Device for cutting glass fibers

Claim 1

In a device for cutting glass fibers having a diameter, said device having an anvil positioned between a pair of common clamps, said clamps holding the waveguides parallel to one another on an upper surface of the anvil, at least one of said clamps being movable, means for moving the movable clamp to provide an axially directed tensile force on each of the fibers, means positioned above the anvil and having a notching tool movable in a direction extending perpendicular to the axis of the fibers for notching each of the fibers to obtain a subsequent separation of the fibers at the notches, the improvement comprising a slot in the upper surface of the anvil at least at a seating surface of each glass fiber thereon, said slot being symmetrical relative to the notching plane of the notching tool and being of a selected width for generating an approximately symmetrical tension distribution in the cross-section of each of the glass fibers across said slot at the notch location during the notching operation, said slot width and the fiber diameter having a diameter/width ratio in a range of 0.125 to 0.25.