Optical fiber manufacturing method

Abstract

An optical fiber manufacturing method uses a drawing furnace configured to heat and soften a glass preform and an annealing furnace disposed downstream of the drawing furnace and configured to gradually cool a glass fiber drawn from the drawing furnace to manufacture an optical fiber including the glass fiber. The optical fiber manufacturing method includes: manufacturing the optical fiber; and completing the manufacturing of the optical fiber. The completing the manufacturing of the optical fiber includes: cleaving the glass fiber at a downstream side of the annealing furnace; decreasing an internal temperature of the annealing furnace to an annealing point of the glass fiber or lower after the cleaving the glass fiber at the downstream side; and removing the glass fiber from the annealing furnace after decreasing the internal temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.