Fibre forming process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022194034-A1
Application number	US-201917268977-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 30, 2019
Priority date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication date	Jun 23, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fibre drawing method for forming a fibre from a low Young's modulus material.

First claim

1 . A fibre drawing method for forming a fibre from a low Young's modulus material, the method including:
feeding a low Young's modulus fibre preform into a draw zone of a fibre drawing apparatus, and drawing a fibre from a low Young's modulus material preform at a sufficiently low tension to maintain a neck down region of the low Young's modulus material preform at a neck down position within the draw zone.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of drawing a fibre from the low Young's modulus material preform is performed under a normalised tension of 50 gm-f/mm2 or less.

3 . A fibre drawing method for forming a fibre from a low Young's modulus material, the method including:
feeding a low Young's modulus fibre preform into a draw zone of a fibre drawing apparatus; and drawing a fibre from the low Young's modulus material preform under a normalised tension of 50 gm-f/mm2 or less.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the normalised tension is 40 gm-f/mm2 or less.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the normalised tension is 25 gm-f/mm2 or less.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the method includes maintaining a neck down region of the low Young's modulus material preform at a neck down position within the draw zone.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the low Young's modulus material has a Young's modulus of 300 MPa or less at room temperature.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the low Young's modulus material has a Young's modulus of 100 MPa or less.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the low Young's modulus material has a Young's modulus of 10 MPa or less.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the low Young's modulus material is drawn at a draw temperature such that the low Young's modulus material is viscous.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the draw temperature is above the glass transition temperature of the low Young's modulus material.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the low Young's modulus material is selected from the group consisting of: a polymer, rubber, silicone compound, or hydrogel.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the low Young's modulus material is a polymer, and the polymer is a thermoplastic elastomer selected from the group consisting of: polyurethane, poly(styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene), and polystyrene-polyisoprene triblock copolymer.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of drawing the fibre has a draw error within the range of ±20% of a set point diameter of the fibre.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the draw error is within the range of ±10% of the set point diameter of the fibre.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the low Young's modulus fibre preform has a hollow core structure, and prior to the step of feeding the low Young's modulus material to the draw zone, the method initially includes:
forming a paraxially aligned arrangement of a plurality of hollow tubes of a low Young's modulus material in a configuration corresponding to the hollow core structure; heating the plurality of tubes to a temperature above the glass transition temperature of the low Young's modulus material; and baking the plurality of tubes at the temperature for a time sufficient to sinter the plurality of tubes, and form the low Young's modulus fibre preform.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of drawing the fibre includes drawing the fibre to a fibre diameter of less than 1 mm.

18 . A fibre formed from a low Young's modulus material according to the method of claim 1 .

19 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the fibre is an optical fibre.

20 . An optical fibre sensor device including an optical fibre formed from a low Young's modulus material according to the method of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Univ Sydney

Inventors

• Lwin Richard
• Fleming Simon Charles
• Stefani Alessio
• Kaysir Md Rejvi

Classifications

• G01L1/242

  the material being an optical fibre · CPC title

• D02G1/02 Primary

  by twisting, fixing the twist and backtwisting, i.e. by imparting false twist · CPC title

• G02B6/02033

  Core or cladding made from organic material, e.g. polymeric material (G02B1/04 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B29K2075/00

  Use of {PU, i.e.} polyureas or polyurethanes {or derivatives thereof}, as moulding material · CPC title

• D01F6/30

  comprising olefins as the major constituent · CPC title