On design standards for wire rope durability

More than twenty years have passed since the international "Round Table" of Torino, which heralded the start of OJPEEC activity and its undoubted success. We feel that the time has come to da some summing up and formulate, on the strength of the achievements, a practical set of design standards for the service life of wire ropes, with suggestions as to production quality control and to service conditions. While this would obviously give rise to difficulties and necessitate further study, it would focus attention on the basic problems and permit practical application of durability design, without getting involved in details. This set of standards could serve later as basis for follow-up of the actual service life, with improvements on the basis of accumulated data. The proposed set would initially retain existing design standards (based on safety factor) which, in spite of their well-known drawbacks, are familiar and for the moment unreplaceable. It would be formulated as recommendations which would later on assume an obligatory character. OJPEEC seems to be the most suitable organization for our purpose, since it is equipped not only for discussion but also for coordinated research, which is essential for solving problems in dispute. In addition, it is uninfluenced by current interests of individual countries or firms, which often are of paramount importance for official representatives on international or national bodies. Naturally, obligatory standardization is the prerogative of official agencies.

Author: J. Kogan