APPARATUS FOR THE CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF OPTICAL FIBRES

摘要

An apparatus for the continuous production of optical fibres from liquid phase reactants has two concentric inverted frustoconical vertical vessels into which the reactants for the core and the cladding are poured separately and forced downward by gas pressure through a first furnace which sets up a temperature gradient causing the reactants to form a porous solid preform. The inner vessel containing the core material terminates within the first furnace, but the outer vessel continues downwards through a second furnace in which the preform is vitrified after being dried by gas entering through a porous zone of the outer vessel and extracted with vapour phase reaction products through suction orifices above the porous zone. The downwardly emerging preform is heated and drawn into a fibre.