ROPES Ӏ SECTOR REPORT
Wireco’s Andreas
Schmeiss believes there will remain a place for both steel and fibre ropes for some time yet
j As well as the small diameter
the fibre-composite design of the rope cover claims another advantage over conventional, braided, covers: it is monolithic – that is, it is seamlessly impermeable. As a result, moisture can't penetrate through to the inside of the rope, nor can lubricants or fibre abrasions leak through to the outside. “The rope does not run dry,
even after many years, and the environment is not polluted with microscopic plastic,” says Peter Streubel, managing director of Trowis. The rope cover also gives 100% UV protection for the interior core and serves as an indicator of when the rope needs to be discarded. The rope must be replaced if it shows damage such as material degradation, cracks, or twists. The ChaRope fibre rope is
roughly 80 percent lighter than its steel equivalent, a large saving in weight that translates to benefits in lifting power and reduced wear on sheaves. “Rope sheaves hardly experience wear,” says Heidrich. “It has a lifespan claimed to be at least four times greater than a conventional steel wire rope.” The ChaRope made its first appearance on the new Wolff 6021 FX at Bauma in October. It has been undergoing extensive testing on a spooling test bench and is due to undergo field testing in Wolffkran’s UK rental fleet.
58 CRANES TODAY
“The test phase will be completed in June 2023 and the rope will be available on the market in August 2023,” explains Heidrich. “As of that time, we will supply all Wolff models with 12 or 16mm rope optionally with the steel or fibre version. We will also successively fit cranes in our rental fleet with the new fibre rope. In the medium term, we plan to develop further ropes with other typical diameters with Trowis, to offer the entire Wolff crane range with the innovative rope.”
NEUTRAL BUOYANCY Sub-sea lifts in the offshore industry can vary from deep to very deep indeed; and here synthetics have an added, game- changing, advantage. On a deep lift the weight of a steel rope fully paid out becomes not just significant but very significant, possibly greater than the load itself. The weight of the wire steadily robs the crane of its lifting capacity as more wire is paid out. Synthetic rope can be made either to float or, preferably, with neutral buoyancy so that it neither floats nor sinks. No matter how much of it is paid out the weight of the rope is exactly balanced by the upthrust from the water so there is no loss at all of lifting capacity with increasing depth. Offshore equipment
manufacturer MacGregor, part of Cargotec, has therefore produced a dedicated fibre-rope offshore crane, called FibreTrac, using neutral-buoyancy rope. It allows operators to use the full lifting capacity of the crane at practically any depth; this means that a smaller crane and vessel can be used for more assignments and owners are able to bid on a wider range of contracts. At the end of last year (2022)
it delivered just such a crane to marine transporter Otto
Candies. It is a 150t active heave compensated FibreTrac offshore crane, the first of its type, and the supply contract includes full delivery of the crane together with Lankhorst Lanko Deep Dyneema DM20 fibre rope for 3400m operational depth. Due to the rope’s neutrally
buoyancy it allows full payload at all depths. The crane itself is highly innovative. The FibreTrac concept was developed in close collaboration with Parkburn Precision Handling Systems, who will deliver the fibre rope Deepwater Capstan that de- tensions the rope between the high- tension operational side and the low-tension storage side. Parkburn also developed the crane’s Lift Line management system which manages rope health monitoring and feedback using a combination of sensing technologies and a lifetime usage algorithm developed by the maker of Dyneema, based on its DM20 material. The crane will have the world’s
first DNV-DRS class notation based on the DNV-ST-E407 standard. This new standard governs how such a crane and its fibre rope system can remain continually certified based on real-time measurements of rope health; it represents a significant departure from earlier certifications based on prescriptive rules and periodic inspections. It means, says MacGregor, that owners and operators can now have an up-to-date health status of every portion of the lift-line and use it confidently and to its fullest potential, instead of guessing based on work hours since the last inspection and cutting back or replacing it. Steel ropes reigned supreme
for close on two hundred years. If synthetic fibres are the new steel, any guesses as to whether they will still be around in 2223?
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