Optical fiber manufacturing apparatus and optical fiber manufacturing method

摘要

An optical fiber manufacturing apparatus including: a heating furnace in which an optical fiber is formed by melt-drawing an optical fiber preform; a sealing mechanism which is provided on an opening portion located at an upstream of the heating furnace and seals the heating furnace with an inert gas; a first pipe which is connected to the heating furnace and introduces the gas into the heating furnace; a second pipe which is connected to a lowermost compartment closest to the heating furnace among the compartments and introduces the gas into the lowermost compartment; and a gas flow rate control unit which controls a total sum of a flow rate of a gas supplied from the first pipe into the heating furnace and a flow rate of a gas supplied from the second pipe into the lowermost compartment to be substantially constant.