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Despite the emphasis on safety, there were still lots of skeptics. “You’re competing against some of the most durable materials in the world, wire rope and chain,” said Farmer. “They just could not believe that this fiber could replace those materials until they saw it in person.”


to know about the product that would soon dominate winching and pulling in the mines” Farmer notes. Despite the emphasis on safety, there were still lots of skeptics.


“You’re competing against some of the most durable materials in the world, wire rope and chain,” said Farmer. ”Tey just could not believe that this fiber could replace those materials until they saw it in person.” But ongoing accidents and injuries caused by miners being hit with wire rope and chain continued to increase interest. “Every time someone got hurt or lost a limb or had multiple hand or back injuries, that’s when we got a call, unfortunately” Farmer said. “Te older miners, originally the biggest skeptics, became our best allies, and told others, especially from other facilities.” In time, word spread across the country about the performance of this rope in actual service during extreme conditions. Farmer adds, “it got them out of a jam with fewer men and in record time. Tat sold a lot of rope assemblies.” “We started underground; that led to the prep plants; then to pulling in belt lines; and then load outs, all the way to the river and other haulage applications,” explains Farmer. “Te customers would need very different lengths, strengths, and configurations. So we’d take an assembly, and literally give it to them the first time to prove our product. It took time and our money to prove it, but we showed the miners and some manufacturers a lot,” recalls Farmer. “Tey found out that what we told them was true, and they started trusting us. We would continue to educate them on fiber technology improvements and they would continue to buy. Once our safety model meshed with these guys in the mines, and they got this material in their hands as a replacement for chain and wire rope, it caught on like wildfire.” What may or may not have started in West Virginia and


Pennsylvania, over a very short number of years has become the standard for any company trying to comply with their own safety requirements and that of the federal government. Te materials that best perform in the mining industry, with its high abrasion environments and continual shock loading, have led to improvements in chafe gear and a change in fiber for the mines and other industry applications. Rouster started with Dyneema®, a great fiber in a clean environment, but found them too soft and susceptible to picking of the yarns, with limited abrasive characteristics, leading to quicker failure. “We soon found out that 50,000 cycles life was not a relevant material issue, or selling point in a mining application on mobile equipment” recalls Farmer. “We needed the high strength of material on the first pull, not building up over the life of the rope.” Further testing by Rouster, and other coal companies, proved the need for a more abrasive resistant and stronger rope than Dyneema® in this application. Rouster now leads in mining and heavy lifting industries with a stronger, more abrasive


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resistant rope, PLASMA® 12 Strand, incorporating Spectra™ fiber, by Puget Sound. Farmer notes that as for other HMPE fiber ropes, “there are other companies out there but their utility, and especially durability, can only be proved or disproved by use and abuse. Rouster has been very successful with the ‘Purple Rope,’ Spectra™ fiber, PLASMA® 12 Strand rope by demonstrating the fiber’s superiority in the only real world testing facility – America’s coal mines.” Today, Farmer can say that because of these innovations in the mining Industry, HMPE fiber ropes, especially purple PLASMA® 12 Strand, have contributed to lowering of the cost per ton of coal mined and improved the safety record of miners. Tis has been possible due to many factors, including: reducing the time it takes to make any swing in the mines, and with less man power, lowering the overall cost of materials in most instances (fiber materials are now roughly only 2-3 times the cost of wire rope), increasing service life (PLASMA® usually replaces 3-4 wire rope assemblies) and lowering injury rates (back, hand, loss of limb injuries and fatalities) by miners, lowering reportable accidents, lost time accidents and lowering the number of S&S violations. “We have done over 250 ton lifts in the mining business, reducing some chain and wire rope assemblies by hundreds of pounds and found very few exceptions to its use in the mines” explains Farmer. Te idea for nominating Chuck Farmer and Rouster Wire Rope & Rigging for the 2012 Miner’s Celebration comes as no surprise to those that know him well. Farmer is both proud and humbled by this recognition. As he recalls, “somebody put me up there because of the difference this has made across the industry.” He adds, “they had me up there, amongst others, with Kenny Perdue, [Director of Safety Operations at Alpha Natural Resources,] a great man, active and passionate about mine safety like no other, and his speech was one of the best I have ever heard. He talked about a day when there are no debilitating or deadly accidents in the mines.” Farmer shares that dream, and believes that HMPE ropes have helped miners move closer to that day. y


P12 Sling


covered in cut guard at work in coalmine


WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 25


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