WIRE ROPE AND AN ASSEMBLY COMPRISING SUCH WIRE ROPE

Abstract

A wire rope for face shovels or draglines, comprising: a core, said core is made from a plurality of core strands a plurality of outer strands laid on said core, a plurality of separator strands located in the interstices between said core strands and said outer strands, a plastic jacket around said plurality of outer strands, said plurality of separator strands and said core strands, wherein said plurality of separator strands extend from said core strands and in-between each pair of said plurality of outer strands so as to produce and maintain gaps between said pair of said plurality of outer strands; wherein said core strands are compacted, and the gap between said core strands is less than 0.4% of the diameter of the core strand.

Claims

1. A wire rope for face shovels or draglines, comprising: a core, said core is made from a plurality of core strands a plurality of outer strands laid on said core, a plurality of separator strands located in the interstices between said core strands and said outer strands, a plastic jacket around said plurality of outer strands, said plurality of separator strands and said core strands, wherein said plurality of separator strands extend from said core strands and in-between each pair of said plurality of outer strands so as to produce and maintain gaps between said pair of said plurality of outer strands; wherein said core strands are compacted, and the gap between said core strands is less than 0.4% of the diameter of the core strand.

2. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said core, said plurality of outer strands, and said plurality of separator strands are made from steel.

3. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said core and/or outer strand has a central wire, a first layer of wires around the central wire and a second or more layer of wires around the first layer of wires.

4. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein the gap between outer stands is a range from 4% to 8%.

5. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein the lay length of said core is shorter than the lay length of said outer stands.

6. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein the elastic modulus of said separator strands is lower than said outer strands, and the elastic limit of said separator strands is higher than said outer strands.

7. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein the elastic limit of the separator strand wire is at least 10% higher than the wire in the core and outer strands.

8. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said rope has eight outer stands.

9. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said outer stands are compacted.

10. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said outer stand has Warrington Seale construction.

11. The wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 1, wherein said outer stand has a 36 wire construction (1,7,7+7, 14), a 31 wire construction (1, 6, 6+6, 12) or a 49 wire construction (1, 8, 8, 8+8, 16).

12. An assembly of a drum and a wire rope for face shovels or draglines, wherein the wire rope is wound around the drum, the wire rope is as in claim 1, and wherein the drum has a diameter of D, the wire rope has a diameter of d, the D/d ratio is between 20:1 to 40:1.

13. The assembly of a drum and a wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 12, wherein the D/d ratio is 24:1.

14. The assembly of a drum and a wire rope for face shovels or draglines as in claim 12, the plastic jacket around said plurality of outer strands, said plurality of separator strands and said core strands is deformed.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES IN THE DRAWINGS

[0031] The invention will be better understood with reference to the detailed description when considered in conjunction with the non-limiting examples and the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0032] FIG. 1 schematically shows an example of the wire rope according to the present invention.

MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0033] A construction of the wire rope of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. The wire rope has a diameter of 72 mm and a configuration of EP8xK36WS+IWRC (1,6,8+8). Herewith, EP refers to the wire rope covered with a polymer. The wire rope has 8 compacted outer strands having 36 wires in combined parallel lay, indicated by 8xK36WS. The core is an independent wire rope (IWRC). The entire rope construction is shown as 1+6+(8+8) and there are two kinds of cords for the outer layers, one being large and the other being small, i.e. it is a parallel lay strand construction having an outer layer of alternately large cords and small cords.

[0034] As shown in FIG. 1, the wire rope 10 has an independent wire rope core (IWRC) 12. The independent rope core 12 is a steel wire rope made from seven strands 14 having same rope construction. Each of the core strands 14 is compacted. In addition, the gap between said core strands is less than 0.03 radius of the core strand but in rope design, the gap between the core strands 14 is set to zero.

[0035] There are placed 8 separator strands 16 and 8 compacted outer strands 18, which are made from steel, laid on the independent rope core 12. The separator strands 16 are provided in-between the compacted outer strands 18 so as to create a gap between each pair of compacted outer strands 18.

[0036] The wire rope 10 is enclosed with a plastic jacket 19. Preferably, the plastic jacket 19 is made of polypropylene and more preferably produced by extrusion. The plastic jacket 19 is extruded to extend over the periphery of the wire rope by a thickness in the range of 1 mm to 2 mm, i.e. 1.50 mm.

[0037] Such a wire rope can be wound on a rope drum having a diameter as low as 1700 mm. The wire rope used for face shovels or draglines approves a considerably prolonged lifetime.