Optical fiber drawing method with gas flow controlling system

A method for reducing the diameter variation of optical fibers during fiber drawing is described. The method is based on the control of gas flow and drawing speed. Rapid fluctuations in diameter are suppressed by adjusting the gas flow rate, and slower ones are controlled by changing the drawing speed. The efficiency of this method has been tested by applying stepwise disturbance of +or-63% in preform feeding speed. Fluctuations of fiber diameter are controlled within +or-1 mu m despite the forced disturbance. By applying this method to high-speed drawing (30 m/min), a high-tensile-strength fiber, with diameter fluctuations within +or-1 mu m and transmission losses near the 0.85- mu m wavelength region of approximately 3 dB/km, is achieved. >