New Orleans, Louisiana – In advance of CTIA Wireless, 3M released the Slim Lock Closure which provides weatherproof protection for coaxial jumper connections between tower mounted remote radio units and the antenna. The Slim Lock product consists of a hard plastic closure which snaps around the connection and latches shut, sealing out water. Inside the closure, a highly compliant sealing gel conforms to the connection, displacing air so that condensation cannot occur, further protecting the connection from corrosive moisture.
“We have found that a key issue with tower mounted radio deployments is weatherproofing. Water intrusion can shunt the signal, or create corrosion that results in PIM.”, said Omar Flores, Global business and Marketing Manager at 3M.
In addition to improving upon existing methods of weatherproofing jumper connections, the Slim Lock closure is designed to not only reduce the amount of time that it takes to adequately protect the connection, but also to provide a reusable sheath that allows for easy access to perform testing and other routine maintenance procedures.
During a briefing with RCR Wireless News, 3M indicated that current weatherproofing procedures using tapes can take up to 20 minutes to complete, per connection. This can create a situation where an entire tower can require as much as a day and a half of man hours to weatherproof. With the Slim Lock closure, the weather proofing procedure can be reduced to approximately one half of a man hour. As part of the briefing, 3M engineer Steve King demonstrated the procedure for installing the Slim Lock closure.
Beyond reducing initial weatherproofing time, because the Slim Lock closure is reusable, it also saves time and additional materials cost when the connections have to be accessed for ongoing PIM testing and other maintenance procedures.
3M will be demonstrating the Slim Lock closure at booth #5269 in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Key Takeaways
- The potential to reduce time spent on the job site from 1.5 days to a half hour represents a material OpEx savings that will garner the attention of mobile operators.
- Beyond OpEx savings, time to market for LTE deployments is a key challenge faced by all mobile operators. Developments that help automate the process of making a cell site deployments operational can help mobile operators differentiate their services.
- Although 3M can credibly point to materials, and corresponding IPR, from its work in vertical markets that help reduce time to market for developments such as the Slim Lock, announcements by competing vendors – e.g., Corning – featuring complementary components demonstrates that innovations with respect to enabling tower deployments are occurring rapidly.
