The art of cold swaging steel fittings

Round Table Conference  Rope Terminations and Fittings – Bethlehem 2001

Summary

Swaging of steel fittings on wire rope to form a termination did not begin to grow as a process until the late 1940's. lt has grown from cutting off a short section of available steel pipe to a sophisticated extrusion of restricted chemistry, and specialised heat treatments. These products consist of swage sockets, buttons, Flemish eye sleeves, turn-back sleeves and ferrules. The engineering design of swageable fittings has come from the cut and test with some black magic, to the use of metallic area, specialised material, volume control in the die cavity, pressing restriction and special grit to improve friction grip. This paper will cover the development of steel swage fittings, and the design of the dies used to swage them.

Author: C. Lucas