Optical glass fibers processing

Figure 7.7 Direct melting process of making optical glass fiber. Qadding and core rods are melted in a double crucible and wound on a drum.

The NIR region is of great interest for pharmaceutical applications. NIRS is fast, nondestructive, and cost effective. Samples require no preparation and can be measured as such, intact and available for further analysis. NIRS can be performed in-, on-, and offline. Also, glass fiber optics can be used to perform remote analysis, thus bringing radiation directly to the sample. Many more advantages can be cited when considering the practical use of NIR in a pharmaceutical process, depending on the particular objective. 

There are no unambiguous criteria for the purity of a polysaccharide, and there is no generally applicable method for following the purification process. Chemical analyses of the component sugars and determination of the optical rotation are sometimes useful. The purification can also be followed by paper electrophoresis, preferably on glass-fiber sheets, by sedimentation analysis in an ultracentrifuge, or by use of such selective precipitation agents as the antisera mentioned above. 

We first describe the characteristic drawability feature of glasses which stems from their viscoelastic nature and then describe the fabrication processes for the glass fiber for insulation and reinforcement of polymers and for optical communication purposes, both of which exploit the ability of glass to be drawn... 

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