An optical fiber manufacturing method engineered by researchers from the University of Campinas (Brazil) and the University of Adelaide (Australia) promises to be less time- and cost-intensive than conventional production technology. The fiber-drawing tower and other complex equipment now used in the multiple-stage production process can be replaced with work bench-mounted equipment designed to produce fibers in an hour.

The new approach incorporates an off-the-shelf compact horizontal extruder that incurs far lower investment cost than a draw tower. A single continuous process converts transparent thermoplastic polymer pellets into finished fiber and can be used to fabricate all-solid fiber in which light is transmitted via a core with a higher Schematic of the fiber extrusion setup with a commercial filament extruder, a filament pulling system and a 3D printed specially designed nozzle. Source: Cristiano M. B. Cordeiro et al.refractive index. The process also yields microstructured fiber containing an array of longitudinal holes that enhance optical properties and increases functionality by providing the opportunity to guide light with low energy loss in an air channel. To create the microstructures, the researchers used titanium dies with suitable designs.

The flexibility and relative simplicity of the technique described in Scientific Reports was demonstrated by use of 3D-printed titanium nozzles to fabricate three different types of specially designed microstructured optical fibers. The researchers note that total length of produced fibers is no longer restricted by the preform or billet dimensions but instead on how long the extruder can run continuously. One kilometer of 500 µm diameter fiber could be produced in an hour at a typical feeding rate of 0.06 g/second.