Steel wire rope is a flexible load-bearing component made by twisting multiple steel wires, and is widely used in fields such as lifting, transportation, elevators, mining, and Bridges. Its design needs to comprehensively consider factors such as load-bearing capacity, safety, durability and usage environment. The core points are as follows:

I. Application Scenarios and Load Analysis

The premise of the design is to clearly define the application scenarios of the steel wire rope (such as lifting, traction, binding, elevator suspension, etc.), and accordingly analyze the types of loads it will bear to ensure that the load-bearing capacity matches the actual requirements

Static load: Stable load-bearing (such as bridge cables), constant tensile force needs to be calculated.

Dynamic load: The force during the movement process (such as the acceleration and braking of a crane during lifting), and the additional force generated by the acceleration should be taken into account (usually 1.1 to 1.3 times the static load).

Impact load: Sudden force application (such as emergency braking, impact from falling goods) requires the calculation of peak load through dynamic mechanical models (which may be 2 to 3 times the static load).

Additional load: Extra force caused by environmental factors (such as wind force, vibration) or the self-weight of the equipment, which needs to be superimposed on the total load.

Ii. Structural Parameter Design

The structure of steel wire ropes directly affects their strength, flexibility, wear resistance and service life. Core parameters include:

Number of strands and steel wires:

Number of strands: Commonly, there are 6 strands and 8 strands. Multi-strand structures (such as 6×19, 6×37) have better flexibility and are suitable for situations that require bending (such as 6×19S for elevators). Single strands (such as 1×37) have strong rigidity and are suitable for linear traction.

The number of steel wires per share: The more steel wires there are, the better the flexibility, but the smaller the diameter of each single wire, and the slightly poorer the wear resistance. For instance, 6×19 (19 steel wires per share) is suitable for scenarios with medium to high strength and medium flexibility. 6×37 (37 steel wires per share) is more flexible and suitable for frequent bending conditions.

The diameter of the steel wire: The larger the diameter of the single wire, the stronger the wear resistance and shear resistance, but the flexibility decreases. It is necessary to balance according to "load-bearing demand + bending frequency", for example, steel wire ropes with diameters of 15-30mm are commonly used in mine hoists.

Lay direction and lay length:

The twist direction (left twist/right twist, alternating twist/co-directional twist) affects the rotational trend under force. Most lifting operations use alternating twist (to reduce torsion during hoisting).

The lay length (the distance each steel wire rotates around the central axis once) is usually 6 to 8 times the diameter of the steel wire rope. If it is too small, it will cause stress concentration; if it is too large, the structure will become loose.