Wire Rope information

Wire rope is made up of 3 parts;

Wires – a group of wires (usually 7 or 19 – the more thinner wires, the more flexible the finished wire rope will be) is twisted together to form a strand.

Strands – a group of these strands – 6, 7, 19 – are wound around a central core.

Core – this can be an extra steel strand or a fibre core. A fibre core gives a little extra flexibility and slight reduction in weight without losing a lot of strength.

Strands are counted first then wires, for example a 6 x 19 FC (fibre core) rope is composed of 6 groups of 19 wires around a fibre core. Steel core ropes are identified by IWRC (independent wire rope centre).

                6 x 19 FC                              7 x 19 IWRC                              19 x 7                                7 x 7 IWRC                            

A 6 x 19 or 7 x 19 construction is flexible enough to use over pulleys. A wire rope of 7 x 7 construction is not.

Lay – the lay of rope refers to the direction in which the strands are wound around the core. Our standard range is all RHOL (right hand ordinary lay).

All our wire rope conforms to EN 12385. with a tensile strength in excess of 1770 Kn/mm2.

For far more detailed information on wire ropes go to: www.bridon.com/china/x/downloads/steel_technical.pdf