A lathe system for producing an optical fiber preform, the lathe system including a rotating bait rod, a burner box configured to deposit silica-containing soot on the rotating bait rod, a hood configured to direct airflow within the lathe system through an exhaust, and a perforated floor configured to expel air within the lathe system as a plurality of air jets from a bottom portion of the lathe system to a top portion of the lathe system.

An optical fiber base material manufacturing apparatus including a reaction chamber; a burner that has a portion thereof inserted into the reaction chamber through an insertion opening that creates a connection between the inside and outside of the reaction chamber, and emits a flame toward a starting member positioned within the reaction chamber; and a seal connection member that creates an air-tight seal between the burner and the reaction chamber at the insertion opening. One end of the seal connection member firmly contacts the burner inserted therethrough, another end of the seal connection member firmly contacts the reaction chamber and has a through-hole formed therein through which the burner is inserted without contacting the seal connection member, and the seal connection member includes a connecting portion that connects the one end to the other end, while preventing transfer of stress between the one end and the other end.

An optical fiber base material manufacturing apparatus including a reaction chamber; a burner that has a portion thereof inserted into the reaction chamber through an insertion opening that creates a connection between the inside and outside of the reaction chamber, and emits a flame toward a starting member positioned within the reaction chamber; and a seal connection member that creates an air-tight seal between the burner and the reaction chamber at the insertion opening. One end of the seal connection member firmly contacts the burner inserted therethrough, another end of the seal connection member firmly contacts the reaction chamber and has a through-hole formed therein through which the burner is inserted without contacting the seal connection member, and the seal connection member includes a connecting portion that connects the one end to the other end, while preventing transfer of stress between the one end and the other end.

A production apparatus capable of suppressing the generation of rusts on a base material gripper and a rotation mechanism is provided in a production of a porous glass preform. In an apparatus for producing a porous glass preform by depositing glass fine particles, produced by a flame hydrolysis reaction using a burner, on a starting member gripped by a base material gripper in a reaction vessel, the base material gripper is covered with a cover, and gas is supplied to the inside of the cover and the gas is caused to flow from the inside of the cover to an inside of the reaction vessel.

Provided is a production method for a porous glass preform which forms the porous glass preform by depositing glass fine particles, which are generated by burner flame from a burner, on a tip of a starting material rotating about a vertical axis, and lifting the starting material, the production method including: imaging, with one or more cameras, a deposition surface of the glass fine particles in the starting material and the burner flame, and acquiring image data obtained by projecting an image of the deposition surface and an image of the burner flame on a same coordinate plane; and performing image processing on the image data to calculate a feature quantity of a spatial relationship between the deposition surface and the burner flame.