Manufacturing apparatus and manufacturing method of porous glass base material

A manufacturing apparatus of porous glass base material, including a plurality of deposition apparatuses that manufacture a porous glass base material by generating raw material particles from vaporized raw material compounds in an oxyhydrogen flame, and then depositing the generated raw material particles on a rotating starting material, the manufacturing apparatus comprises:

• at least one storage container for storing a raw material compound in liquid form for each respective compound;
• at least one vapor generation mechanism for vaporizing the raw material compound in each storage container of the at least one storage container;
• and
• at least one gas channel for supplying a respective vaporized raw material compound vaporized by a respective vapor generation mechanism of the at least one vapor generation mechanism to the plurality of deposition apparatuses,
• wherein each gas channel includes:
• a common gas channel that is shared to supply respective vaporized raw material compounds to the plurality of deposition apparatuses;
• and
• a plurality of individual gas channels that are branched off from the common gas channel to supply respective vaporized raw material compounds to each of the deposition apparatuses individually, and
• wherein each of the plurality of individual gas channels includes:
• a flow controller that controls a flow rate of the respective vaporized raw material compound;
• a steam valve that controls an on/off distribution of the respective vaporized raw material compound;
• and
• a valve that is provided upstream from the flow controller and can adjust a flow channel cross-section area,
• the manufacturing apparatus further comprising a control unit that adjusts an opening of each valve so that a pressure downstream of each valve in a respective individual gas channel of the plurality of individual gas channels is 60-95% of a pressure of the respective vaporized raw material compound in the respective vapor generation mechanism,
• wherein PICs are provided in the common gas channel and immediately downstream of each valve, and the openings of the valves are automatically adjusted based on a detected pressure detected by each PIC, and
• wherein each individual deposition apparatus produces a separate porous glass base material.