All you need to know about UNIQ Steel Wire Rope

A few days ago we launched the new range of UNIQ Steel Wire Rope products and it's time to explain everything you need to know about them.

1. BASIC COMPONENTS

A) Core: Central element of the steel wire rope whose function is to provide firm support to the strands. It can be of two types:

· Textile or fiber: You will be able to distinguish them because the letters FC will appear in their name. This type of cable will have greater flexibility, but less resistance in environments with high humidity and/or temperature.

· Metallic or steel: They will have the letters WSC in their name. In this case, they will have less flexibility, but will be much more resistant in environments with high humidity and/or temperature.

Depending on the application we are working with, we will need a steel wire rope with one type of core or another.

B) Cord: Element of the cable composed of a number of helically wound wires. The strand or strand, in turn, is helically wound around the core and constitutes the steel wire rope.

C) Steel wire: It is the basic component of the steel wire rope.

2. STRUCTURE

If you check the UNIQ Steel Wire Rope category of our website, you will see that each one of them has a 3-number designation. What does each one refer to? Let's see, for example, the structure of the Galvanized Steel Wire Rope - 6 x 7 + 1 (FC):

The first number corresponds to the number of strands, the second number to the number of wires per strand and the third to the type of core, which can be 0 (metallic core / WSC) or 1 (textile core / FC). In this case, this galvanized steel wire rope has 6 strands, each of them composed of 7 wires and has a textile core.

Then we have another type of designation that does not have a final number. As the name itself indicates, it is no longer a set of cords forming a cable, but a single cord. That is why it has no core, no number at the end, and no identifying letters (WSC / FC). This is its structure:

It is 1 cord formed by 19 wires and has no core (because it has no third number).

3. ROLLING

In other words, in which direction are the cords and wires of the steel wire ropes coiled? Well, UNIQ brand has 2 types:

· Crossover: The most common. The cords are coiled in the opposite direction to the wires, and can be in both directions (crossed right and crossed left). This type of winding makes the wire rope more resistant to crushing and deformation and easier to handle.

If we are looking for a wire rope that has greater resistance to frictional wear and greater flexibility, then we will look for a wire rope that has this other type of winding:

· Anti-twist: Cords alternately wound in the same direction as the wire and in the opposite direction, and can also be in both directions (alternating right and alternating left).

For example, the Galvanized steel wire rope - 19 x 7 + 0 (non-rotating) has this type of winding. Let's see its structure:

It consists of 2 layers: an inner layer of 6 cords (core) and an outer layer of 12 cords (together they total 19 cords), each of which consists of 7 wires and has a metallic core (1) which, in fact, corresponds to the second layer of cords. In addition, the cords of each layer are wound in different directions. Thus, the cords compensate for stresses and eliminate the tendency to rotate on themselves due to the tension exerted by the suspended load.

4. DIAMETER

It is usually expressed in millimeters (mm) and should be measured as shown in the picture:

And we must differentiate between:

· Nominal diameter: Used to identify the cable, it does not necessarily have to be the real value of the cable.

· Useful diameter: Real diameter of the cable, it must always be larger than the nominal one and can never be higher than +8% (EN12385).

5. MATERIALS

UNIQ Steel Wire Rope is available in 3 materials:

· Galvanized steel C60: Manufactured with electric galvanized steel wire.
· Stainless steel AISI 316: High resistance to corrosion.
· Plasticized PVC: C60 galvanized steel plasticized in transparent PVC.

We hope we have clarified some of your doubts and if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to help you.

See you next time! 😊