Patent ID: 7140787

Claim:
A splicing member for splicing optical fibers each having a bare fiber coated with a buffer coating, comprising: a joint element for retaining the bare fibers in a state in which the bare fibers are butt-jointed against each other, wherein the joint elements comprises two opposing folding members joined at a coupling part and openable between a non hold position where the element does not hold the bare fibers and a hold position where the element holds the bare fibers; a jacket including an element storage part for storing the joint element, optical fiber passages for guiding the optical fibers to end parts of the joint element stored in the element storage part respectively, and buffer retainers for opposing the buffer coatings of the optical fibers when the optical fibers are extended along the optical fiber passages in an extension direction; and pressing parts for pressing the buffer retainers to the buffer coatings of the optical fibers when the optical fibers are extended along the optical fiber passages.