Methods of and apparatus for marking elongated strand material

A method of marking an optical fiber with a plurality of longitudinally spaced indicia, said method comprising the steps of:

• advancing an optical fiber along a path of travel which extends through a chamber;
• providing a porous, resilient ink supply member within the chamber below the path of travel;
• supplying an ink in a pulsed stream to the ink supply member to cause the member to be saturated;
• mounting in the chamber an applicator wheel having a plurality of marking teeth arranged about its periphery such that as the wheel is turned, each successive tooth engages compressively the supply member and a groove in each tooth picks up ink from the supply member disposed to one side of the wheel and transfers the ink directly to a predetermined portion of the periphery of the optical fiber, the wheel being mounted for rotation about an axis which is transverse to the path of travel;
• turning the wheel about its axis of rotation to cause the wheel to compress the porous member and receive ink therefrom and to transfer the ink to the optical fiber;
• and
• drying the ink which has been applied to the optical fiber.

An apparatus for marking an elongated strand material, said apparatus comprising:

• moving means for advancing an elongated strand material along a path of travel;
• porous, resilient supply means for holding a liquid marking material;
• at least one applicator member having spaced portions of its periphery each provided with a groove;
• means for mounting said applicator member for movement of portions of the applicator member between the path of travel of the elongated strand material and engagement with the supply means such that increments of length of the advancing strand material are received in and then removed from each groove;
• and
• means for moving the applicator member to engage compressively said spaced portions of the applicator member with the supply means and cause liquid marking material to be transferred from the supply means to the groove of each spaced portion and to transfer the liquid marking material from each groove to a predetermined peripheral portion of increments of length of the advancing strand material.