METHOD OF CURING DUAL-COATED OPTICAL FIBER

• Main Authors: MOORE, ROBERT CLARK, BARON, WILLIAM JAMES, PETISCE, JAMES RAYMOND, TAYLOR, CARL RAYMOND
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 16.04.2002
• Edition: 5
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GLASSES, GLAZES, OR VITREOUSENAMELS; CHEMISTRY; GLASS; JOINING GLASS TO GLASS OR OTHER MATERIALS; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF FIBRES OR FILAMENTS MADE FROM GLASS,MINERALS OR SLAGS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF GLASS; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

A method of curing a dual-coated optical fiber is disclosed in which primary and secondary coating materials are simultaneously applied to a glas s fiber and then simultaneously cured. The primary coating material encloses and engages the glass fiber, while the secondary coating material encloses and engages the primary coating material. A photoinitiator is added to the primary and secondary coating materials. The photoinitiators respond to electromagnetic energy radiated fr om a source of electromagnetic radiation comprising one or more curing lamps havi ng identical emission spectra; however, the photoinitiator added to the primary coating material is selected to be substantially more responsive to the radiation source than the photoinitiator added to the secondary coating material. The photoinitiator associated with the primary coating has a photoactive region in the vicinity of a peak of the emission spectrum, whereas the photoinitiator associated with the secondary coating has a photoactive region where the emission spectrum of the curing lamps has a substantially lower intensity.