[WRE ADVISOR | BUSINESS] Could Bury You in a Pile of Problems T
here’s a little place in Texas near the very southern tip of the state called Port Isabel. It’s about as far as you can go before running into Mexico—situated just off the Gulf. Tere’s a long, lonesome bridge that extends out to this miniature town of 5,000 people (ever-ignoring the “Everything is Big in Texas” moniker). And whereas Port Isabel might be described as “alone” out there at the very tip of the Lone Star State, it would be hard to call her “lonely.”
Some owners and operators forget that wear is much more destructive than age for a wire rope.
Overlooking Routine Rope Maintenance
In fact, you might be surprised, having cruised over the bridge, to see quite a bit of action taking place in this paradise of sorts—and that includes construction, which includes cranes. Port Isabel is beautiful, and she’s fun, too—and that usually equals tourists. Yes, the economy hasn’t been kind to cities of all sizes, shapes, and styles over the past seven years in this country, but construction jobs are still underway in this little hot spot, and cranes can be found moving, picking, and setting everything from rebar to HVAC units to generators. And it’s that type of work that was taking place on a gorgeous day in early May of 2009—though it wasn’t a big boom reaching towards the endless sky that had people stopping and staring. It was a massive pile of twisted metal, lattice sections, lacings, and shredded wire rope. JR Bristow, of Bristow Truck and Equipment
A lack of proper lubrication on a wire rope is like a ticking bomb.
Specialists, based in Ridgewood, NJ, got a call around that time to investigate the cause of loss on a Manitowoc 888 that was being used in Port Isabel to drive underwater pilings at a dock. In addition to a wide range of services, Bristow’s company provides failure analysis and appraisals for heavy equipment. “Apparently, the operator was hoisting the boom when the whole thing came crashing down around him,” he remembers. “Fortunately, there were no injuries, but obviously the boom was in bad shape. We set the initial reserve at half a million dollars.” Te crane wasn’t a total loss at that reserve, but it
was a regrettable lesson learned after finding out what led to the collapse. Te cause, inevitably, was a simple oversight—one that came with massive consequences: worn-out wire rope.
Which might raise some questions: How can something like this still happen in modern times? How are folks out there working, but not assessing their equipment? Well, as most of industry pros have seen, and continue to see on a regular basis, equipment upkeep has an interesting way of falling to the back of the priority list when time and money are on the line. In this particular case, the ensuing analysis revealed that the wire rope being used to hoist the boom had
76 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2014 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
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