Limited endurance of full lock coil ropes in service on ropeways

The paper deals with the endurance of full lock coil track ropes in service on two ropeways in Poland: one a passenger ropeway, the other for materials. The first presented here, a full locked coil rope has been in use as a track rope on a passenger ropeway since 1985. Several broken wires were observed on a short 200 meter long section a few years ago. This rope is regularly magnetically and visually tested. Based on information obtained from the NDT traces the damaged lengths of the rope are regularly checked and some of the faults detected have been repaired. After repair the rope is still in use in a safe condition and will remain in service until 2006 when the whole ropeway will be replaced with a new one. The second rope presented here, also a full locked coil rope was in use on a 7.5 km long material ropeway as a track rope. The rope failed unexpectedly in 2005. During service the rope had been only visually inspected. This paper presents strength data obtained during assessment of the broken, unbroken (but used) and a new part of the failed rope. Both examples show that service life for full locked coil ropes is limited and their condition should be suitably monitored to protect the ropeway against sudden unexpected catastrophic events. In some controlled circumstances local faults can be repaired allowing the rope to safely remain in service.

 Author(s): Tytko, A.A.