The Construction of A Wire Rope

Wire rope consists of a group of strands laid helically around a core. The strands of a wire rope consist of a number of individual wires laid about a central core.

Wire rope is versatile. It can be used to transmit motion through almost any plane or angle, to guy or tie down, to hold back, launch or control; to counterbalance, to guide or to lift or to do hundreds of other jobs.

Most people do not think of wire rope as a machine, but it is. It is a machine composed of precise, moving parts, all designed to bear a very definite relation to one another. In fact, some wire ropes contain more moving parts than many complicated mechanisms. A six strand rope consisting of 36 wires per stand with an independent wire rope core contains a total of 265 individual wires. All of these must be able to bend and move with respect to one another if the rope is to have the flexibility necessary for successful operation.