Control and stabilizing cables and tendons for high altitude aircraft and airships having lightweight, high strength and low CTE are disclosed, along with a method and machine for fabrication of same. The cable is comprised of a fiber prepreg tow encased in a polymer sleeve with one bobbin at each end to facilitate connections. Consolidating the fiber prepreg tow along the length of the cable using high temperature shrink tubing, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), allows for eliminating the twisting of the fiber prepreg tow, thus reducing the number of wraps around the bobbins. Eliminating the twists in the fiber prepreg tow also reduces the length of fiber needed, and therefore the overall change in length of the control cable with temperature variations is reduced. Additional cable strength can be achieved by adding and holding significant tension on the fiber prepreg tow by applying weight during the curing process.

Control and stabilizing cables and tendons for high altitude aircraft and airships having lightweight, high strength and low CTE are disclosed, along with a method and machine for fabrication of same. The cable is comprised of a fiber prepreg tow encased in a polymer sleeve with one bobbin at each end to facilitate connections. Consolidating the fiber prepreg tow along the length of the cable using high temperature shrink tubing, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), allows for eliminating the twisting of the fiber prepreg tow, thus reducing the number of wraps around the bobbins. Eliminating the twists in the fiber prepreg tow also reduces the length of fiber needed, and therefore the overall change in length of the control cable with temperature variations is reduced. Additional cable strength can be achieved by adding and holding significant tension on the fiber prepreg tow by applying weight during the curing process.

A belt for suspending and/or driving an elevator car including a plurality of tension elements extending longitudinally along a length of the belt, and a plurality of yarns interlaced with the plurality of tension elements forming a composite belt structure. The plurality of yarns are formed from a self-extinguishing fluoroelastomer material. An elevator system includes a hoistway, an elevator car positioned in the hoistway and movable therein, a belt operably connected to the elevator car to suspend and/or drive the elevator car along the hoistway. The belt includes a plurality of tension elements extending longitudinally along a length of the belt and a plurality of yarns interlaced with the plurality of tension elements forming a composite belt structure. The plurality of yarns are formed from a self-extinguishing fluoroelastomer material.

A braiding apparatus includes a base, a strand supplier supplying a core strand, strand carriers shuttling on the base and providing carrier strands that wrap the core strand and twist together to form a rope, a guiding pulley disposed above the strand carriers to feed the rope to a strand collector, and a control device having a driving source connected to the guiding pulley, at least one recognition unit arranged on the guiding pulley, a sensor disposed relative to the guiding pulley, and a controller electrically connected to the sensor and the driving source. The sensor counts the number of the recognition unit passing the sensor when the guiding pulley rotates to measure lengths of divided sections of the rope. Concurrently, the controller controls the driving source and the guiding pulley to have different rotational speeds, thereby controlling different braid densities of different sections of the same rope precisely.

An elevator system includes a hoistway, an elevator car movable along the hoistway, and one or more belts operably connected to the elevator car to propel the elevator car along the hoistway. A belt of the one or more belts includes one or more tension elements extending along a belt length, and a jacket at least partially encapsulating the one or more tension elements. The jacket includes a jacket base formed from a first material and one or more insert layers embedded in the jacket base material. The one or more insert layers have a corrugated shape along the belt length, and are formed from a second material different from the first material.

A belt for an elevator system includes one or more tension members extending along a belt length, and a jacket at least partially encapsulating the one or more tension members. The jacket defines a traction surface configured to interface with a traction sheave of the elevator system, a back surface opposite the traction surface, and two edge surfaces extending between the traction surface and the back surface. The traction surface includes a convex shaped segment extending at least partially across the traction surface between the two edge surfaces.

This invention relates to a loop structure (7) comprising at least two elements (1), wherein each element (1) comprises at least one loop (5) that interlocks with at least one loop (5) of an additional element (1). In accordance with the invention, it is proposed that each of the elements (1) has a multiple number of strands (2), at least partially made of flexible material, wherein the strands (2) of the element (1) are processed in a textile-like manner into at least two webs that are spaced apart from each other in the longitudinal direction of the element (1); in particular, they are braided, woven, knitted and/or enmeshed, and the strands (2) are divided into sections and each part is processed in a textile-like manner into a wing (4), wherein at least two wings (4) connect two of the webs (3) to each other and the loops (5) are formed from the wings (4). Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for producing a loop structure (7) as described above and an element (1) that has a loop (5).

A steel strand (10) comprises a steel core wire (12). This steel core wire (12) is surrounded by steel layer wires (14) that are twisted around the steel core wire (12). The steel core wire (12) is covered with a thick corrosion resistant core coating (16) provided by strip cladding or by metal extrusion. The steel layer wires (14) are covered with a thin corrosion resistant layer coating (18) provided by a hot dip operation or by an electroplating or chemical plating process. The steel strand (10) is compacted so that said steel layer wires (14) have a non-circular cross-section and that the thick corrosion resistant core coating fills the interstices between the steel core wire (12) and the steel layer wires (14) in order to give the steel strand (10) an improved corrosion resistance and increased lifetime.

A wire rope has a lubricated core, an inner jacket in contact with the core, and outer strands wrapped around the inner jacket. An outer jacket surrounds the outer strands and contacts the inner jacket to form an integrated jacket. A method of forming an integrated jacket for a wire rope in which an inner jacket is cold applied and an outer jacket is applied by application of molten material to the inner jacket.

A cable includes a sheath, and a coating film covering a circumference of the sheath. The coating film adheres to the sheath. The static friction coefficient of a surface of the coating film is smaller than the static friction coefficient of a surface of the sheath. The adhesion strength between the sheath and the coating film is 0.30 MPa or more.