Refractory-bonded glass fibers
AssigneeSchott Glaswerke
InventorsMatthias Kohler, Rudolf Wolter
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Abstract
High-temperature resistant fiber optic units are produced by coating individual glass fibers, either individually or in a bundle of fibers and with or without encasing the coated fiber or fiber with a sheath or sleeve, a liquid silica sol bonding agent which optionally contains an inorganic filler and then hardening the coated fiber, bundle of fibers or a plurality of the bundles with heat or under vacuum, to produce a fiber optic unit which can be stressed at temperatures of up to about 600.degree. C.
Claims22
A fiber optic unit comprising a bundle of a plurality of glass fibers bonded together by cavities filled with a water insoluble bonding agent, which bonding agent is crystallized or amorphous SiO.sub.2 precipitated from a solid silica sol having an SiO.sub.2 to alkali molar ratio content, calculated as SiO.sub.2 :R.sub.2 O wherein R is an alkali metal, of less than 15:1.
A fiber optic unit comprising at least one glass fiber bonded to a sleeve surrounding the fiber by a water insoluble crystalline or amorphous SiO.sub.2 bonding agent precipitated from a solid silica sol having an SiO.sub.2 to alkali molar ratio content, calculated as SiO.sub.2 :R.sub.2 O wherein R is an alkali metal, of less than 15:1.
A process for bonding together a plurality of glass fibers into a bundle with a bond resistant to both high temperature and to moisture, which comprises the steps of forming the fibers into a bundle, coating the external surfaces of the fibers with a liquid silica sol bonding agent containing a volatile liquid component, either before or after forming the glass fibers into a bundle, and then removing the volatile liquid component from the bonding agent on the glass fibers and hardening the bonding agent to an insoluble solid state, thereby bonding the glass fibers together.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.