Method of manufacturing an optical fiber and production system therefor
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsMaxim Evgenyevich Blyum, Elena Alekseevna Chizhova-Notkina, Nikolay Anatolyevich Panin
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing optical fiber in an optical fiber production system is provided. The method includes the providing a draw furnace operatively coupled to a slow cooling device along a draw pathway, drawing the optical fiber from an optical fiber preform in the draw furnace and along the draw pathway, heat treating the optical fiber in the slow cooling device positioned along the draw pathway, the slow cooling device comprising an inlet, an outlet, and a process tube extending between the inlet and the outlet, and selecting an opening size of an outlet nozzle operatively coupled to the outlet based on a draw speed of the optical fiber.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing optical fiber in an optical fiber production system, the method comprising:
- providing a draw furnace operatively coupled to a slow cooling device along a draw pathway;
- drawing the optical fiber from an optical fiber preform in the draw furnace and along the draw pathway;
- heat treating the optical fiber in the slow cooling device positioned along the draw pathway, the slow cooling device comprising an inlet, an outlet, and a process tube extending between the inlet and the outlet;
- and
- selecting an opening size of an outlet nozzle operatively coupled to the outlet based on a draw speed of the optical fiber.
An optical fiber production system comprising:
- a draw furnace configured to draw an optical fiber from an optical preform along a draw pathway extending from the draw furnace;
- a slow cooling device positioned along the draw pathway, wherein the slow cooling device comprises:
- an inlet;
- an outlet;
- and
- a process tube extending between the inlet and the outlet;
- an adjustable outlet nozzle located proximate to the outlet, wherein the adjustable outlet nozzle has an outlet opening size adjusted based on draw speed of the optical fiber;
- and
- a fiber collection unit positioned along with draw pathway.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.