Non-destructive Inspection of Wire Ropes Is Wise Mean to Provide Safety and Cost Savings

Large number of ferrous steel wire ropes is in use in different industries, carrying people and freight, supporting bridges and towers, lifting pipes and vessels offshore and onshore, underground and aboveground. The bigger and the longer is the rope, the more expensive it is. Later or sooner ropes deteriorate for different reasons, their further use may be dangerous, and important question arise: whether the rope should be discarded or still may remain in operation. Premature discard and replacement with the new rope involves in unreasonable costs, while operating the rope which already reached discard criteria is dangerous. The sensible answer is discarding in time, i.e. for reason. Reasonable discard is possible based on proper inspection, otherwise technical condition of rope remains unknown. Visual inspection is obvious, but only visual examination is not sufficient due to specific rope design. Nondestructive magnetic inspection of ropes enables to gather comprehensive data for making reasoned decision. Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) equipment with strong magnetization can inspect ropes reliably, and smart software facilitates data interpretation. Reach experience with NDT of ropes spilled over into development of relevant national and international norms and standards. Why must ropes be inspected and examined? Wire ropes are consumable items with limited life. During service the physical properties of the wire rope will change. At the commencement of service, the individual wires and strands settle into position and the rope breaking strength increases. After reaching a maximum it decreases rapidly. (Fig 1) One of the objective of inspecting or examining a wire rope is to supervise the normal process of deterioration so that rope can be removed from service before becoming a hazard to safety. Another benefit of the inspection and examination procedures is to detect unexpected damage or corrosion. M or e In fo a t O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w .n dt .n et /? id = 15 07 7