Investigation of new criteria for discard detection of fibre ropes for safe operation
For materials handling applications, fibre ropes offer advantages over steel wire ropes, such as lower intrinsic weight, higher bending elasticity, smaller D/d ratio and greater corrosion resistance. In particular, the lower intrinsic mass allows greater head to be achieved while at the same time ensuring energy-efficient operation of technical equipment. In order to be able to use fibre ropes increasingly and safely, generally applicable methods of condition monitoring and discard detection are required, which are already established for steelwire ropes. Over the service life of fibre ropes, the rope properties are influenced by various damagemechanisms. By sensory monitoring of selected factors, these changes can be recorded. Using the measurement system developed, it was possible to determine a characteristic elongation behaviour for various fibre rope constructions, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the state of wear. In addition, opticalimages of the rope surface can be used to quantify the wear.
Author(s): F.Stegmaier, J.Keller, R.Schulz