Ripley Tools announced the launch of their Ripley Labs innovation center, capping a series of multi-million-dollar investments in design tools and flexible, rapid prototyping and manufacturing capabilities. Ripley Labs provides custom tool engineering and design combined with volume manufacturing capability.
“Ripley Labs enables us to continue to invest in market-leading innovation to fuel manufacturing growth and jobs”, said John Jutila, president and CEO of Ripley Tools. “Our ability to solve unique requirements for cable or equipment suppliers, construction contractors, defense and aerospace, power utilities and telecom or wireless network operators is well established and a distinct competitive advantage,” he added. Ripley Tools has been awarded 68 patents, with a record number of applications in 2019, and the company works closely with many of the world’s largest cable manufacturers to co-develop new products.
Ripley Tools is known for some of the wire and cable industry’s most iconic and widely specified tools, including the UtilityTool® “Banana Peeler” and “4x4 Plus®” that are popular with power utility lineman. In the broadband market, the Miller® F0 103 series precision fiber optic stripper, produced using a proprietary blade machining process, continues to be the gold standard for fiber preparation, and the Cablematic® CST series of hardline RF/coaxial coring tools are a field installers top choice. The ODM® RP 460 Optical Power Meter is ultra-compact and broadly specified across the North American wireless tower fiber installation market. The company is also the original source of design and manufacture for other brands as well.
Headquartered in Cromwell, Conn., Ripley Labs is ISO 9001 certified with rapid in-house prototyping, leveraging equipment such as ProJet 2500 3D printing, CNC machining, three-four axis 15,000 RPM precision milling centers, five-axis waterjet technology, and product life-cycle testing machines. Additionally, Ripley Labs has optical component, electronic circuit board and firmware/software design capabilities at its Belmont, NH, engineering center, and applications engineering and prototype collaboration at its Kingswinford, UK, location.
The vision for the lab was shaped by Ripley’s team of engineers, including Director of Engineering Brian Bourgoin and recently appointed CEO John Jutila. The growth in broadband services, acceleration of 5G wireless networks and upgrades required in power transmission or alternative energy have led numerous companies to approach Ripley Tools to develop effective, efficient, and repeatable installation solutions or to solve unique cable preparation and testing challenges. Ripley Labs collaborates on design solutions with other eco-system partners including those with specific R&D or application skills and other technology developers or inventors which want to apply their innovations to cable applications while leveraging the Ripley Tools manufacturing or global sales and marketing presence.
With real-time multi-camera video sharing and design collaboration tools, Ripley Tools can support partners anywhere in the world from concept development through prototype field testing and production.