JP2563699B2 - Optical fiber base material manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber preform manufacturing apparatus for dehydrating and sintering a porous glass preform into a transparent glass preform.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, an optical fiber is obtained by a VAD method or an OVD method (external method), and a porous glass base material is obtained. Obtained. At this time, hydroxyl groups are bonded to the porous glass base material, which causes an increase in transmission loss. Therefore, the hydroxyl groups must be removed by dehydration operation.

To dehydrate the porous glass base material,
The heat treatment is carried out in a mixed gas atmosphere of an inert gas such as helium or argon and a halogen-based gas having a so-called dehydrating action such as a halogen gas such as chlorine gas or a halogen compound gas.

As a heating device using such a halogen mixed gas, there is, for example, a carbon heater heating furnace provided with a carbon heater. A core tube is provided at the center of the carbon heater heating furnace. The tube mouth of the core tube is the base material insertion port, and the inlet and outlet of the halogen mixed gas are opened inside the core tube.

A flow passage for introducing a sealing gas is provided in the carbon heater heating furnace. The upstream side of the seal gas flow passage is connected to a storage tank for sealing gas such as helium and argon gas, and the downstream side is connected to a gas recovery facility.

In the above heating device, the core tube prevents the halogen mixed gas from entering the heating furnace. The material of the core tube is usually a ceramic tube such as alumina or quartz glass.

Among them, in the case of alumina, the core tube is vulnerable to abrupt thermal change, that is, thermal shock, and it often breaks when aged. Further, in the case of quartz glass, when it is deteriorated due to heat, it may devitrify and generate pinholes or cracks. When pinholes or cracks occur in the core tube, a mixed gas containing halogen-based gas leaks to the outside of the core tube, and at the same time corrosive halogen-based gas also reaches the inside of the carbon heater and corrodes the surrounding metal, cooling it. This causes an unexpected situation in which water is leaked to the outside or a halogen-based gas passes through the furnace wall of the heating furnace and directly leaks to the outside, which is extremely dangerous. Also, if the seal gas leaks into the core tube,
Impurities such as heavy metals contained in a trace amount in the carbon heater may be mixed in the base material for the optical fiber, resulting in an unexpected situation in which the transmission characteristics of the obtained optical fiber are significantly deteriorated.

When gas leaks through cracks or pinholes, the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the core tube has an effect. The internal pressure is usually several mmH ₂ O to several hundreds mmH ₂ O both in the furnace core tube through which the halogen mixed gas flows and in the heating furnace. Even if the pressure in the core tube is set higher or lower than the pressure in the heating furnace side, it is not possible to avoid gas leakage inside and outside the core tube. It is generally observed that the higher the number of sinterings, the higher the tendency. So conventionally,
It is usual to empirically predict the maximum number of uses in advance and replace it before the risk of cracks, pinholes, etc. occurs.

Then, it is not necessarily the case that a sudden accidental leakage accident can be really prevented by such a method. It is often the case that cracks and the like occurred due to variations in the accuracy of the material of the core tube before the prescribed maximum number of times of use, and when it was noticed, an unexpected situation that had been difficult to recover had already occurred.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is an apparatus for producing a preform for optical fibers, which can immediately perform necessary operations in the event of a gas leak accident in a core tube. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, as shown in FIG. 1 corresponding to an embodiment, an optical fiber preform manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is provided with a preform insertion port 4 and a halogen mixed gas. A core tube 3 having an inlet 5 and an outlet 6 opened
And a heating furnace 2 surrounding at least the outer periphery of the furnace core tube 3,
The heating furnace 2 is provided with halogen-based gas detectors 11 and 12 provided with a sensor 12 in the middle of a seal gas flow passage.

[0012]

When an abnormality occurs in the core tube 3, even if the pressure in the core tube 3 is lower than the pressure in the heating furnace 2, convection in the core tube 3 heats the halogen gas or the halogen gas mixture such as a halide gas. Immediately after entering the furnace 2 and flowing to the downstream, the halogen gas or halide gas is detected by the sensor 12 and reported to the outside, so that pinholes and cracks in the core tube 3 can be found earlier.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a new furnace core tube 3 formed of a quartz glass tube having a usable life of about 200 times is vertically inserted through the center of a carbon heater heating furnace 2 having a carbon heater 1 therein. Is provided. The core tube 3 is closed at both ends, and a small tube opening is opened at the upper end to form an insertion port 4 for the optical fiber preform, an inflow port 5 of a halogen mixed gas in which helium and chlorine are mixed, and an upper part thereof. The outlet 6 is opened.

A seal gas inflow port 8 and a seal gas outflow port 9 are open in the carbon heater heating furnace 2 surrounding the furnace core tube 3. The seal gas inlet 8 is connected to an argon gas reservoir (not shown), and the seal gas outlet 9 is connected to an exhaust gas treatment facility (not shown) by connecting an air supply pipe 10 in the downstream direction.

A chlorine gas sensor 12, which serves as a halogen-based gas detector together with an external alarm device 11, is built in a passage extending from the seal gas outlet 9 by an air supply pipe 10.

Any chlorine gas sensor 12 may be used as long as it detects chlorine gas and converts the detection signal into an electric signal. The chlorine gas sensor 12 and the alarm device 11 are electrically connected.

The above-described apparatus for manufacturing the optical fiber preform was driven as follows.

The porous glass base material 7 obtained by the VAD method was inserted into the base material insertion port 4, and a mixed gas of helium and chlorine was passed through the furnace tube 3. On the other hand, argon gas was passed through the carbon heater heating furnace 2 to heat the core tube 3 by the carbon heater 1.

The above operation was repeated many times to dehydrate many porous glass base materials 7. Chlorine gas sensor 12 detects chlorine gas in the 183th batch, and alarm device 1
1 worked. At this time, the driving of the carbon heater 1 was immediately stopped.

After cooling the carbon heater heating furnace 2, the furnace core tube 3 was taken out and examined, and it was found that the quartz peripheral wall was white and devitrified, and a crack was generated in the center. An optical fiber was manufactured by drawing the optical fiber preform up to the 182nd batch, but no problem was observed in the optical transmission characteristics.

For comparison, an example was performed in which a chlorine gas concentration sensor was not provided. The same procedure as in the above embodiment was carried out except that the density sensor was not provided.

When the sintering of the 198th batch was started, a chlorine odor was generated from around the furnace. Therefore, the sintering operation was immediately stopped.

After cooling the carbon heater heating furnace 2, the furnace core tube 3 was taken out and examined. As a result, the periphery was devitrified white and a crack was generated in the center.

When the transmission characteristics of the optical fibers obtained by drawing the optical fiber preforms up to the 197th batch before this batch were investigated, it was found that the 196th batch and the 197th batch of the optical fibers had the short wavelength side. It was found that the optical absorption was thought to be due to impurities, and it was impossible to use as an optical fiber. In particular, the 197th batch optical fiber was in a state in which light did not pass at all over a long distance.

[0026]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure,
Should a gas leak occur in the core tube, the necessary operations can be performed immediately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an apparatus for manufacturing an optical fiber preform according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a carbon heater, 2 is a heating furnace, 3 is a core tube, 4 is a base material insertion port, 5 is a halogen mixed gas inlet, 6 is a halogen mixed gas outlet, 7 is a porous glass base material, and 8 is Seal gas inlet, 9 seal gas outlet, 11 alarm device, 12 chlorine gas sensor.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A furnace mandrel having a base material insertion opening, an inlet and an outlet for a halogen mixed gas, a heating furnace surrounding at least the outer periphery of the furnace mandrel, and a seal gas flow passage of the heating furnace. An apparatus for producing an optical fiber preform, comprising: a halogen-based gas detector provided with a sensor on the way. 2. An apparatus for producing an optical fiber preform, wherein the halogen-based gas detector is a chlorine gas detector.