Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Wire Ropes, Elements and Definitions
1.1 Steel Wire
The very high strength of the rope wires enables wire ropes to support large tensile
forces and to run over sheaves with relative small diameters. Very high-strength
steel wires had already been existence for more than a hundred years when pat-
enting—a special heating process—was introduced and the drawing process per-
fected. Since then further improvements have only occurred in relatively small
steps.
There are a number of topics about the history of wire ropes and wire rope
production beginning with its invention by Oberbergrat Wilhelm August Julius
Albert in 1834 and one of these is by Benoit (
1935
). Newer interesting contri-
butions on the history of wire ropes have been written by Verreet (
1988
) and
Sayenga (
1997
,
2003
).
A voluminous literature exists dealing with the manufacture, material and
properties of rope wires. In the following, only the important facts will be pre-
sented, especially those that are important for using the wires in wire ropes.
1.1.1 Non-alloy Steel
Steel wires for wire ropes are normally made of high-strength non-alloy carbon
steel. The steel rods from which the wires are drawn or cold-rolled are listed in
Table
1.1
as an excerpt of a great number of different steels from the European
Standard EN 10016-2. The rods for rope wires have a high carbon content of
0.4-0.95 %.
The number in the name of the steel gives the mean content of carbon in weight
percent multiplied with the factor 100. For example, the steel name C 82 D means
that the steel has a mean carbon content of 0.82 %. Steels with high carbon content
close to 0.86 % with eutectoid fine perlite—a mix of cementite (Fe
3
C) and
ferrite—are preferred for rope wires.
