By DAVE SCHUMAN, America Ilsintech -- John Henry is an African-American folk hero. He is said to have worked as a “steel-driving man,” someone who hammers a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast for the construction of railroad tunnels. According to legend, John Henry’s prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered rock drilling machine, a race that he won only to die in victory with hammer in hand as his heart gave out from stress.
How is this story relevant to fiber-optic connectivity?
Today’s expert fiber-optic splicers have been at it for quite some time, earning their seniority and honing their craft, one hand-stripped fiber at a time. Like athletes, they rely on precise vision, great hand/eye coordination, and good dexterity and flexibility. As they reach the end of their career and lose their dexterity or vision and even move on to other positions within their service provider organizations, they need to be replaced.
However, today’s workforce has sometimes shown that they are not too enthusiastic about stripping fiber as a career. They tend to perceive it as tedious, hard to learn, and most importantly, boring. The fatal decision that John Henry made was to fight new technology, rather than embrace it in order to perhaps prolong and improve his career. But, it was a true pyrrhic victory – he won the battle, but it cost him everything.
Since 2014, America Ilsintech has been deploying a revolutionary All-In-One splicing solution that is being embraced by the new generation of fiber splicers, as well as the old guard. We’ve eliminated the need to hand-strip fiber – the most difficult part of the process. More importantly, our All-In-One splicer uses a thermal stripper, which has been laboratory-documented as a higher quality solution in contrast to hand-stripping, which can damage fiber.
Here’s an example of how streamlined our technology is: We trained 10 coaxial cable installers on our technology who had never touched a splicer. In just four hours, they were able to use and maintain the America Islintech KF4A All-In-One splicer, prep and complete both an inline splice as well as splice on an SC/APC connector, and start installing fiber to home installations within the same week.
The big take away from this story is that, by removing the physical challenges, like stripping fiber, and empowering the installer with technology, we’ve created a "win-win" for the workforce, human resources and staffing groups who must fill these job vacancies, and most importantly the subscribers of service providers who get high quality installations from knowledgeable and informed installers.
By deploying our All-In-One solution, technicians only need to learn how to use one machine, and will be able to utilize our full family of fusion splicers whether for active clad, core alignment, and/or ribbon fiber projects. Call us at 972.556.0916 or email us at [email protected] and see how we can significantly reduce your training timelines, and enable you to offer a key technology to your potential hires.
DAVE SCHUMAN is Director of Broadband Markets for America Ilsintech.