Method of an arrangement for coating optical fibers with metallic

Abstract

A metallic material coating is applied to the external surface of a freshly drawn optical fiber while such surface is still pristine by passing the optical fiber through a body of liquid metal-organic material which forms a layer on the fiber, and by subsequently removing all non-metallic components from the layer of metal-organic material by volatilizing the same. The optical fiber with the layer metal-organic material is passed through a baking oven in which at least the layer is heated to a baking temperature at which organic materials present in the metal-organic material are volatilized and the remainder is baked to the fiber. Then, at least the layer is fired in a firing chamber at a higher temperature at which the metal-organic material is decomposed into its volatile non-metallic and non-volatile metallic components, the latter remaining in the layer and the former becoming volatile and leaving the layer. Preferably, at least one layer of synthetic plastic material is applied over the thus obtained metallic layer. When the firing is done in an inert or reducing atomsphere, the metallic material is in its elemental form, while it is in its metal-oxide form when the firing operation is accomplished in an oxidizing atmosphere. Various printing inks and/or resinates may be used as the starting metal-organic materials in the process according to the invention.