(Written by Richard Schoonebeek)
WOW! Is it just me or is this year flying by? Every year it feels like everything gets forced forward in time. Walking through the shops and seeing all the Easter egg displays doesn’t help for a chocoholic like me. The one good thing that comes from it is brand awareness and your unlimited choices. However, with all the endless choices, we are always drawn towards the product that stands out the most. And just like the in-store Easter egg displays, at Phoenix Contact you are spoilt for choice! But today, I’d like to tell you about one of the products that stand out for me. The Phoenix Contact FDX20 series Splice box. Before we get started though, I’d like to give you the history of how Fiber Optics started and how far it has come since the beginning – because it’s a ‘force’ to reckoned with!
Going back to the beginning of Fiber Optics:
The concept of light transmission has existed since the early 1840’s. French inventors Daniel Colladon and Jacques Babinet demonstrated the guiding of light over distance by refraction.
Approximately ten years later in the mid 1850’s, Irish inventor John Tyndall performed a similar demonstration using water fountains. These early experiments led to the development of television when Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving images at the London Institute in 1925.
That same year, UK based physicist, Narinder Singh Kapany invented the first actual fiber optical cable based on John Tyndall’s experiments three decades earlier.
Thirteen years later, British research scientists, Charles Kao and George Hockman were working with Standard Telephones and Cables and discovered that attenuation of fiber optics was caused by impurities in manufacturing. If the attenuation could be lowered sufficiently, they theorized fiber optics could be used as a practical means of communication.
Then, the attenuation barrier was broken in 1970 by four research scientists working for Corning Glass Works (now Corning Inc.). Robert Maurer, Donald Keck, Peter Schultz and Frank Zimar.
Within two decades, innovative research pushed the attenuation rate low enough for fiber optics to become the dominant carrier of electronic information.
By the early 1990’s, as the Internet was becoming popularized in the public realm, fiber optics cables started to be laid around the world. There was a major push to wire the world in order to provide infrastructure to counter the perceived problems of the Y2K issue.
Today, fiber is present in virtually every nation on the Earth, forming the absolute backbone of the modern communications infrastructure.
Description for the FDX20 series Splice Box:
The splice boxes from Phoenix Contact ensure continuously reliable data transmission in real time. With their compact and uniform design, the splice boxes provide ample interior space for the secure connection of fiber optics. The “FDX 20 series” (Fiber Distribution Box IP20) splice boxes are characterised by a compact design, flexible mounting on the DIN rail. High quality components guarantee optimum use in a wide range of application areas.
Main Features:
- Robust metal housing.
- Capacity from 12 up to 24 fibers.
- For Multimode and Singlemode.
- Available connectors: LC, SC, ST, E2000®.
- Pre-assembled versions available.
- Flexible mounting positions on DIN rail.
- Cable gland for top or bottom installation.
Customer Benefits:
- Safety – Continuously reliable data connections – thanks to our extensively tested components.
- Space Saving – Up to twelve front ports and compact dimensions for more space in the control cabinet.
- Compact – Perfectly sized pigtail tray for easy splicing and compact bending radii.
- Time Saving – Reduced installation time due to pre-assembled, ready-to-splice design.
- Intuitive – Front panel operation and clear control cabinet layout – thanks to Phoenix Contact’s uniform design.
Assembly – Watch the video below to find out more.
May the fiber force be with you!
For more information, you are welcome to contact Richard Schoonebeek on rschoonebeek@phoenixcontact.co.za.
