Bergen unveils wire-rope wisdom: Mastering wear, fatigue, safety, and strength

Wire rope is one of Bergen's specialties.

For its unsurpassed range of cable solutions, Bergen Cable has earned a glowing international reputation. The supplier is also a great source of wire rope – which is like cable in some ways, but with diameters thicker than 3/8 of an inch. Businesses must consider certain factors when selecting the appropriate wire-rope option. As a team of experienced experts in wire rope, Bergen provides some valuable tips on how to get top performance out of it.

Features that suit repeat use

A customer should take several important criteria into consideration when deciding on the right kind of wire rope, according to Bergen. It is wise to evaluate the relative importance of these factors and choose a product with features that are best suited for the application and for repeat use. Bergen cites the following four factors as the most important ones:

• Abrasive wear – Abrasion resistance depends on the size, carbon and manganese content, heat treatment of outer wires, and construction. Larger outer wires with less flexible construction withstand abrasion more successfully than do finer outer wires of more flexible rope, and high carbon and manganese increase strength.
• Fatigue – The propagation of small cracks under repeated application of bending loads can lead to fatigue failure. This occurs when wire rope functions over relatively small drums or sheaves. Repeated bending and straightening of individual wires cause fatigue. Early fatigue can be prevented with sheaves or drums or appropriate size and a very flexible rope.
• Safety – The safety factor of wire rope equals the ratio of the weight it can hold to that of the full working load. This criterion also depends on operational speed, shock load, the fittings used to secure the rope ends, rope length, the number and sizes of sheaves and drums and their locations, the cases of corrosion and abrasion, and other factors.
• Strength – Wire rope is often subjected to direct tension, acceleration, shock loads, bending, several simultaneous forces, and other stresses. Selecting Bergen wire rope of the appropriate strength, as determined by size, grade, and construction, helps to minimize the effects of theses stresses.

To learn more, contact Bergen.

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