Method and apparatus for reclaiming gas in a fiber draw furnace
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsNikolaos Pantelis Kladias, Yunfei Shao, Xiaoyong Wang, Chunfeng Zhou
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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.
Claims6
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 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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.