R&M Reengineers FO Field Connector Solution to Reduce Installation Times and Cost

Dubai, United Arab Emirates- 29 September, 2015- R&M, the globally active Swiss developer and supplier of cabling systems for high-end network infrastructures, has refined the FO Field field-installable fiber optic connector, with FO Field version 1.1 being compatible with all cable types available on the market. The upgrade enables installers to connect the FO Field connector to a fiber on a construction site in under a minute.

Users who have already put the FO Field to the test confirm that projects involving fiber optics are made considerably easier thanks to the straightforward on-site assembly. Application tests conducted by R&M customers in Central Europe revealed that the time needed to install a fiber optic outlet in residences is reduced by 30% compared to splice cabling and connection costs per subscriber can fall by up to 20%. “This innovation allows the costly and time-consuming step of fusion splicing to be skipped, while pigtails, patch cables, and installation cables can be directly connected,” said Shibu Vahid, Shibu Vahid, Head of Technical Operations, R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “Because the connector can be combined with all cable types, it is highly versatile and lends its self seamlessly to a wide range of application.”

The FO Field is compatible with the full range of recognized cables on the market, and suitable for 125/250 µm single-mode and multi-mode fibers, buffered fibers, tight buffers and semi-tight buffers with sheathing between 600 and 900 µm, and cable jackets made from any material with a diameter in the range from 1.4–3 mm. The OM2, OM3 and OM4 categories are specified for multi-mode cabling. R&M has also optimized the external housing in order to make it easier to rewire the FO Field SC, meaning it can be removed again in no time after wiring.

Field-installable connectors can be used flexibly, without the need to plan ahead specially. All the installer needs is the cables and components. Open cables are easier to feed into the ducts and cut to the required length. The FO Field product range means installers can be less dependent on splicing and use their stocks of pigtails and patch cables more sparingly. R&M has now introduced a wiring, testing and cleaning tool to complement the FO Field it launched for the first time a year ago.

FO Field components are all manufactured in accordance with R&M's stringent standards under clean-room conditions. The parts are all individually tested in full as part of the quality assurance procedure, and mechanical and optical performance matches the level of quality offered by prefabricated, factory-checked pigtails. The FO Field LC and FO Field SC meet the requirements of performance levels Grade Cf/1 (APC) and Grade Cf/2 (PC), respectively. The insertion loss (IL) of the FO Field is typically 0.2 dB and below 0.5 dB 97% of the time. The return loss (RL) for the APC version is above 60 dB.