Fujikura’s innovative SpiderWeb Ribbon® fibre cable allows you to break free from slow deployments while reducing cost of ownership. Here’s why…
FIVE REASONS WHY SPIDERWEB RIBBON® FIBRE CABLE IS A GAME CHANGER
1. Industry leading fibre density means more effective use of duct space
It’s crucial to maximise the potential of all duct space. By using Wrapping Tube Cable™ with SpiderWeb Ribbon® fibre, our customers get more fibres in their cables. With this increased fibre density, they are able to place more fibres into the available duct space. The unique construction of the cable makes all this possible. Traditional loose tube cables use a strength member which runs through the middle of the cable and is surrounded by different tubes containing individual fibres. It is a design which results in a lot of dead space in the cable. Our design is better; the strength members are inside the sheath of the cable, and the interior of the cable is packed full of fibres, with no unused space. The benefit of this design is tangible. A 1728-fibre Fujikura Wrapping Tube Cable™ is 37% smaller than a 1728-fibre conventional ribbon loose tube cable, and 65% lighter, which contributes to the efficient use of duct and manhole space, which are normally extremely congested with legacy cables, especially in old and large cities.
2. Cost of ownership reduction
It takes less time to splice WTC™ with SWR®. It’s that simple. With SWR®, you can splice 12 fibres at once using our 90R mass fusion splicer, rather than performing hundreds of single fibre splices and consistently having to repeat the process of preparing individual fibres, placing them in the splicer, splicing them and placing protection around them. Feedback from our customers suggests that splicing together two 432f to 432f loose tube joints is a job that could take 41 hours of preparation and splicing time. The same piece of work on a WTC™ with SWR® cable should take approximately eight hours. Total cost of ownership of WTC™ with SWR® requires less man hours because it enables work to be carried out 8 – 12 times faster than traditional loose tube. This is a significant benefit and one that makes a big difference to our customers in the current climate of rising labour costs and difficulty securing labour skilled enough to complete the work.
3. Speeds up deployments
The ease with which you can splice Spider Web Ribbon® fibre with the Fujikura 90R splicer is a great benefit, and it’s complemented by the dry construction of Wrapping Tube Cable™. Every tube inside traditional loose tube cable contains a jelly to keep it watertight. One these cables are cut to begin splicing, cable preparation time is extended because the jelly must be removed using alcohol/alcohol wipes before work can begin. Accessing the fibre in loose tube cable requires cutting the binding yarns, unwinding the tubes from CSM, cutting and removing each tube and removing the gel from the fibres. It’s time consuming and messy work to begin splicing. Because our cables use a water blocking tape to keep moisture out, they’re free from jelly and contain no binding yarns and no tubes, so accessing the fibres is easy and simple.
4. Creates manpower efficiencies
Instead of having one engineer working on a single job for a whole week, when working on Fujikura cable, that engineer will be able to complete the same job in one day. Network operators organising crews of engineers automatically benefit from increased labour capacity, meaning cumulative faster deployments and increased flex in the workforce to deal with repairs and unforeseen jobs. Self employed engineers can gain from our cable because with jobs taking less time, they gain more opportunity to find work, plan work and administer their business.
5. WTC™ with SWR® is kinder to equipment
We’ve already touched on the fact that our cable is dry and that reduces preparation time, but it’s also important to note that our cables are also kinder to equipment. When splicing our cables, there’s less material to get in the splicer and prevent it from working; the jelly in traditional cables picks up dirt that inevitably finds its way inside splicers and strippers and results in them needing to be taken apart and cleaned. Our cables are clean to start with.
