A DEVICE IN EQUIPMENT FOR DRAWING GLASS FIBRES

摘要

In drawing glass fibres intended for optical transmission, the fibre (18) is allowed to pass through a tubular cooling chamber (21) after drawing, the inner wall (22) of the chamber comprising a porous material with open pores. The chamber (21) is connected to a source of compressed gas, suitably dry nitrogen gas. By cooling the hot fibre is prevented from being contaminated and damaged by air humidity, and the fibre tensional strength is increased by compression stresses being built into the outer layer of the fibre. Furthermore, the fibre is prevented from being so hot that it can cure too early and unevenly the protective coating of a curable plastics, which is applied as soon as possible after drawing, to protect and reinforce the glass fibre.