OPTICAL FIBER COMPRISING POLYIMIDE-SILICONE BLOCK COPOLYMER COATING, AND METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

A silicone-based composite coating system for a glass optical fiber, the system comprising a silicone polymer undercoating component and a silicone-polyimide block copolymer overcoating component, is provided. The coating system can be applied entirely on-line, improves the handling characteristics of the fibers over conventional silicone-coated fibers, offers an excellent combination of optical and elastic properties, and does not compromise the high-temperature operating characteristics of silicone-based coating systems. Preferably, the silicone polymer undercoating is applied by a rapid on-line coating process wherein the components of the two-package silicone coating system are continuously combined, mixed and applied to the fiber using novel apparatus which continuously delivers the coating to the liquid coater at a rate corresponding to the rate of coating application to the fiber.