Apparatus and method for reducing breakage of fibers drawn from blanks

摘要

A fiber preform (20) is contaminated with contaminates such as silicon nitride or silicon carbide. The preform is then held in a chamber (10) with a reducing gas (29) being introduced into the chamber. The reducing gas prevents the contaminates from being oxidized. If the contaminates were oxidized, the strengh of the final fiber would be reduced.