Winder-unwinder for optical fibre cables

Claim 1

A winder-unwinder for optical fiber cables, comprising a support (2), a drum (8) having a winding zone for an optical fiber cable (12) with a plurality of optical fibers, said drum (8) being mounted in rotary manner on a shaft mounted on the fixed support (2), the main optical cable (12) having an end (12b) fixed to the winding zone of said rotary drum, an optical compensation cable (14) spirally wound within the drum (8) and having one end fixed to said drum (8) and connected to the end (12b) of the main optical cable (12) and one end mounted on a fixed part (18) of the support, said optical compensation cable having a spirally wound first portion which is guided by first and second substantially parallel and relatively axially displaced radial walls supported by said support, having a second portion connected to said first portion which is wound around a fixed cylindrical core mounted on said shaft, and having a third portion which is connected to said support and to said second portion, wherein said first radial wall is connected to said core, said second radial wall has an aperture which forms a substantially annular gap with said core, said second portion of said optical compensation cable traverses said annular gap, the ends of said second portion of said optical compensation cable are relatively axially displaced, and said optical fiber compensation, cable (14) is a constituted by a flat cable formed by several optical fibers which are in contact and joined to each other to form a row.