SECTOR REPORT Ӏ ROPES


Liebherr’s 258 HC-L 10/18 Fibre luffing jib crane (right) and its 1188 EC-H 40 Fibre high-top (below) both give enhanced performance


abrasive, and more pleasant, to handle – and much less fatiguing, and therefore much less dangerous. Add that they are more flexible,


can take tighter bends and therefore smaller pulleys, and what is not to like about replacing a steel rope with a synthetic one? There are still issues. Fibres can


fray when they rub on sharp edges in a way that steel rope does not. So where synthetic rope meets, for example, the corner of a load protective sleeves must be fitted. Wireco is one of the world’s


largest rope producers; it has both wire and synthetic ropes in its portfolio and brands such as Casar and Lankhorst. Andreas Schmeiss is the company vice president. He points out some of the pros and cons. “Synthetic is still considerably


more expensive than wire,” he says, “sometimes by a factor of three or four. It does not corrode but it can degrade particularly under ultraviolet light which is a component of sunlight. High temperatures can also cause a condition known as ‘creep’ in which a rope becomes pliable and


stretches to a point beyond its original length.” Schmeiss believes that the best choice of rope will continue to depend on the application and that “there will remain a place for both types for some time yet”.


TURNING POINT? Nevertheless synthetic fibre ropes offer such advantages over conventional wire ropes that we may now be at a changeover point similar to that of 1831: synthetics may supplant wire as the


f CRANES TODAY 53


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