Method of manufacturing hermetic coating optical fiber
AssigneeSumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
InventorsHaruhiko Aikawa, Yoichi Ishiguro, Toshio Danzuka
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Abstract
A mass production method of hermetic coating optical fiber where a bare fiber drawn from a preform is hermetically coated by CVD method in a reactor vessel, wherein a liquid flushes solid particles or by-products sticking to the reactor inner wall. The liquid may be supplied continuously or intermittently, to flush carbon particles generated during carbon coating process. The invention enables to produce a long hermetic coating optical fiber without choking the reactor, and improves a yield rate and productivity.
Claims30
A method of manufacturing a hermetically coated optical fiber comprising the steps of:
- running a drawn bare heated fiber for an optical fiber through a reactor vessel;
- supplying a reactant gas to the reactor vessel through at least one inlet located at an upstream portion of the reactor vessel;
- coating a thin coating layer on the bare heated fiber by a thermal CVD process utilizing thermal chemical reaction caused by the heat generated in the heated bare fiber and the supplied reactant gas;
- and
- flowing a liquid substantially on an entire surface of an inner wall of the reactor vessel facing the fiber from the upstream portion to a downstream portion of the reactor vessel to prevent buildup of generated particles on the surface of the inner wall of the reactor vessel.
A method of manufacturing a hermetically coated optical fiber comprising the steps of:
- running a drawn bare heated fiber for an optical fiber through a reactor vessel;
- supplying a reactant gas to the reactor vessel through at least one inlet located at an upstream portion of the reactor vessel;
- coating a thin coating layer on the bare heated fiber by a thermal CVD process utilizing thermal chemical reaction caused by the heat generated in the heated bare fiber and the supplied reactant gas;
- flowing a liquid substantially on an entire surface of an inner wall of the reactor vessel facing the fiber from the upstream portion to a downstream portion of the reactor vessel to prevent buildup of generated particles on the surface of the inner wall of the reactor vessel;
- diverting the flowing liquid containing the generated particles around the fiber in the downstream portion whereby the flowing liquid does not contact the fiber;
- drawing off the diverted liquid and waste gases through at least one outlet located on a side of the reaction vessel and at the downstream portion of the reaction vessel;
- and
- separating the diverted liquid from the waste gases.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.