Abstract

There is no doubt that in the near future high-speed coating of optical fibers will substantially impact on the reduction of process cost in fiber manufacturing. We first reported high-speed coating at a speed >5 m/sec using a 7.3-m high- draw tower.¹ The coating material applied for the experiments was a UV-curable resin. Subsequently, following similar techniques^1-3 as we adopted in high-speed coating, Chida et al.⁴ were also able to apply a thermally curable silicone resin at a rate of 6 m/sec. However, it was realized that further investigation of the fibers was needed to understand fully their strength characteristics in a long gauge length, perhaps, several kilometers at least.

© 1984 Optical Society of America