Wire Rope: Popular Classifications

Left Lay REGULAR LAY

Right Lay REGULAR LAY

Left Lay LANG LAY

Right Lay ALTERNATE LAY

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Right Lay LANG LAY

Wire Rope Specifications

The Design Factor being the ratio between the minimum Breaking load of the rope and the working load
limit (WLL) tells at what percentage of its ultimate strength a wire rope is operating. The Design Factor
takes into consideration both normal rope wear and potential stresses in various applications. The best
practice in determining an adequate design factor is to analyze the specific conditions involved in each
individual installation. The following example shows how to determine the Design Factor: If a rope is
working under a max. operating load of 10,000 lbs and is having an ultimate strength of 50,000 lbs the
factor is 5 which means it is operating at 20% of its ultimate strength.

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Wire Rope

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SUGGESTED WIRE ROPE FOR PARTICULAR USES

NOTE: 6 x 26 WS may be substituted for 6 x 25 FW, 6 x 36 WS for 6 x 41 WS. 9-part Heavy Lift Slings may be substituted for
Cable Laid.

Definition of Abbreviations
Grade
IPS - Improved Plow Steel
EIPS - Extra Improved Plow
Steel
GIPS - Galvanized Improved
Plow Steel
EEIP - Extra Extra Improved
Plow
DGEIP - Drawn Galvanized
Extra Improved Plow

Construction

Lay

Core

FW - Filler Wire
WS - Warrington Seale

RRL - Right Regular Lay

RLL - Right Lang Lay

IWRC - Wire Rope Core

FC - Fiber Core

SFW - Seale Filler Wire

RR - Rotation Resistant
W - Warrington
S - Seale

LRL - Left Regular Lay

LLL - Left Lang Lay

Fiber - Hemp or
Poly Core
Poly - Polypropylene
Core

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Criteria For Replacement

Of Wire Ropes

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Rope Wear
Deterioration and Abuse

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Rope Wear
Deterioration and Abuse

8.

Typical wire fractures as a result

of bend fatigue.

9.

Wire fractures at the strand, or

core interface, as distinct from
crown fractures, caused by
failure of core support.

10.

Break up of IWRC resulting from

high stress application. Note nicking
of wires in outer strands.

11.

Strand core protrusion as a result

of torsional unbalance created by
drop ball application.
(i.e. shock loading).

12.

Typical example of localized

wear and deformation created at
a previously kinked portion of rope.

13.

Multi strand rope bird-caged

due to torsional unbalance. Typical
of build up seen at anchorage end of
multi-fall crane application.

14.

Protrusion of IWRC resulting from

shock loading.

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Figuring Reel Capacity

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Sheave and Drum Ratios

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Minimum Sheave- and Drum-Groove

Dimensions*

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