Process of sintering a gel body and preform for an optical fibre comprising the sintered body

摘要

A process produces a glass overcladding tube from a silica gel body. The process includes passing the gel body through a hot zone under conditions that cause partial sintering of the gel body and repassing the gel body through the hot zone under conditions that further sinter the gel body into a glass overcladding tube. A preform for an optical fibre, comprising core, cladding layer and overcladding tube is also disclosed; the overcladding tube being the sintered, sol-gel produced, silica tube obtainable by the disclosed and claimed process of sintering the silica gel body.