3. Manufacturing processes

Glass fibers can be manufactured using either "direct melting" (continuous melting of glass in a furnace) or "indirect melting" (melting of glass by remelting cullet in the form of pellets or beads) processes. Here, we will limit ourselves to describing the most common direct melting process, as it optimizes pull rates (quantity of glass fiber produced per day), production yields, and therefore production costs.

The process of manufacturing fiberglass involves several steps:

• preparation of the batch (or mixture of vitrifiable materials ready for melting);

• the melting of the batch to obtain glass in a liquid state;

• fiber optic cabling;

• glass coating (application of a thin layer of organic solutions onto the fiber);...