To reduce the production cost of an optical fiber without massively consuming the expensive air in a clean room, by conducting an ultraviolet irradiation process, in which an ultraviolet-curing resin is cured, in an apparatus of a simple constitution.
The method for reducing the production cost of an optical fiber is a curing method for an optical fiber, wherein a pipe 7 transmitting an ultraviolet ray is arranged in an ultraviolet irradiation furnace 4 installed in a clean room 3, an optical fiber strand 1 is made to pass through the inside of the pipe 7, and the ultraviolet-curing resin coating of the optical fiber strand 1 is cured during the passing of the optical fiber 1 through the inside of a pipe 7. The air in the clean room 3 is made to flow into the inside of the pipe 7, and the air outside the clean room 3 is made to flow into the ultraviolet irradiation furnace 4 as a clean air having a clean class of ≤300,000 to cool the inside of the ultraviolet irradiation furnace 4 and is exhausted to the outside of the clean room 3.
Akinaka Takano
Susumu Iwano
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