Officially presented during the ECOC 2014, the Futura launch lead is a product designed and developed by Fibernet, which has innovated the market by attracting a lot of attention from specialized operators.
Until its presentation, the launch leads, products necessary to reset the ‘dead zone’ of the OTDR and used for testing, certification and maintenance of fiber optic networks, they were contained in bulky metal or ABS houses.
The need for such containers was necessary to ensure the winding of hundreds of meters of optical fiber to be interposed between the network to be measured and the instrumentation, which otherwise could not have given reliable results.
However, similar solutions did not avoid the risk of crushing or damage to the suspenders, protected only by plastic sheath, necessary for connecting the instrument to the network to be measured: the end sections of fiber were in fact at risk of breakage due to accidental closure of the covers, crushing from being walked on or from stress or breakage due to excessive traction of the optical connectors.
Futura was born with the idea of making this product, which is fundamental for network certification operations, more convenient and functional.
Fibernet studied the market, acknowledged the critical issues that many specialized technicians, many of whom working for Telecom Italia, reported, and started designing a product that was able to remedy the various problems that emerged.
The dimensions have been reduced, up to 4 times compared to the standard models, to the advantage of an important weight reduction: Futura fits into a pocket, while the other reels were transported by hand.
The optical cable, up to 1 km in length, is contained within a resistant plastic structure that preserves its integrity, while the external straps have been reinforced with metal armor and can be rolled up inside the snap-open lid.
The connectors are protected as they are contained within the same cover.
The reduction in size and weight allows the lead to be used without problems even with a neck strap or, by screwing the magnet on the rear opening button, applied to a rack or on any metal surface
This allows the operator to work comfortably and hands-free.
In addition, Fibernet has also focused on design: the circular shape, which ends in an acute-angle corner that allows the lead to remain in a vertical position, and the colored plates, which have not only the functional peculiarity of identifying the type of optical fiber contained in the lead, but also to bring a note of color in a technical and specialized world of color, up to now, mostly gray and black.
