Innovative drum construction for multi-layer winding with fibre ropes

In recent years, high-strength fibre ropes have been seen increased use. This is due to the advantages of being lighter so a higher strength to weight ratio, easy handling particularly for manual operations and no concern of corrosion. A disadvantage, on the other hand, is that there are no adequate guidelines for its use or basic sizing principles for rope drives with high-strength fibre rope. This is particularly problematic since rope produced from high-strength polymer fibres shares only some of the same properties as wire rope. This also includes influences such as a reduced diameter under load, deformation under transverse loading, properties dependent on the geometry of the contact in-body, and the friction characteristics to be considered.

 Dimensioning involves adapting the drum to the new load scenario and extending multi-layer winding calculations to the requirements of the fibre rope. By fitting the fibre-rope / rope-drum system, the high-strength fibre rope’s potential for a wide range of uses can be exploited, particularly in presently challenging technical areas.

 Author(s): Lohrengel, A., Stahr, K., Schulze, M., & Wächter, M.