Helium Flow Control and Heat Transfer for Optical Fiber Manufacture

Gaseous helium is critical for producing optical fibers used in telecommunication cables. Because the flow control of gases (and in the case of helium; supercritical fluids) and heat transfer are core technologies in our business, Praxair has developed extensive know-how in fluid dynamics and heat transfer as they apply to manufacturing processes. Praxair provides these technologies to the optical fiber manufacturing industry to assure a high purity flow of helium to our customers. We also assist them in maximizing their production capacity by modeling various optical fiber manufacturing unit operations and suggesting changes or modifications to customer equipment where our experience and expertise indicates it could be beneficial. In general, this approach results in a lower evaluated helium cost when viewed as the cost of helium per meter of fiber produced.