FABRICATION OF FIBRE OPTIC COMPONENTS

Apparatus for fabricating a fused biconical taper fibre optic coupler includes a hollow furnace having a longitudinal slot. Clamp units are provided to hold at least two suitably prepared optical fibres in intimate side-by-side contact. The clamp units are moveable by motors to relatively laterally move the fibres into and out of the furnace through the slot. A power supply heats the furnace to in turn heat segments of the fibres therein while these segments are in intimate side-by-side contact to a temperature sufficient to cause the fibre segments to fuse together. Drawing units associated with the clamp units longitudinally draw the heated fibres while in the hot furnace to cause each fused fibre to develop a biconical taper and so form a coupler.