Fiber optic connectors: Are ST connectors a good choice?

[AndersJ]

Are cables with ST connectors:
- A good choice for industrial installations?
- Available for purchase in a reasonable future time span, say 10 years?

Are better cable/connector options available for a
industrial full duplex 2 km connection, up to 1 Mb/s?

[CaptCrash]

I would use LC or even SC connectors over ST.

However given that all three are used in IT environments (LC  much more than SC and ST these days).
I cant see any of them going away for quite a long time.

[AndersJ]

Why do you prefer LC and SC?

[jaromir]

I have first hand experience from optical patchcord manufacturer. In specific timeframe they made millions of cables with SC and LC terminations, few thousands of FC terminated and perhaps dozen with ST connectors, usually at special request for a customer servicing some specialized antiqued gear.

If I were you, I'd choose the most commonly used type of connector.

[AndersJ]

I need long cables, for industrial installations, not patchcords.
Can that influence the choice of connector?

[AndersJ]

I need fiber cables that are easily field installable by local electricians, world wide.
Not sure if sofisticated tooling requirements and skills are appropriate.
Please tell me if I’m wrong.

I’m open to all options,
trying to determine what cable and connectors to use.

My current choice of fiber tranceivers are Avago/Broadcom.
https://docs.broadcom.com/docs-and-downloads/ifpd/AV02-0176EN_2019-02-15.pdf

These use ST connectors:
- HFBR-1415TZ as the transmitter
- HFBR-2412TZ as the receiver

Are they good robust choices for up to 2000 meter long cables
in industrial environments, often between buildings?

[PartialDischarge]

ST is very common in industrial installations and a very good connector that provides tension contact with the loaded spring, lc and sc are more common in telecomm equipment since its all plastic parts and thus cheaper.
Its being used for ages and will be, for your speed rate you don’t even need OM3 or OM4 rated fibers, the cheapest ones will do

[Ranayna]

At our company we only use ST connectors for our fibre patch panels.
Those connectors are very robust, but need considerably more space. I have never had an ST connector break, but with LC connectors, especially when you regularly unplug them, they easily break. Broken latches are common, but I also had some connectors literally fly apart after unplugging.

Also, since ST connectors are singulated for each fibre, it is way easier to fix accidental RX/TX swaps. On the other hand this can of course be bad for field installation when you do not have immediate feedback for proper connection.