High speed coating of optical fibers with UV curable materials at a rate of greater than 5 m/sec

Abstract

A newly designed 7.3-m high tower is reported that is equipped with a 10-kW curing system capable of coating a fiber with 50-microm thickness of UV curable resin at a speed in excess of 5 m/sec. Performance of fibers coated at two different speeds (V(f) = 1.5 and 5 m/sec) were evaluated. It was found that there were no noticeable differences in the measured values of mechanical and optical properties such as strength, coating thickness, transmission loss, bandwidth.