All preforms, irrespective of design, are scaled-down into optical fiber using a fiber drawing tower. The preform is lowered into a graphite resistance element furnace with a hot-zone temperature of c.2200 °C. As the tip of the preform enters the hot-zone, it softens, allowing fiber to be drawn from it by the tractor located at the foot of the tower. The high surface tension of molten silica ensures that the optical structure of the preform is duplicated exactly in the fiber. The most common outside (glass) diameter is 125 µm, although 80 micron fiber may be used in applications where static fatigue resistance, volume or mass are important - typically FOGs and miniature EDFAs. Active feedback between a laser micrometer and the tractor controls outside diameter to within +/- 1 µm and one or two uv-cured polymer coatings are applied through pressurised dies. Pressurised dies are favoured due to the regularity and concentricity of the resulting coat. Fiber drawn and coated in this way is stronger, in tension, than high-tensile steel.
All preforms, irrespective of design, are scaled-down into optical fiber using a fiber drawing tower.
The preform is lowered into a graphite resistance element furnace with a hot-zone temperature of c.2200 °C. As the tip of the preform enters the hot-zone, it softens, allowing fiber to be drawn from it by the tractor located at the foot of the tower. The high surface tension of molten silica ensures that the optical structure of the preform is duplicated exactly in the fiber.
The most common outside (glass) diameter is 125 µm, although 80 micron fiber may be used in applications where static fatigue resistance, volume or mass are important - typically FOGs and miniature EDFAs.
Active feedback between a laser micrometer and the tractor controls outside diameter to within +/- 1 µm and one or two uv-cured polymer coatings are applied through pressurised dies. Pressurised dies are favoured due to the regularity and concentricity of the resulting coat.
Fiber drawn and coated in this way is stronger, in tension, than high-tensile steel.
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