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US 11,713,272 B2Granted
System and methods for processing an optical fiber preform
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsRaymond David Groh, Joseph Leroy Morse, Bradley Kent Shepard, Ian Anthony Smith, Eric Wade Thornton
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Abstract
A system and methods are described herein for preheating a preform in a preheater furnace and then transferring the preheated preform to a consolidation furnace for chemical treatment and sintering the preform into a clear glass which can be drawn into optical fiber. In addition, the preheater furnace is described herein which is configured to heat the preform per a predetermined heat-profile until the preform is uniformly heated to a temperature above 1000° C.
Claims12
A method of processing an optical fiber preform, comprising:
- loading a porous preform into a preheater furnace;
- heating the porous preform in the preheater furnace to form a preheated preform, the preheated preform having an outer surface at a first temperature, the first temperature exceeding 1000° C.;
- transferring the preheated preform from the preheater furnace to a consolidation furnace, wherein the preheater furnace is spaced apart and separate from the consolidation furnace, the outer surface of the preheated preform cooling to a second temperature during the transferring, the transferring including inserting the preheated preform with the outer surface at the second temperature into the consolidation furnace, the second temperature being greater than room temperature and less than the first temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.