Ratcheting Crimping Tool for Shielded CAT6A RJ45 Modular Plugs

Shielded Cat6A and Cat7 plugs are a different job from ordinary RJ45s. The cable is fat, the plug is bigger to take it, and the plug has a metal strain relief that has to be folded down over the foil or the drain wire and crimped a second time so the shield is actually grounded through the plug. A standard crimper won't close on the larger body, and it has no second stage for the strain relief. This is the tool for that plug: a ratcheting crimper with a cavity sized for large-diameter Cat6, Cat6A, and Cat7 shielded modular plugs, a die that seats the eight contact blades on the first squeeze, and a second position that closes the metal strain relief onto the cable to hold it and ground it. It takes solid or stranded cable, UTP or STP, and the blue rubber grips are shaped for a day of terminations rather than a handful.

It's compact enough to live in a tool pouch, and it's built for the jobsite rather than the bench.

Features

• Made for shielded Cat6A and Cat7 plugs. The cavity and die are sized for large-diameter shielded RJ45 modular plugs with a metal strain relief, the kind that fits Cat6A and Cat7 cable with a 7 to 8 mm jacket and grounds the shield through the plug body.
• Two-stage crimp. The first squeeze drives the contact blades into the conductors; the second, with the strain relief folded down, closes the metal tab onto the foil or the drain wire for strain relief and grounding in one motion.
• Ratcheting action. The ratchet won't release until the crimp has gone to full depth, so every plug gets the same crimp regardless of who's squeezing.
• Solid or stranded, UTP or STP. Terminates the plug on either conductor type and on shielded or unshielded large-diameter cable.
• Blue rubber grips. Shaped for extended use, so the hundredth plug of the day goes on as cleanly as the first.
• Compact and rugged. Fits a pouch, survives a toolbag.

Where It Fits

It suits terminating shielded Cat6A patch cords and field-terminated runs in data centers, server rooms, and shielded structured cabling installations, Cat7 and Cat6A connections to shielded wall plates and equipment, 10GBASE-T links that specify shielded plugs, industrial and plant-floor Ethernet near VFDs and motors where shielded cable is the rule, and any job where the plug has a metal strain relief and the cable is too big for a standard RJ45 crimper.

Good to Know

Match the tool to the plug. It's designed around the large-diameter shielded Cat6, Cat6A, and Cat7 plugs we sell, and shielded plug designs vary enough between makers that a plug from elsewhere may not seat in the cavity or may crimp its strain relief at the wrong height; check the plug's own instructions, and if you're pairing it with our plugs you're set. The second crimp is the one people skip: after the contacts are seated, fold the metal strain relief down over the foil or the drain wire, put the plug back in the tool in the strain-relief position, and squeeze again. A shielded plug whose strain relief isn't crimped is a shielded cable with an open shield at one end, which is worse than unshielded. Prepare the cable the way the plug calls for, with the foil folded back over the jacket where the strain relief will land and the drain wire laid along it, and keep the pair untwist short; on Cat6A the plug's load bar or wire guide does most of the work, so follow its sequence. The tool doesn't strip or cut; you'll want a jacket stripper and flush cutters alongside it.

Specifications

Usually ships the same day.