SMART HOISTING ROPE

Abstract

The present invention concerns a rope health monitoring system and a rope for such rope health monitoring system whereby the rope comprises objects which are remotely detectable, readable and programmable identification (ID) tags and whereby the rope monitoring system comprises said rope, at least one ID tag reader device mounted along said predetermined path of the rope, to detect at least the identity and optionally the historic health status and/or at least one physical rope parameters of the individual rope section provided with and identified by the at least one ID tag, at least one ID tag writing device, to write a new health status of the individual rope section to the at least one ID tag, at least one means to measure at least one rope operation parameter, a computing unit provided with data, whereby the computing unit is equipped with an algorithm capable to compute the relative longitudinal positioning of individual sections of the rope and the additional damage or damages suffered by individual sections of the rope, compute and record the new health status of the individual sections of the rope, store the new health status of the individual section of the rope in the corresponding programmable ID tag of the rope.

Claims

1. A rope for a hoisting apparatus, the rope comprising a strength member, the strength member comprising primary strands comprising high performance yarns having a tenacity of at least 1.0 N/Tex as specified in ASTM D885M, the rope further comprising objects situated at intervals and distributed along the longitudinal dimension of the strength member wherein the objects are remotely detectable, readable and programmable identification, ID, tags.

2. The rope according to claim 1 wherein the strength member is a braided construction, a tendon yarn bundle, a laid construction, a synthetic chain and/or a belt.

3. The rope of claim 1 wherein the high performance yarns are ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) yarns.

4. The rope of claim 1 wherein the strength member is a braided construction and wherein the ID tags are positioned without restraint between the primary strands of the braided strength member.

5. The rope of claim 1 wherein the ID tags are located at predetermined intervals and distributed along the longitudinal dimension of an elongated carrier element.

6. The rope of claim 5 wherein the elongated carrier element is or forms part of a primary strand of the strength member or wherein the elongated carrier element forms the longitudinal core section of the strength member.

7. The rope of claim 5 wherein the elongated carrier element has a braided construction comprising the ID tags.

8. The rope of claim 5 wherein the elongated carrier element is a thermoplastic rod comprising the ID tags.

9. The rope according to claim 1 wherein the rope has a length of at least 100 m, a diameter of at least 10 mm, a tenacity of at least 0.8 N/tex, a maximum break load (MBL) of at least 10 kN, at least 50 ID tags distributed along the longitudinal dimension of a braided strength member, wherein the intervals are substantially equal in length and in the range of 0.5 to 5 m.

10. The rope according to claim 1 wherein the remotely detectable objects are passive and/or active ID tags.

11. A rope monitoring system for a hoisting apparatus with at least one sheave equipped with the rope of claim 1, wherein the rope is virtually separated in individual rope sections, wherein individual rope sections are provided with and identified by at least one ID tag, the rope being positioned as a load carrying rope along a predetermined path of the hoisting apparatus and over the at least one sheave, wherein the rope monitoring system comprises said rope, being the rope, at least one ID tag reader device mounted along said predetermined path of the rope, to detect at least the identity and optionally the historic health status and/or at least one physical rope parameters of the individual rope section provided with and identified by the at least one ID tag when traveling along said path, at least one ID tag writing device mounted along said predetermined path of the rope, to write a new health status of the individual rope section to the at least one ID tag when traveling along said path, at least one means to measure at least one rope operation parameter during at least one operation of the rope, a computing unit provided with data comprising the predetermined rope path geometry, the at least one rope operation parameter, the identity and position of the at least one ID tag and optionally the historic health status of the corresponding rope section, whereby the computing unit is equipped with an algorithm capable to compute based on said data the relative longitudinal positioning of individual sections of the rope in respect of the predetermined path of the hoisting apparatus, and the additional damage or damages suffered by individual sections of the rope during said traveling along said path under said at least one rope operation parameter, compute and record the new health status of the individual sections of the rope, adequately send the new health status of the individual sections of the rope to the corresponding at least one ID tag writing device for storing the new health status of the individual section of the rope in the corresponding at least one programmable ID tag of the rope.

12. The rope monitoring system of claim 11 comprising at least one further means to measure a physical rope parameter of at least one virtual rope section.

13. The rope monitoring system of claim 11 wherein the at least one means to measure at least one rope operation parameter detects one or more parameters selected from the mass of the hoisted load, acceleration of the hoisted load, vibration of the hoisted load, operating direction of the rope, speed of the rope, acceleration of the rope, slippage of the rope, traction to the rope, pressure to the rope, tension of the rope, compression of the rope and torsion of the rope.

14. The rope monitoring system of claim 11 wherein damage or damages suffered by individual sections of the rope are aggregated to a parameter indicating the remaining lifetime of these individual sections of the rope.

15. The rope monitoring system of claim 14 wherein the computing unit further provides an alerting signal when the remaining lifetime of at least one virtual section of the rope reaches a predefined limit.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] FIG. 1A is a top plan view of the rope 1 of the invention showing the rope and a single strength member 10 of the rope.

[0049] FIG. 1B is a cross-section view of the rope 1 of the invention, depicting the strength member 10, the virtual rope sections 11 and the therein embedded ID tags 101.

[0050] FIG. 2 is schematic view of the rope monitoring system of the invention. The rope monitoring system comprises the rope 1 which is virtually separated in individual rope sections 11 provided with an ID tag 101. An ID tag reader device 22 and an ID tag writer device 24 are mounted along the rope path. A computing unit 28 is connected to the reading device 22 and writing device 24 as well as to a means 26 to measure at a rope operation parameter.

[0051] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a hoisting operation equipped with the rope monitoring system of the invention. The rope 1 is equipped with a hook, mounted over a sheave 21 and wound onto a winch representing a means 26 to measure the tension on the rope during operation. An ID tag reader/writer 22/24 is mounted along the determined path of the rope. The rope monitoring system in FIG. 3 further comprising a means 27 to measure a physical rope parameter, such as a thermometer.