The Challenge

Located at the top of a hill in Quarryville, PA, the Buck Company had a big problem.

Every time lightning struck the foundry’s facility (and it struck a lot), their network would go down and their devices would fry. Electronic time clocks would blow off the wall, and giant fireballs would blow through the rafters.

As the company grew increasingly technology oriented, the problem grew with it.

From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the Buck Company hired multiple vendors to come in and repair or replace the equipment, address the cabling damage, and get the network back online. While these services fixed the problems, they did nothing to resolve the underlying issue—repeated lightning strikes that created havoc anytime an electrical storm rolled in. In some ways, using multiple vendors actually compounded the problem, because there were layers and layers of patchwork repairs done over a period of many years.

The Solution

When the Buck Company called Heritage Communications, our goal was to not only repair the damage and stabilize the network, but also correct the issue so the foundry didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars every time lightning struck the facility.

To get their network running smoothly, regardless of the weather, we first designed a proper network that was both efficient and reliable. The next step was to use fiber optic cabling to tie their local and remote framework cabinets together. Fiber optic cable is a glass compound that is non-conductive, so it was perfect for the job.

The Result

As soon as we refit the mainframe and the remote distribution frames with fiber optic cables and removed the conductive medium from the equation, it was like night and day. The lightning strikes were no longer a threat, and the network remained online through all types of storms. We were happy to bring cutting-edge technology to a truly cutting-edge company. And today, we continue to regularly monitor and maintain the Buck Company’s cabling infrastructure.