Rollable Ribbon Fiber Separator (RFS-100)

Ships direct from the manufacturer. Please allow up to 10 business days, though it often ships sooner.

Rollable ribbon packs more fiber into a cable than anything else, but every fiber in it has to be separated from its neighbors before it can be spliced, and doing that by hand means pulling on a bonded matrix with your fingernails and hoping. The Jonard Tools RFS-100 is the tool that does it instead: a separator for rollable and Spyder-type ribbon fiber with 2 to 24 fibers, in which a coil spring applies a set amount of pressure to the ribbon as it's drawn through, breaking the bonds between the fibers without crushing or nicking the fibers themselves. It's 4 in long and under an ounce, so it lives in the splice tray or the pouch and is there every time a ribbon needs splitting.

Features

• Separates rollable and Spyder ribbon. Splits the fiber matrix of rollable or Spyder-type ribbon cable quickly, for individual fibers or sub-groups.
• 2 to 24 fibers. Covers every rollable ribbon count up to 24 fibers each.
• Coil spring sets the pressure. Applies a fixed force to the ribbon, enough to break the matrix and not enough to damage the fibers.
• Compact and light. 4.14 × 1.63 × 0.63 in and 0.05 lb, for storage or on-the-go use.

Where It Fits

It suits splicing crews working high-count rollable ribbon cable in closures and trays, where a 24-fiber ribbon has to become 24 single fibers or a few sub-groups before it goes in a holder, data center and hyperscale fiber teams terminating RocketRibbon and similar rollable-ribbon trunks at panels and cassettes, outside plant technicians doing a mid-span tap on ribbon cable who need two fibers out of the ribbon and the rest left bonded, anyone who has been separating rollable ribbon by hand and finding broken fibers afterward, and a ribbon splice kit that already has the slitters and shavers for the jacket and needs the tool for the step after.

Good to Know

Rollable ribbon is bonded intermittently along its length, which is what lets it roll, and the separator breaks those bonds as the ribbon is drawn through; feed the ribbon in square, draw it through in one steady pull, and let the spring do the pressing rather than squeezing the tool, since the set pressure is the whole point. Separate only as many fibers as the job needs: for a mass fusion splice the ribbon stays whole and the separator isn't used, for single-fiber splicing the whole ribbon comes apart, and for a mid-span tap you peel off the fibers you need and leave the rest bonded. Clean the fibers after separating and before stripping, since the matrix leaves residue. The tool is for rollable and Spyder-type ribbon; flat (encapsulated) ribbon has a continuous matrix and needs a ribbon splitter or a stripper designed for it, not this. Keep the tool clean of matrix residue and coating dust, since debris in the path is what scratches a fiber. A fiber that breaks in the separator usually broke at a bend before it got there; keep the ribbon straight as it feeds. Put the separated and stripped scraps in a sharps container.

Specifications

Documentation