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Bekaert Technology Centre - Ropes

The Bekaert Technology Centre for ropes is a world leading centre of excellence for rope technology development, analysis and verification.

The Bekaert Technology Centre for ropes harnesses the wealth of knowledge Bekaert has acquired serving global industries for more than a century and combines this with significant investments in personnel, unique test equipment and forensic laboratories.

State of the art facilities

The Bekaert Technology Centre’s unique range of purpose-built test equipment, forensic laboratories and bench marked processes enable our dedicated rope engineers and material scientists to accurately capture and quantify operational rope data that has previously not been possible.

Expert analysis of these new data streams allows Bridon-Bekaert and our customers to gain deeper insight into rope characteristics and performance. Using this knowledge we can better focus development of new products and rope technologies that will deliver higher performance, increased safety and exceptional reliability in practice as well as in theory.

The BBtec’s comprehensive testing facilities for wire, strand and rope manufactured from steel and synthetics includes:

Rope torque- turn testing

Rope torque- turn testing

Cycle bend over sheaves (CBOS) testing

Cycle bend over sheaves (CBOS) testing

Rope / Termination / Polymer / Metallurgical expertise

Rope / Termination / Polymer / Metallurgical expertise

Wire rope breaking force testing

Wire rope breaking force testing

Macro and Micro analysis capability using latest 3D technology

Macro and Micro analysis capability using latest 3D technology

Multi-layer rope spooler

Multi-layer rope spooler

Synthetic rope breaking force testing

Synthetic rope breaking force testing

Extensive rope fatigue testing capability

Extensive rope fatigue testing capability

Wire mechanical testing

Wire mechanical testing

Rope investigation & forensic analysis lab

The Bekaert Technology Centre - Ropes, provides access to one of the world’s most comprehensive laboratory test facilities for steel and fibre rope and their components.

Continued investment in infrastructure, the latest equipment, and on-going development of our personnel ensures that our customers and partners receive technical support of the highest standard.

The range of testing, verification and analysis services available from the Btec includes;

  • Post Retirement Rope Analysis
  • Rope Condition Assessment
  • Forensic Investigation
  • Rope Product Benchmarking 
  • Rope Mechanical Testing

Multi-layer spooling test

Multi-layer spool winch designs allow industrial winch and crane OEMs to utilise smaller and more economic winch spools. These types of winch arrangements are attractive as they reduce space requirements and therefore cost. However, MLS can cause accelerated rope deterioration due to damage caused by a rope crossing over itself during spooling at high speed or through crush damage.

Bekaert’s MLS Test Machine allows ropes to be repeatedly tested with cross over and crush resistance measured. This testing provides an accurate source of data for use in optimising and developing high performance ropes for multi-layer spooling applications. 

Unique testing capabilities

Image of wire rope testing. Worker standing in front of NDT machine.
WIRE AND SYNTHETIC ROPE DESTRUCTION TESTING AND WIRE TENSILE TESTING
 

The quality, integrity and ability of a rope to carry loads safely is a function of the tensile strength of the wire combined with the design and quality of manufacturing employed to produce a wire strand and subsequent rope.

To expand our understanding and ability to test and verify new and existing rope designs Bridon has invested in tensile testing equipment for wire and breaking force test equipment for wire and fibre ropes.

These machines help to establish a rope’s actual breaking strength after manufacture or residual break strength after service. We also undertake post breaking load evaluation after destruction testing to evaluate the mode fracture.

Bridon has three tensile test machines capable of breaking steel ropes up to 800 tonnes and fibre ropes up to 125 tonnes. These machines are equipped with diameter and rope modulus measurement devices.

Worker viewing Rope Analysis results
ROPE TORQUE-TURN TESTING
 

Different rope constructions exhibit varying degrees of torque and rotation characteristics under load, dependent on rope material and design. To better quantify, understand and then eliminate this phenomenon, Bridon has increased Rope Torsion Testing capability with the addition of a unique 1,500kN Torsion Test Machine.

 

ROPE BEND FATIGUE TESTING
 

For many applications the life expectancy and performance of the rope is determined by its ability to endure the fatigue associated with repeated bending over sheaves used in lifting, lowering and conveying equipment.

Our purpose made Bend Fatigue Machines can replicate these dynamic operating conditions including reverse bending to provide more accurate measurement of the deterioration of rope performance.

Wire & synthetic rope analysis

The Btec Ropes is equipped with forensic analysis laboratories and specialists capable of performing rope strip down examinations to undertake a detailed visual condition assessment (corrosion, lubrication and general wear and tear) of rope and mechanical testing of individual wires to establish aggregate breaking strength. We also carry out metallurgical analysis to determine microstructure and properties of materials and 3D Micro analysis to investigate surface defects and damages on wire rope steel surfaces. Our customers increasingly utilise this capability to perform in-service and post-service analysis to obtain performance feedback or understand any deterioration levels to improve safety, avoiding unplanned downtime and improve the service life of their ropes.

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