiber panel blank is reduced.

As shown in fig. 3, the optical fiber panel blank structure manufactured by the method of the present invention includes an optical fiber panel blank, which is composed of a plurality of optical fiber filaments 1 arranged in an array, and further includes: the periphery of the optical fiber panel blank is provided with at least one binding piece 2, the binding piece 2 is completely attached to the periphery of the optical fiber panel blank, the binding piece 2 is a heat-shrinkable film and made of a heat-shrinkable material, the thickness of the binding piece is 0.8-1.0mm, and the width of the binding piece is 10-50 mm.

The optical fiber filament is generally in a prism shape, such as a quadrangular prism, a hexagonal prism, an octagonal prism, etc., and the present invention is illustrated by taking the optical fiber filament in a hexagonal prism shape as an example, and does not limit the scope of the present invention.

The optical fiber wires after being arranged on the plate are bound by the method, so that the effect of stabilizing the plate arrangement structure can be achieved by chemical shrinkage of the composite silica gel film when the plate arrangement structure of the optical fiber wires in the optical fiber plate is used for binding the plate, the probability of relative sliding and loosening of the optical fiber wires is smaller, the plate binding requirement of the optical fiber wires can be better met, the plate binding ring section does not need to be in manual contact with the optical fiber wires by technicians, the damage to the surfaces of the optical fiber wires caused by operation of the technicians is reduced, the loss and waste of the optical fiber wires are reduced, the production cost of the optical fiber image transmission element is reduced, and the automatic production degree is improved. And after entering the melt-pressing process, the composite thermal shrinkage silicone film can generate a composite layer of silicon dioxide and other fillers in the heating process, so that the permeation of the carbonization of the surface layer to the inside of the optical fiber board is blocked, and the internal structure of the optical fiber board can not be polluted while the internal optical fiber wire arrangement board structure of the optical fiber board is stably fixed.

The method of the invention adopts the heat-shrinkable film with the greatest advantage of complete cladding, so as to increase the contact area with the optical fiber board, and the binding is firm, thereby better keeping the stability of the structure of the optical fiber wire arranging board compared with the prior art of silk thread materials.

As shown in fig. 5 and 6, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for binding optical fiber filaments after arranging boards, including:

an obtaining unit 201, configured to obtain state information of the optical fiber filaments after being arranged and state information of the corresponding plate arranging mold;

the determining unit 202 is used for determining the binding position and the length of the required binding piece according to the state information of the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates and the state information of the corresponding plate arrangement mold; the binding piece is a heat-shrinkable film;

a binding unit 203 for binding the optical fiber filaments after the row of boards in a direction perpendicular to the optical fiber filaments at the binding position with the binding member and pinching both ends of the binding member together;

and the heating unit 204 is used for heating the binding piece to ensure that the binding piece is heated and shrunk until the binding piece is completely attached to the optical fiber filaments after the arrangement of the plates, and the binding is firm.

Specifically, the obtaining unit 201 may include: infrared probe, image display screen. Preferably, the acquiring unit 201 is located 100mm away from the optical fiber board to provide enough working space for the infrared probe, and the infrared probe is used to acquire the state information of the optical fiber filaments after board arrangement and the state information of the corresponding board arrangement mold, and display the state information on the image display screen.

The determining unit 202 may include a calculating module and a positioning module, wherein the positioning module is configured to determine a binding position of the optical fiber filament according to the state information obtained by the obtaining unit 201, and the calculating module is configured to calculate a length of the binding member required at the binding position;

the binding unit 203 may include a film feeding module 2031 and a binding module 2032, wherein the film feeding module 2031 is configured to feed a corresponding length of the binding member to the binding module 2032, so that the binding member can surround the optical fiber board at least one turn, and the two ends of the composite silicone heat shrink film are pinched together.

Heating unit 204, can include the infrared lamp, heating unit 204 begins working when binding module 2032 and kneading, the piece is binded in the infrared lamp irradiation of heating unit 204 to guarantee that compound silica gel pyrocondensation membrane is heated evenly, at pyrocondensation in-process, compound silica gel pyrocondensation membrane and the peripheral optical fiber silk edge of optical fiber board form the face contact, can agree with completely, produce sufficient binding force simultaneously, can not produce the destruction to the row's of optical fiber silk structure in the optical fiber board simultaneously. Through a large number of experiments, the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel membrane can be bound more firmly by heating for 6.5 minutes at 90 ℃.

The plate bundling device is used for realizing a method for bundling optical fiber wires after plate arrangement, and comprises the following steps that firstly, an obtaining unit obtains state information of the optical fiber wires after plate arrangement and state information of a plate arrangement mould corresponding to the state information; and finally, the binding unit sends a plate binding operation scheme to the manipulator, so that the manipulator can perform plate binding operation on the optical fiber plate according to the plate binding operation scheme, and further the fixation of the optical fiber plate after plate arrangement is realized.

The present invention will be further described with reference to the following specific examples, which should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, but rather as providing those skilled in the art with certain insubstantial modifications and adaptations of the invention based on the teachings of the invention set forth herein.

In the following examples of the present invention, all reagents used are commercially available unless otherwise specified, and the methods involved are conventional unless otherwise specified.

In the following examples of the present invention, the components referred to are all commercially available products well known to those skilled in the art unless otherwise specified.

Example 1

A preparation method of a cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel membrane comprises the following steps:

weighing raw materials according to the formula of example 1 in table 1 under the action of an electric stirrer, sequentially adding cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane and boron nitride into vinyl silicone rubber, uniformly mixing, reacting for 2.5h, pressing into a film by using a calendar, and curing for 3h at 50 ℃ to obtain the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel heat-shrinkable film.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 1 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging 37 optical fiber yarns in an arrangement mode shown in figure 3, wherein the length of each optical fiber yarn is 100mm, the circumference of the cross section of each optical fiber yarn is 24.2mm, binding the arranged optical fiber yarns by using the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 1, wherein the thickness of the heat-shrinkable film is 0.8mm, the width of the heat-shrinkable film is 24mm, and the length of the heat-shrinkable film is 36mm, locally heating to knead the two ends of the heat-shrinkable film together, then radiating and heating the heat-shrinkable film by using an infrared radiation heater at a heating rate of 10 ℃/min, and heating and shrinking the heat-shrinkable film until the heat-shrinkable film is completely attached to the arranged optical fiber yarns.

The inclined angle test is carried out on the bound plate arrangement structure, and the stability of the optical fiber wire plate arrangement structure after the silica gel heat-shrinkable film is bound is tested: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipping out therefrom was 2.

Example 2

The preparation method of the example 2 is the same as that of the example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of the example 2 in the table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 2 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 2, and performing an inclination angle test to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 7.

Example 3

The preparation method of example 3 is the same as that of example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of example 3 in table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 3 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 3, and performing an inclination angle test on the optical fibers to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 13.

Example 4

The preparation method of example 4 is the same as that of example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of example 4 in table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 4 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 4, and performing an inclination angle test to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 4.

Example 5

The preparation method of example 5 is the same as that of example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of example 5 in table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 5 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 5, and performing an inclination angle test to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out from the optical fiber blank was 3.

Example 6

The preparation method of example 6 is the same as that of example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of example 6 in table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 6 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 6, and performing an inclination angle test to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 14.

Example 7

The preparation method of example 7 is the same as that of example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula of example 7 in table 1.

The properties of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 7 were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers with the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silicone heat-shrinkable film obtained in example 7, and performing an inclination angle test to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber strand board bound with the silicone heat-shrinkable film: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 23.

Comparative example

The preparation method of the comparative example of the silica gel membrane is the same as that of the example 1, except that the mixture ratio of the raw materials is different, and the raw materials are weighed according to the formula ratio of the comparative example in the table 1.

The properties of the silicone membranes obtained in the comparative examples were examined and listed in table 1.

Arranging according to the mode shown in fig. 3, binding 37 optical fibers by using the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane modified silica gel heat-shrinkable film obtained in the comparative example, and performing an inclination angle test on the bound optical fibers to test the stability of the structure of the optical fiber row plate after the silica gel heat-shrinkable film is bound: at an inclination angle of 60 °, the number of optical fiber filaments slipped out of the optical fiber blank was 2.

TABLE 1 raw materials and Properties of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-modified silica gel thermal shrinkage films

Table 1 summarizes some of the test properties of the polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-modified silicone heat-shrinkable films, fluororubber heat-shrinkable films, and polytetrafluoroethylene heat-shrinkable films.

As can be seen from table 1, under other conditions, the content of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane was gradually increased from example 1 to example 5, the heat shrinkage rate was gradually decreased from example 1 to example 3, and the heat shrinkage rate was gradually increased from example 3 to example 5; the thermal stability of the composite heat-shrinkable film gradually increases from example 1 to example 3, and the thermal stability of the composite heat-shrinkable film gradually decreases from example 3 to example 5, which shows that an inflection point of the thermal shrinkage and the thermal stability of the composite heat-shrinkable film appears in example 3, and shows that the addition amount of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane has a great influence on the thermal shrinkage and the thermal stability of the composite heat-shrinkable film. The addition amount of the cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane can be preferably selected by considering the thermal stability (heat resistance temperature is more than 320 ℃) and the binding stability (the amount of the slipped optical fiber), which shows that the effects of examples 1, 2, 4 and 5 are better. The possible reasons are analyzed: the Si-H bond in the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is a cross-linking point, namely a reaction point with the vinyl group in the vinyl silicone rubber. With the increase of the addition amount of the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane, the content of Si-H bonds is increased, the number of crosslinking points is increased, and the crosslinking density of the vinyl silicone rubber is increased, so that the flexibility of the molecular chain of the silicone rubber membrane is reduced, which is shown in that the thermal shrinkage rates of the embodiments 1 to 3 are gradually reduced; however, when the addition amount of the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane is increased, the crosslinking points of the vinyl silicone rubber are saturated, and at this time, the density of the crosslinking reaction in the same reaction time is reduced due to the dispersion of the crosslinking points, so that the flexibility of the molecular chains of the silicone rubber membrane in the same reaction time is increased, which shows that the thermal shrinkage rates of examples 3 to 5 are increased. An inflection point of the thermal shrinkage rate of the composite thermal shrinkage film occurred in example 3, and 13 optical fiber filaments slipped out at the time of the actual bundle board test.

The example 6 is a fluororubber heat-shrinkable film, the example 7 is a polytetrafluoroethylene heat-shrinkable film, and as can be seen from table 1, the heat stability and binding stability of the two groups of samples are not good as compared with the composite heat-shrinkable film added with the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane.

In the comparative example to which no cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane was added, although the plate-bound test result (2) of the comparative example to which no cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane was added was found, the heat resistant temperature of the comparative example to which no cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane was added was only 189 deg.c, and the heat resistant temperature reached around 350 deg.c after the addition of cage-type oligomeric silsesquioxane. Therefore, the addition of the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane can obviously improve the heat resistance of the silicone rubber, but also has an influence on the heat shrinkage rate (binding stability) of the composite heat-shrinkable film. Therefore, the thermal stability and the binding stability are comprehensively considered when the cage type oligomeric silsesquioxane composite heat-shrinkable film is used.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the terms "upper", "lower", "horizontal", "vertical", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on methods or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed in a specific orientation, and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the foregoing embodiments, the descriptions of the respective embodiments have respective emphasis, and for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference may be made to related descriptions of other embodiments.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.