Steel Wire Ropes - How Different Strand Construction Looks Like?
August 10, 2021 Article last updated on 20 July 2023
Steel Wire Rope is made up of stranding wires, with the strands closing around a core usually made up of fiber (natural/synthetic) or steel. For a clearer view on its appearance, refer to the dissected wire-rope picture below.
Characteristics
Steel Wire Rope is generally characterized by its Classification, Construction and Lay Types.
- Construction: Arrangement of wires within each strand
- Classification: No. of strands & No. of wires per strand
- Lay: Direction & length of the twist of the strands and wires
Generally, Steel Wire Rope made up from few large-wire strands will be more abrasive resistance, and less flexible than a wire rope made up from more small-diameter wire strands.
For this article, we will cover the Construction Types of the Steel Wire Ropes for identification purpose; we will use the 4 very common wire rope construction for illustration...
An Example Illustration of the 4 Common types of Steel Wire Rope Construction
- Standard/ Single Layer: All wires same diameter (only core may vary)
- Seale: Same numbers of wires in layer 1 (inner) & layer 2 (outer); Layer 2 having larger diameter (1+n+n)
- Filler: 2X numbers of wires in layer 2 (outer) against layer 1 (inner), with “Filler” wires insert between layer 1 & 2
- Warrington: 2X numbers of wires in layer 2 (outer) against layer 1 (inner); Layer 2 consist of 2 dimensions (2 diameters)
More Examples On the 4 Common Construction Mentioned Above
Combination Construction Type
There are also many other types of strand constructions available in the market, one of them is a combination strand construction type known as the Warrington Seale (WS), which has a Warrington construct in the inner layer, with the outer layer per Seale construct, this construction is typically known for its superior fatigue resistance and flexibility.
Decoding Number Identifiers On Construction Type
One might wonder how do we intepret the number-identifiers on the construct type; to ease any confusion on what each of the numbers (identifier) refers to, let us use a typical Warrington Seale Construct as an illustration example.
Let us decode what each of the numbers in the wire rope construct (below) means!
Did the above example help ease your confusion on the number identifiers of the Steel Wire Rope Construct?
Interested to know more about steel wire ropes? Check out the link below where we look into into differentiating the different wire rope lays!
LINK: WIRE ROPES LAY TYPES - HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE THEM
Looking for any Steel Wire Ropes for your project? Do check out the Steel Wire Ropes that STL carries.
LINK: STL - STEEL WIRE ROPES
That's all for now... do feel free to let us know if you have any enquires on your wire rope needs.