Sumitomo Electric (News - Alert) Lightwave, which designs and manufactures dark fiber optic products, announced the launch of the industry’s first mass fiber automatic blade rotation cleavers for FTTx termination efficiency.

The new products include the FC-6RM-C automatic blade rotation cleaver for high precision cleaves of one to 12 fibers for use in fusion splicing, field termination, and other precision applications; and the FC-6RS automatic blade rotation cleaver for single fiber applications.

The launch of the FC-6R cleaver series comes on close heels of the company’s recent introduction of the industry's only fully functional touchscreen Quantum (News - Alert) fusion splicers.

Quantum Type-Q101-CA Dual-Heater Core Alignment Fusion Splicer addresses the needs of technicians for easier and faster splicer functionality. It is characterized by expanded memory storage, improved ruggedness, and optimum splicing efficiencies in speed and performance.

These dark fiber solutions reflect the company’s commitment to offering new and better technologies for speed, increased productivity and lower deployment costs for customer networks, company officials said.

The FC-6R cleaver series also addresses the market demand for a more precise fiber cleaver that eliminates the time consuming and error prone process of height and blade rotation adjustments, thereby increasing ease of use, precision, and the cleaver's maximum product life.

The technology automatically rotates the cleaver blade during use for easy, fast, and precise cleaves in a two-step process that prevents double scoring of fibers. Sumitomo's patent pending technology eliminates the increased service and maintenance of the fiber cleavers associated with this process.

The FC-6RM-C and FC-6RS also saves capex and opex by extending the maximum life of the cleaver blade to 144,000 cleaves after making factory height adjustments with initial capacity of 48,000 consecutive cleaves requiring no adjustments. The result is a streamlined cleaving process undisrupted to cleave single or multiple fibers with maximum precision and time efficiency.