The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2000
Tony A. Craft, late of Hampstead, NC (US);
Kenneth J. Kelmer, Wilmington, NC (US);
Theresa L. Watkins, Wilmington, NC (US);
Corning Incorporated, Corning, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for the pregobbing of an optical fiber preform to provide pre-optimized tip taper and system for drawing optical fiber therefrom. The downtime of an optical fiber drawing apparatus can be considerably shortened, by providing preforms that have a pre-optimized tip shape. Pre-optimized tips are provided which are melted off at the tip by an induction heater of a heating furnace. Preferably, the pregobbing furnace has substantially the same temperature profile as the draw furnace. Therefore, because the tip of the preform is optimized and unusable glass has been removed, throughput of the draw apparatus is advantageously increased. Moreover, the shape of the tip of the preform is optimized in that it has been exposed to the same temperature profile as it would have seen had the draw tip been formed in the draw furnace.