Method and device for manufacturing a hollow-core optical fibre
AssigneesUniversite De Limoges, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique
InventorsFetah Benabid, Frédéric Gerome, Foued Armani, Frédéric Delahaye, Benoît Debord
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Abstract
A method for manufacturing an optical fibre, in which a preform is inserted into a furnace; the preform is drawn via an outlet of the furnace; and the drawn preform has a working area including a structure composed of walls, and gas streams are applied to the two opposite faces of these walls, which streams run along the walls in opposite directions, so as to subject the walls to a shear force of gas streams counter-propagating on either side of the walls. A device for manufacturing an optical fibre is also provided.
Claims13
A method for manufacturing an optical fibre, comprising:
- inserting a preform into a furnace, the furnace having an inlet and an outlet, the preform being inserted into the furnace inlet;
- drawing the preform in a direction from the furnace inlet to the furnace outlet;
- and
- for a working zone of the preform comprising a structure having walls, individually subjecting two opposite faces of each one of the walls of the working zone to laminar gas flows along the walls in opposite directions to subject the walls to a shear force produced by the oppositely-flowing laminar gas flows on either side of the walls,
- wherein the working zone subjected to laminar flows is, at the same time:
- located outside the furnace on a side of the furnace outlet where the preform has a smaller cross-section compared to the cross-section of the preform at the furnace inlet, and
- at a temperature above a softening or vitreous transition temperature of a material of the preform.
A device for manufacturing an optical fibre, comprising:
- a furnace having an inlet and an outlet,
- the inlet being arranged for inserting a preform in the furnace;
- means for drawing the preform in a direction from the inlet to the outlet of the furnace;
- and
- for a working zone of the preform comprising a structure having walls, means configured to and arranged for subjecting the two opposite faces of each wall of the working zone to laminar gas flows following said walls but in opposite directions to subject said walls to a shear force produced by counter-propagating gas flows on either side of said walls,
- such that the working zone subjected to laminar flows is, at the same time:
- located outside the furnace on the side of the outlet of the furnace where the preform has a smaller cross-section compared to the cross-section of the preform at the input of the furnace, and
- at a temperature above a softening or vitreous transition temperature of a material of the preform.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.