Results of a survey conducted on this Web site, www.cable-install.com, suggest that label-generating equipment is popular and widely used within the cabling industry.
Over a one-week span in mid-May visitors to the site were asked to identify what they use to label their own, or their clients', cabling runs. Options were machine-generated labels, hand-written labels, and nothing. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they use machine-generated labels. Another 19% use hand-written labels, and the remaining 4% said they use nothing.
The recently completed TIA/EIA-606A standard, specifying administration procedures for cabling systems, states that all labels must be machine-generated. As is the case with all TIA standards addressing the cabling industry, compliance is optional, but these results indicate that many contractors and end-user organizations already comply with that part of the spec.
Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine assistant editor Ryan Cliche used the results while researching an article on cable labeling equipment that will appear in the July issue of the monthly publication. That article will update readers on trends and technologies in labeling equipment, and will include information on manufacturers of such devices.
