New ways of evaluation of damage to wire ropes by combining different non- destructive rope testing methods.

Damage to ropes manifests itself in many ways, and therefore exists several test methods for types of damage, some of which are very well proven, such as MRT, diameter measurement, lay length measurement and visual inspection.

Currently, the measurement results of these test methods are mostly recorded separately and then manually combined into an overall assessment of the rope condition. However, this procedure has inherent disadvantages: since the data are recorded by different test methods and devices, different length coordinates result for individual anomalies. The same applies to the circumferential coordinates, as running ropes can rotate during use.

Therefore, the anomalies detected by different test methods can be evaluated together only with difficulty.

A prototype of a new testing device that combines the essential measuring methods will be presented. An outlook is given on a new type of analysis method, which provides a significantly better evaluation of the rope condition.

Author(s): R.Eisinger, J.Gorres, J.Keller, J.Guter