Panduit FHSZA-24-10R 24-Fiber OM4 HD Flex LC Splice Cassette

Overview

The Panduit FHSZA-24-10R is a 24-fiber OM4 HD Flex™ splice cassette designed for high-density structured cabling environments where pre-terminated ribbon fiber needs to land cleanly into a patching architecture. It ships loaded with flexible ribbon-type splice pigtails terminated in duplex LC connectors on one end and left unterminated on the splice side — meaning you're joining this cassette to pre-existing ribbon or blown-in fiber runs in the field. Twelve duplex LC ports on the front face give you 24 fibers in a compact footprint, consistent with the HD Flex™ platform's density targets. For fiber planners working through MDA-to-HDA runs in a TIA-942 data center or high-port-count IDF closets, the FHSZA-24-10R (often searched as FHSZA 24 10R) belongs on the shortlist.

Key Features

• 24-Fiber OM4 Multimode: OM4 supports 100G Ethernet to 150m (OM3 tops out at 100m for the same application) and 40G to 550m — the difference matters if your spine-to-leaf runs are longer than a typical OM3 installation can handle without a mode-conditioning workaround.
• HD Flex™ Platform Integration: This cassette slots into Panduit's Panduit HD Flex fiber panels and enclosures, giving you a modular swap-out path. If a splice goes bad or you need to reconfig a port group, you pull the cassette rather than reworking the entire panel — a real operational advantage in live environments.
• Ribbon Flex Splice Pigtails: The loaded ribbon-type flex pigtails are optimized for insertion loss (IL), which the product designation calls out explicitly. Lower IL means less signal budget consumed at each splice point — critical when you're cascading multiple cassettes across a long structured cabling path and need to stay inside the optical loss budget for the active equipment.
• 12 Duplex LC Ports (Front Face): Duplex LC is the dominant connector type for OM4 fiber optic panels and cassettes in data center deployments. Having 12 duplex ports means 24 individual fiber circuits land on a single cassette — useful for 10G/25G SFP+ and SFP28 port-heavy switch aggregation where you need lane density without stacking multiple smaller panels.
• Unterminated Splice Side: The connector-2 side is unterminated, which is intentional. This cassette is designed for fusion-splice connection to existing ribbon fiber in the building infrastructure — it is not a pre-terminated MPO/MTP trunk solution. Plan for a fusion splicer and trained technician on-site during installation.
• Polycarbonate Housing: The cassette body is polycarbonate — lightweight, dimensionally stable, and adequate for the controlled temperature and humidity environment of a typical data center or IDF closet. It keeps the cassette weight low enough that a fully loaded panel won't stress the rack mounting hardware.
• 50-Micron Fiber Diameter: 50µm multimode is the correct core size for OM4. It pairs with VCSEL-based transceivers at 850nm, which is the standard for short-reach 10G/25G/40G/100G optical interfaces. Do not mix with 62.5µm OM1 infrastructure — modal bandwidth and attenuation are incompatible.

Integration & Compatibility

The FHSZA-24-10R is part of Panduit's HD Flex™ fiber cassette system. It is designed to install into Panduit HD Flex enclosures and patch panels that accept this cassette form factor — verify your enclosure model supports the HD Flex cassette footprint before ordering. The duplex LC front-face ports accept standard LC patch cords for connection to active equipment. The splice side requires field fusion splicing to the incoming ribbon fiber; this is not a plug-and-play trunk — budget for splice labor and a fusion splicer rated for ribbon fiber work. OM4 50µm fiber is compatible with IEEE 802.3ae, 802.3ba, and 802.3bm applications (10G, 40G, 100G multimode). If your active equipment requires OM5 for SWDM4 applications, this cassette is not the correct choice — OM4 and OM5 are physically compatible but OM5's wideband multimode advantage is lost if the cassette is OM4. For structured cabling planning support, review a fiber optic cabling selection guide before committing to cassette count and panel density.

What's in the Box

• 1x Panduit FHSZA-24-10R HD Flex™ 24-fiber OM4 LC splice cassette (loaded with ribbon flex splice pigtails)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What fiber type does the FHSZA-24-10R support?

A: The FHSZA-24-10R is an OM4 multimode fiber cassette with a 50-micron fiber diameter. It is not compatible with OM1 (62.5µm) infrastructure and is not designed for single-mode applications.

Q: Does the FHSZA-24-10R come pre-terminated on both ends?

A: No. The front face has 12 duplex LC ports (24 fibers total) that are factory-terminated. The splice side (connector 2) is unterminated — it requires field fusion splicing to the incoming ribbon fiber run during installation.

Q: What enclosure is the FHSZA-24-10R designed for?

A: The FHSZA-24-10R is part of Panduit's HD Flex™ fiber cassette platform. It is designed to install into compatible Panduit HD Flex panel enclosures. Verify your target enclosure accepts the HD Flex cassette form factor before ordering.

Q: How many fibers and ports does the FHSZA-24-10R handle?

A: It handles 24 fibers through 12 duplex LC ports on the front face, providing 24 individual fiber circuits per cassette.

Q: Is the FHSZA-24-10R suitable for 100G applications?

A: Yes. OM4 multimode fiber supports 100G Ethernet (IEEE 802.3bm) to 150 meters using VCSEL-based transceivers at 850nm — adequate for most data center spine-to-leaf and MDA-to-HDA distances. Longer runs or SWDM4 applications would require a different fiber type.

Q: What is the package quantity for the FHSZA-24-10R?

A: The FHSZA-24-10R ships as a single unit (package quantity of 1). It is available in carton quantities of 10 for larger deployments.

Eden Phillips

The FHSZA-24-10R is the cassette you reach for when you have OM4 ribbon fiber already pulled through conduit and need a clean, serviceable LC patching interface without consuming multiple rack units doing it. Twenty-four fibers landing on 12 duplex LC ports in a single HD Flex cassette body keeps your panel density high — relevant when you're managing 10G or 25G SFP+ uplinks at scale and every rack unit in an MDA or IDF counts.

Technical Highlights:

• OM4 50µm Fiber: Supports 100G to 150m and 40G to 550m via VCSEL at 850nm — covers the overwhelming majority of data center structured cabling distances without needing to step up to single-mode.
• IL-Optimized Ribbon Flex Pigtails: The loaded splice pigtails are specifically called out as insertion-loss optimized, which matters when you're building a multi-hop cabling path and need to stay inside the optical loss budget for 10G/25G active equipment.
• 12 Duplex LC Ports / 24 Fibers: Single-cassette density of 24 circuits in the HD Flex footprint — compare that to older panel designs requiring two modules to land the same fiber count, and the rack space savings add up across a fully built-out row.

Deployment Considerations:

• The unterminated splice side means this is a field-splice product, not plug-and-play. Budget fusion splice labor and equipment — ribbon fiber splicing requires a splicer rated for ribbon work, not just single-fiber mass fusion.
• Confirm your enclosure is HD Flex compatible before procurement. The cassette form factor is platform-specific; it will not drop into older Panduit OptiCom or non-HD-Flex panels without an adapter or full panel replacement.

The FHSZA-24-10R is the right cassette for greenfield or retrofit data center MDA/HDA builds using OM4 ribbon infrastructure, where the goal is maximum LC port density per rack unit and the installation team has ribbon fusion splice capability on-site.