MANUFACTURE OF BODIES COMPOSED OF PARALLEL FIBRES

摘要

1333099 Plates composed of parallel glass fibres MULLARD Ltd 26 Nbv 1970 56234/70 Heading C1M A method of producing plates comprising parallel glass fibres includes the steps of arranging the fibres parallel to each other in a polygonal pack and sealing the fibres to each other by applying to each face of the pack a mechanical pressure which is applied initially to the centre of each face and then extended progressively along each face to the corners of the pack, while simultaneously heating the pack to fuse the fibres together. Slices are then cut off to form the plates. The pressure is applied in a compression jig which includes a plurality of pressure applying slides 2, the number of slides corresponding to the number of faces of the polygonal pack, the face of each slide being convex and having a peripheral length smaller than the width of the corresponding faces of the pack 23. Each slide is driven by a bell-crank lever 4, the levers all being actuated by a fluid pressure actuator 6, 8, 9. To extend the pressure progressively along the pack sides a flexible metal cage 3 is placed around the pack which may be continuous or consist of a series of separate cheek plates. To load the compression jig with, for example, a hexagonal pack, the fibres are assembled in a plate 20 with a hexagonal hole and six radial slots extending from the corners thereof, the assembly of fibres being sandwiched between plates 22 and 25 which are secured together by studs 26, together with the cheek plates of the cage 3. The assembly is inverted and plate 22 is replaced by an aluminium block 24 which is used to push the pack into the compression jig and out of the plate 20, after which the studs 26 are removed and the resulting spaces filled with fibres. The compression jig J is mounted below a gantry 6 on which is mounted a furnace F which can be raised and lowered on to the jig J. The number of sides of the pack may be doubled by cutting off the corners, or may be made circular thereby. To produce channel plates for imaging purposes, glass tubes containing cores which are subsequently removed, e.g., the cores are of soluble glass, or fibre optic plates may be of core/ cladding glasses of differing refractive indices.