SINTERING DEVICE AND SINTERING METHOD FOR OPTICAL FIBER BASE MATERIAL

摘要

A device, which produces an optical fiber base material by sintering an optical fiber-use porous base material (30) to be turned into transparent glass, is provided with the function of detecting the longitudinal elongation/shrinkage of the base material (30) during sintering, wherein the function of detecting the longitudinal elongation/shrinkage comprises a camera (200) for photographing the lower end of the base material (30), and a computing device (220) that analyzes the photographed image to obtain the position of the lower end of the base material (30) and determines an elongation/shrinkage from the lower-end position and the pull-down distance of the base material (30). The camera (200) that picks up the lower end of the base material (30) has a camera moving means (240) moving in synchronization with the moving of the base material (30).