Wire Rope Selection

Wire rope is a machine composed of a number of precise, moving parts, designed and manufactured to bear a very definite relation to one another. In fact, some wire ropes contain more moving parts than many complicated mechanisms. For example, a 6-strand rope with 49-wire strands laid around an independent wire rope core contains a total of 343 individual wires. All of these wires must work together and move with respect to one another if the rope is to have the flexibility necessary for successful operation.

Wire rope is composed of wires, strands and a core. The basic unit of wire rope is wire, which is carefully processed and drawn from selected grades of steel to predetermined physical properties and sizes. A predetermined number of finished wires are then helically laid together in a uniform geometric pattern to form a strand. This process must be preformed with precision and exactness to form a strand of correct size and characteristics. The required number of suitably fabricated strands is laid symmetrically with a definite length of lay around a core, forming the finished wire rope.