Online monitoring of running ropes

The utilization level of ropes in ropeways has increased in recent years. Especially in urban ropeways, in addition to the high forces, high daily operating times occur. In comparison to tourist facilities such ropes are subjected to a significantly higher number of bending cycles per year. Wear and fatigue of these ropes therefore also occurs after a shorter period of time. The lifetime of such ropes can even decrease to 5 years and less. A high level of safety, reliability and predictability is required for urban ropeways as they provide critical services within the city infrastructure. TRUscan, a permanently installed magneto-inductive online inspection device has been developed to enable an almost continuous monitoring of ropes. This leads to an improved and up to date understanding of the rope condition, which opens the possibility to optimize the type and timing of maintenance measures in order to minimize interruptions of the operation. A practical example from the FATZER R&D Ropeway describes the use of this device in detail.

Author(s): Reinelt, O., Winter, S. & Wehr, M.