Take the stress out of wire rope applications

Wire ropes used in a broad range of equipment – including lifting, winching and conveying applications – can benefit from durable sheaves and rollers made from engineered plastics, which protect against metal-to-metal contact and harsh abrasion from metal alternatives.

Wire rope is integral to lifting, shifting and power transmission across a host of industries.

Wire rope’s advantage over the chains it originally replaced was that it would not snap catastrophically where there were flaws in chain links or solid bars, but rather individual strands could fail while others around them would take up the load safely and flexibly without shock. However, even the best quality wire rope will ultimately wear and potentially fail if it is subjected to constant abrasion, such as that induced by uneven metal-to-metal contact across sheaves and where lubricants attract grime to gradually compromise strength while attracting impurities into industrial processes.

To help protect against such issues, Cut To Size Plastics custom engineers sheaves and rollers for wire ropes using some of the world’s hardest-wearing engineering plastics, formulated to reduce wear and maintenance and enhance safety in a wide range of machinery and materials handling equipment.

Examples of such sheaves are fabricated from Cut To Size’s Wearlon range of hard-wearing cast polyamide engineering plastics, such as the LiNNOTAM products from the Licharz organisation. These products are formulated both for OEM use and metal replacement in applications involving transmission of mechanical force and minimising friction.

Cut To Size’s managing director Laurie Green says,  “Available in various grades for different purposes, Wearlon LiNNOTAM metal-replacement materials offer especially long service lives and are easy to machine to custom-fabricated shapes.”

Cut To Size manufactures components such as sheaves, rollers, gears and wear components for applications across Australasia from its head office in Sydney where facilities include CNC machining facilities coupled with GibbsCAM and Solidworks software. Cut To Size also recently invested in a Morbidelli Author M100F heavy duty CNC router and advanced machining centre used to produce high-quality, light and strong engineering components and finished products that use some of the world’s most advanced engineering plastic formulations to deliver quiet, low-friction performance, requiring no lubrication or maintenance.

“Steel wire ropes are important and highly stressed machine elements in force transmission and conveying technology. In many cases, large plant depends on their functioning not only for efficiency but also safety. Wearlon can extend lifespan and enhance safety by reducing maintenance and preserving structural integrity for longer,” says Green.