Method of heating and processing an end of an optical fiber preform and apparatus for heating and processing an end of an optical fiber preform
AssigneeFurukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsYukio Kohmura, Masahide Kuwabara, Kiyoshi Arima, Yasuhiro Naka, Shinpei Todo
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Abstract
An end heating and processing method of an optical fiber preform. In this method, an optical fiber preform is processed by heating and melting an end of a vitrified optical fiber preform including a core portion and a cladding portion formed on an outer circumference thereof to process the end having a shape for drawing as an optical fiber.
Claims27
An end heating and processing method of an optical fiber preform including a step of processing an optical fiber preform by heating and melting an end of a vitrified optical fiber preform (7) comprising a core portion (5) and a cladding portion (6) formed on an outer circumference thereof to process the end having a shape for drawing as an optical fiber.
An end heating and processing apparatus of an optical fiber preform, comprising:
- a heating furnace (1, 20, 20A) for heating and processing an end of a vitrified optical fiber preform (7) comprising a core portion (5) and a cladding portion (6) covering the outer circumference thereof;
- and
- a controlling means (15) for controlling said heating and processing, wherein
- said heating furnace (1, 20, 20A) comprises
- a suspending means (7a, 12) located above the related heating furnace, introducing said optical fiber preform (7) into the related heating furnace, and positioning it in elevation position,
- a first heating means (3, 21) for heating a lower end of said optical fiber preform (7) introduced in said heating furnace (1), and
- an unnecessary portion discharging means (10, 26) for discharging the unnecessary portion in the processed portion of the lower end of said optical fiber preform to the outside and wherein
- said controlling means (15) controls said first heating means (3, 21) to process the end of said optical fiber preform (7) to the shape of a melted and deformed portion at the time of drawing.
An end heating and processing apparatus of an optical fiber preform as set forth in any one of claims 11 to 15, further comprising a second heating means (2) located above said first heating means (3, 21) for heating the portion above the lower end of said optical fiber preform (7) introduced in said heating furnace (1).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.