Panduit’s Choosing the Best Ferrule Material for Your Network Application white paper reviews key factors when selecting the best connector for a particular structured cabling application, such as ferrule cost and performance. The selection of ferrule material depends on not only the cost, but a combination of relevant performance factors such as durability of materials, connector mating frequency, and the ability of each material to retain its physical shape and surface finish overtime.

 

Excerpt:

Fiber connectors are terminated onto optical cable to provide a separable interface that allows for moves, adds and changes (MACs). This allows for such media to be deployed into enclosures and panels to form structured cabling solutions, or in patch cords to facilitate transceiver connections.

To minimize losses associated with the mated connector interface, it is imperative that connectors provide accurate fiber alignment (core-to-core alignment of the fiber media) and that the ferrule endface be precisely shaped so that optimum physical contact can be maintained between each mated fiber pair. Two common ferrule materials–zirconia ceramic and lower-cost plastic composites–provide comparable performance and achieve compliance with TIA/EIA-568-B.3 requirements (Insertion Loss <0.75dB and Return Loss >20dB). However, the ability of each connector type to maintain physical contact can differ over…>>Read More