Itt Corporation

Daniel G Fletcher

Francis I Akers

Kamran Karbassiyoon

Philip E Foster

Larry J Raplee

An arrangement for collapsing tubular formations into optical preforms includes a control arrangement which controls the pressure build-up at the downstream end of the tubular formation during all of but the last one of the collapsing increments to control the flow of a gaseous medium through the interior of the tubular formation from an upstream end to and beyond the downstream end of the tubular formation. The magnitude of the back-up pressure is controlled by a set point controller in dependence on the actual value of the back-up pressure, the set point controller being operative for counteracting any deviation from the desired pressure. The set point controller controls the flow-through cross-section of a control valve that admits a pressurized inert gas to a region situated downstream of the downstream end of the tubular formation and also downstream of the point at which the pressure build-up is being measured.

Method of and apparatus for making optical preforms from tubular bodies

An arrangement for collapsing tubular formations into optical preforms includes a control arrangement which controls the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen in an oxyhydrogen burner flame during the collapsing operation toward overabundance of hydrogen when it is desired to increase the degree of evaporation of glass from the outer surface of a tubular proportion being collapsed. This arrangement is used for bringing the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the core region to that of the cladding region in an optical preform resulting from the collapse into or close to a predetermined range, regardless of the initial value of this ratio in the original tubular formation, by evaporating more or less of the glass from the outside of the tubular formation during the collapse.

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Roanoke, VA, United States of America

Daniel G Fletcher