Wire Rope Industry News

The last 6 years saw a close cooperation between the rope manufacturer CASAR, the distributor Nobles and the Telfer gold mine, based in the Pilbara region in the state of Western Australia. The Telfer mine is wholly owned by Newcrest Mining Limited. Gold and copper are extracted, above ground as well as underground. The copper and gold deposits were discovered in 1972, and mining began in 1977. In 2008 it was decided to increase the extraction capacities to over 6 million tons per year. This provided the basis for initial talks between Telfer and CASAR, as Telfer were not happy with the service life of the original ropes of a South African manufacturer on the floor hoisting machine and now the extraction capacities were due to increase too. The hoisting machine is a ground mounted friction winder which transports a payload of 34.5 t at a speed of 16.25 m/s from a depth of 1132 m to the top.

The growth of wind power in Europe is running out of space, both at inland and coastal locations. Logically, the next step is to develop offshore wind farms at sea. These installations are placed several kilometres off the coast and fixed to the continental shelf. There they are free-standing in the wind and so can achieve a high energy yield. However, constructing and operating these installations poses unprecedented challenges for the technology used. Where water is up to 60 m deep, stable foundations have to be built on the sea bed and the construction of the wind turbines themselves, with their tower, power house and rotor blades, requires elaborate assembly. It cannot be done from an unstable ship or platform, for obvious reasons.

The latest trend on the world’s major construction sites points in just one direction, and it follows the Olympic concept “Faster, Higher, Stronger“. Modern rotating tower cranes must face these challenges and master them with refined technology. The new CTL 1600 luffing jib crane by Terex was tailored specifically to these requirements. Impressive 66 t of maximum lifting capacity resulting from a load torque of 1600 mt as well as a maximum jib length of 75 m and an 89 m detached tower speak for themselves. This makes the CTL 1600 the largest tower crane ever build by Terex in Italy.

The new national stadium of Singapore was opened at the end of June 2014. In 2015, it will be the venue of the 28th South-East Asian Games. It features 55,000 seats and replaces the old national stadium, which was demolished in 2010. It is a visionary dome construction, coated with ultra-light ETFE material. The national stadium is part of the Singapore Sports Hub, a gigantic, 35-hectare large sports, leisure and entertainment centre. It is currently being built on the banks of the Kallang bay, which is a first-rate harbour area of Singapore. The futuristic national stadium forms the centre of the new Sports Hub, setting new standards in all areas of modern architecture. The spectator stands, for example, are mobile, and an energy-efficient air-conditioning concept supplies each of the 55,000 seats with fresh air. At the same time, the required energy is only 15% of the energy required by a conventional fully air-conditioned stadium.

When CASAR launched the first hammered ropes into the market in 2003, after intensive in-house testing, no one could have imagined what significance this development would have for the rope-making industry. It was at this time that crane manufactures‘ specification requirements for ropes to be used in the erection and boom systems of large mobile cranes increased enormously. Ropes with a decidedly higher load capacity and robustness were necessary. Casar was able to meet these requirements with the implementation of an innovative compression process by which the surface of the rope was finished using a special technique and purpose-built tools. The increase in breaking strength, the outstanding crush resistance, and the significantly reduced loss of diameter under load that were thus achieved, fulfills the demands placed upon high performance ropes made for this purpose. The extremely smooth surface created by hammering, minimizes snagging and optimizes stress distribution. Resistance to transverse pressure in the cross-over areas is thus lastingly improved, and for this reason, the “Fit ropes” from CASAR are especially well suited for multiple layer spooling.

Amid the thunderous cheers of countless spectators, the oldest seaworthy three-master of Europe, the Belem, sailed as the first large ship into Port de la Lune, the harbor of Bordeaux, passing under the new lift bridge, the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas. The core of this 433 meters long lift bridge is the 117 meters mobile center piece which rises up 53 meters between the four 77 meters high pylons. This makes it the largest lifting bridge in Europe.

The boat lift close to Lüneburg in the northern part of Germany went in service 1974 and was at that time the largest ship lift in the world. Two water-filled troughs lift ships of the Europa class to help them master the 38 m height difference from the Mittellandkanal to the level of the Elbe river.