Method and apparatus for reclaiming gas in a fiber draw furnace
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsNikolaos Pantelis Kladias, Yunfei Shao, Xiaoyong Wang, Chunfeng Zhou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fiber draw furnace includes a heated section configured to contain and heat a glass source from which an optical fiber is drawn. A lower extended muffle having a first end and a second end. A gas screen is coupled to the second end of the lower extended muffle configured to allow a gas to flow into the lower extended muffle. A reclaim cylinder is coupled to the lower extended muffle including an outer housing defining a reclaim chamber. A plurality of reclaim ports are tangentially coupled to the outer housing and an inner housing is positioned within the outer housing.
Claims18
A method of producing an optical fiber, comprising the steps of:
- flowing a first gas into an optical fiber draw furnace;
- passing the first gas through a heated section configured to contain and heat a glass source from which the optical fiber is drawn;
- passing the first gas into a reclaim cylinder;
- removing a portion of the first gas through at least one reclaim port coupled with the reclaim cylinder, wherein the at least one reclaim port is tangentially oriented to an exterior surface of a housing of the reclaim cylinder such that a vortex of the first gas is generated in the reclaim cylinder;
- and
- flowing a second gas from a gas screen at a rate configured to substantially recover a pressure drop associated with removing the portion of the first gas.
A method of producing an optical fiber, comprising:
- flowing a first gas into an optical fiber draw furnace;
- passing the first gas through a heated section configured to contain and heat a glass source from which the optical fiber is drawn;
- passing the first gas into a reclaim cylinder, wherein the speed of the first gas reduces as the first gas is passed into the reclaim cylinder;
- and
- removing a portion of the first gas through at least one reclaim port coupled with the reclaim cylinder such that a vortex of the first gas is generated in the reclaim cylinder.
A method of producing an optical fiber, comprising the steps of:
- flowing a first gas into an optical fiber draw furnace;
- passing the first gas through a heated section configured to contain and heat a glass source from which the optical fiber is drawn;
- passing the first gas into a reclaim cylinder;
- removing a portion of the first gas through at least one reclaim port coupled with the reclaim cylinder, wherein the at least one reclaim port is tangentially oriented to an exterior surface of the reclaim cylinder for generating a vortex of the first gas in the reclaim cylinder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.