Clearfield, Inc. manufactures, markets and sells an end-to-end fiber management
and enclosure platform that consolidates, distributes and protects fiber as
it moves from the inside plant to the outside plant and all the way to the home,
business and cell site. The Company has extended this product line with a fiber
delivery platform of optical cable, connectors and microduct that delivers fiber
to environments previously not economically or environmentally viable. The Company
has successfully established itself as a value-added supplier to its target
market of broadband service providers, including incumbent local exchange carriers
(Traditional Carriers, within the Tier 2 and Tier 3 broadband markets), large
national and global telecom providers (Tier 1), wireless operators, MSO/cable
TV companies, utility/municipality, enterprise, data center and military markets,
while also serving the broadband needs of the competitive local exchange carriers
(Alternative Carriers). The Company also provides contract manufacturing services
for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) requiring copper and fiber cable
assemblies built to their specifications. Clearfield has continued to expand
its product offerings and broaden its customer base during its years of operation.
By aligning its in-house engineering and technical knowledge alongside its
customers’ needs, the Company has been able to develop, customize and
enhance products from design through production. Substantially all of the final
build and assembly is completed at Clearfield’s plants in Brooklyn Park,
Minnesota and Mexico, with manufacturing support from a network of domestic
and global manufacturing partners. Clearfield specializes in producing these
products on both a quick-turn and scheduled delivery basis. The Company deploys
a hybrid sales model with some sales made directly to the customer, some made
through two-tier distribution partners and some sales through original equipment
suppliers who private label its products.
Clearview Cassette
The Clearview™ Cassette, a patented technology, is the main building
block of the Company’s product platform. The value of the building block
approach is that Clearfield is the only company to provide the needs of every
leg of the telecommunications network with a single building block architecture,
reducing the customers’ cost of deployment by reducing labor costs associated
with training and reducing inventory carrying costs.
Clearview Classic and Clearview Blue: Clearview Classic and Clearview Blue,
is a system of five parts that nest together in the cassette’s main housing
to support a wide range of applications. Parts can be added or removed as needed
to support the environment in which it is deployed. Clearview Blue, while fully
compatible with Clearview Classic, is designed for the utmost in modularity
and scalability. It builds upon the Clearview Classic by offering a smaller
footprint and integrated slack storage and splicing functionality.
Clearview xPAK: Engineered to land small port count fiber terminations and
optical components, the patented xPAK is shipped flat and unassembled. Following
simple pictorial user instructions, a technician will assemble the device to
match the field requirements of the installation site. Application environments
include cell back-haul, business class service delivery, node segmentation,
fiber exhaust scenarios, utility sub-stations or fiber-to-the-desk deployment.
Clearview Black: Designed to handle harsh environments, Clearview Black incorporates
the same flexibility and scalability of both the Clearview Classic and Clearview
Blue in a 50% smaller footprint. All types of fiber cable construction can be
integrated within the cassette to support all patch only, patch and splice (in-cassette),
passive optical component hardware and multi-fiber push on plug-and-play scenarios.
Connectivity and Optical Components
The Clearview system consolidates, distributes and protects fibers as they
move from the inside plant to the home and business. These fibers are either
connectorized directly for cable-to-cable deployment or are connectorized onto
optical components that may amplify or divide the signals they carry. We provide
products that meet a customer’s cable-to-cable deployment or optical component
needs.
Cable-to-Cable Deployment: Fiber Deep is a class of fiber assemblies that guarantees
performance at .02dB insertion loss – fully half that of the industry
standard. This metric extends the link loss budget effectively, extending the
distance upon which fiber can be deployed. In addition, achieving 2dB improvement
in optical budget reduces power consumption by 10%. The power savings, multiplied
by even a small thousand home network, is a significant contribution to a community’s
sustainability efforts.
Optical Components: Clearfield packages optical components for signal coupling,
splitting, termination, multiplexing, demultiplexing and attenuation for a seamless
integration within its fiber management platform. This value-added packaging
allows the customer to source from a single supplier and reduces space requirements.
The products are built and tested to meet the strictest industry standards ensuring
customers trouble-free performance in extreme outside plant environments.
FieldSmart
Utilizing the Clearview Cassette and xPAK as building blocks, FieldSmart is
a series of panels, cabinets, wall boxes and other enclosures that house the
Clearview components to provide a consistent design from the inside plant of
the telco’s “central office” or cable television’s “head-end”,
all the way through the outside plant to the access network and through to the
home. At each leg of the network, the FieldSmart platform delivers a modular
and scalable architecture that allows the service provider to align their capital
equipment expenditures alongside their subscriber revenues.
Inside Plant: The FieldSmart Fiber Crossover Distribution System (“FxDS”)
and high density FieldSmart FxHD provides complete fiber management modularity
and scalability across the fiber network. Using the Clearview building block
approach, each fiber management element provides modularity of physical fiber
protection in the environment in which it is placed. Easily configured for initial
placement and scaling from 12-ports to a full rack of 1,728-ports, the FieldSmart
FxDS requires only four unique blocks to configure initial deployment. The user
then places what is needed on the frame as subscriber take rates dictate. The
FxHD is an integrated fiber management solution delivered via the Clearview
Blue Cassette. With instant access to all cassettes, adapters, and jumpers,
the frame is designed as a front access frame, meaning all installation is done
from one side of the frame providing the option to reclaim the aisle space required
for frame solutions that require rear access – and to use that space for
other equipment or more frames. The FxHD can be placed against a wall, within
a cage in data center co-location environments, or back to back.
Outside Plant: The FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (“FSC”)
is a modular and scalable outside plant cabinet that allows rollout of Fiber-to-the-Premise
services by communication service providers without a large initial expense.
Each outside plant cabinet stores feeder and distribution splices, splitters,
connectors and slack cable neatly and compactly, utilizing field-proven designs
to maximize bend radius protection, connector access, ease of cable routing
and physical protection, thereby minimizing the risk of fiber damage. The FieldSmart
Makwa incorporates all of the features found in our above ground cabinets and
adds the ability to deploy the FieldSmart FSC Distribution Hub in a below grade
application. The FSC product, with the Clearview cassette at its heart, has
been designed to scale with the application environment as demand requires and
to reduce service turn-up time for the end-user.
Access Network: FieldSmart Fiber Delivery Point (“FDP”) is a series
of enclosure systems that incorporates the delivery of fiber connectivity to
the neighborhood or business district in the most cost-effective footprint possible.
This family of wall-mount enclosures provides 12 to 144 ports of connectivity
for multi-dwelling unit fiber deployments, fiber demarcation, security systems
(CCTV), telecommunications room needs and horizontal/intermediate cross-connects.
Access Network: FieldSmart Small Count Delivery (“SCD”) is a series
of enclosure systems that are packaged to make landing small count fiber more
cost-effective and efficient than previously thought possible. This family of
wall-mount enclosures, panels and drop cable cases provide up to 12 ports of
connectivity when fiber management is critical but high-count density is required.
The FieldSmart SCD is targeted for application environments such as cell backhaul,
business class service delivery, node segmentation, fiber exhaust in a field
pedestal, sub-station turn-up or fiber-to-the-desk deployment.
FieldShield
FieldShield is both a patented and patent-pending fiber pathway and protection
method aimed at reducing the cost of broadband deployment. FieldShield takes
industry standard glass and makes it easier and less expensive to install. FieldShield
starts with a ruggedized microduct designed to support all aerial, direct bury,
and inside plant “last mile” needs. Created from the most rugged
HDPE polymers, FieldShield Microduct is strong enough to be placed using traditional
methods of boring and plowing, leveraging existing conduit placement equipment,
as well as newer, less disruptive technologies such as micro trenching or saw
cutting.
FieldShield Pushable Fiber easily slips through the microducts smooth inner
wall. Utilizing bend-insensitive glass, FieldShield Pushable Fiber is available
in a variety of fiber counts, with bulk reels or factory terminated options
offering total installation flexibility. A factory pre-connectorized FieldShield
Pushable Connector eliminates costly labor in the field and presents reliable,
consistent and guaranteed performance along with lower installation costs. After
being pushed into the microduct, the slip-resistant protective housing of the
FieldShield Pushable connector is removed and the connector snaps together -
all in seconds, providing a cost-effective, tech-friendly means of installing
optical fiber without jeopardizing fiber protection.
The FieldShield YOURx platform consists of hardened terminals, test access
points, and multiple drop cable options designed for the most challenging portion
of the access network across all fiber drop cable media. FieldShield FLEXdrop,
FieldShield Flat Drop, and FieldShield Strong Fiber, through the use of the
FieldShield Flexport and Flex Connector, provide same port connectivity regardless
of the media being deployed.
The hardened FieldShield YOURx terminal provides a single product use approach
at the drop for below grade, pedestal and pole mount options. The FieldShield
YOURx-TAP provides a secure demarcation between the service provider and customer
equipment and eliminates slack storage problems by utilizing a deploy reel.
The pathways between these hardened closures are all interfaced using same port
connectivity for both duct and flat drop cable. The YOURx platform continues
the Company theme of using a modular, building block approach with tool-less
system design focusing on the fiber drop to the customer.
CraftSmart
CraftSmart is a full line of optical protection field enclosures, extending
Clearfield presence in the fiber industry. The CraftSmart Fiber Protection Pedestals
(“FPP”) and CraftSmart Fiber Protection Vaults (“FPV”)
are integrated solutions, optimized to house FieldSmart products at the last
mile access point of the network in above-grade or below-grade installations.
CraftSmart aims to optimize fiber protection and storage while ensuring industry
standards. Utilizing methods of sealing and below-grade protection, along with
Clearfield innovation, CraftSmart is a turn-key solution for the deployment
of passive optics from the central office/head-end to the customer premise.
Cable Assemblies
Clearfield manufactures high quality fiber and copper assemblies with an industry-standard
or customer-specified configuration. Industry-standard assemblies built include
but are not limited to: single mode fiber, multimode fiber, multi-fiber, CATV
node assembly, DS1 Telco, DS 3 (734/735) coax, Category 5e and 6, SCSI, Token
Ring, and V.35. In addition, Clearfield’s engineering services team works
alongside the engineering design departments of our original equipment manufacturer
(“OEM”) customers to design and manufacture custom solutions for
both in-the-box as well as network connectivity assemblies specific to that
customer’s product line.