Cooler of optical fiber draw tower

Abstract

A cooler of an optical fiber draw tower, situated below a melting furnace for melting a preform for an optical fiber, for cooling the optical fiber drawn from the preform melted in the melting furnace, includes at least one heat exchanger installed with a predetermined length surrounding the optical fiber drawn from the melting furnace, for cooling the drawn optical fiber. The heat exchanger is formed of a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) for taking electrical energy through one heat absorbing surface to emit heat to the other heat emitting surface and has a tubular shape in which the heat absorbing surface of the TEC surrounds the optical fiber drawn from the melting furnace along the drawing direction by a predetermined length, and the drawn optical fiber is cooled as it passes through the tubular TEC. Also, the cooler further includes an auxiliary cooler attached to the heat emitting surface of the TEC, for cooling the emitted heat. Therefore, the cooler can enhance the cooling effect, so that the drawing of the optical fiber can be sped up without increasing the height of the optical fiber draw tower.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.