Selection, Installation, and Maintenance of Steel Wire Rope

Selection, Installation, and Maintenance of Steel Wire Rope

1、Selection of Wire Rope

Refer to GB8918-2006 “Steel wire ropes for important purposes” and GB/T20018-2006 “Steel Wire Ropes for general purposes” on how to select from different construction of wire rope. Please also refer to this section of our product catalogue in selecting wire rope. We suggest choosing equal lay steel wire rope、Compacted wire rope for general usage. The technical parameters such as lifting load, safety coefficient, and the lifting capacity of the lifting equipment should be taken into conside ration when selecting the strength class of wire rope. Do not blindly choose high strength and high breaking force wire rope, this may compromise results.

2、Installation of Wire Rope

(1)Unwinding: Put a piece of iron tube through the reel or coil of wire rope, then install the reel onto a dedicated carrier. Keep the wire rope parallel to the ground and turn to unwind.

(2)The arrangement of wire rope on the reel: The winding direction of wire rope on the reel should depend on the lay direction of wire rope from left to right for right-lay wire rope, from right to left for left-lay wire rope. Wind the wire rope neatly onto the reel without the wire rope overlapping each other.

(3)Cutting: For wire rope with relatively high residual stress, use a soft iron wire to tie the rope 10-20mm froom the cutting point. The length of the sofe iron wire should be 1-4 times that of rope diameter. Then cut with cutting tool.

3、Maintenance and Inspection of Steel Wire Rope

(1)Operation: In operation, the wire rope should be in steady speed, never overload, and never shock load a wire rope.

(2)Maintenance: Lubricant is applied to the wires and strands of a wire rope when manufactured. This lubricant is depleted when the rope is in service. And various nocuous matters will stick to the surface of the rope. These will cause abrasion between wire rope and the block, and rusting of the rope. It is important to clean and replace lubricant to the wire rope periodically.

(3)Record of inspection: Wire rope should be inspected regularly, and all the records should be kept carefully. Other than cleaning and adding lubricant, the inspection should include checking the following: abrasion of wire rope, condition of broken wires. And corrosion. Also check the condition of metal parts such as pulley groove, loading ring, hook, etc. Pay special attention and check for external and internal broken wires in the end of wire rope, and the section of wire rope that passes through pulley blocks and drums.

(4)The appropriate contact between pulley groove and wire rope is indicated in(figure 1). If the pulley groove is too wide(figure 2), the wire rope and its metal core are subject to more broken wires owing to fatigue. If the pulley groove is too narrow(figure 3), the wire rope will be worn seriously. The ratio between the radius of pulley groove and that of the wire rope should be: R/d=0.525~0.550.