Problems of safety of hoist balance ropes

There have been some cases of shaft balance ropes breaking in the Polish mining industry during the last few years. These failures have entailed no casualties, only resulting in material losses, but they have been a serious threat to the safety and work continuity of hoist equipment. The problems of safety attached to the use of balance ropes, taking into account both normal and catastrophic loads as well as corrosion weakening have been discussed in this paper. The results of measurements of mechanical properties of wires from new rope as well as broken ropes have also been presented. The analysis has been conducted on the basis of reliability theory.

Author: J. Hankus