Wire Rope Inspection

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Wire rope is fatigued through complex stress states over its lifetime and must guarantee the safety of human life and expensive equipment.  Broken strands on the rope exterior can be found by visual inspections, but the condition of the core and inner wire strands cannot be seen.  Many wire rope structures start to wear from the inside out.

Deterioration mechanisms include:

• External corrosion,

• Internal corrosion,

• Abrasion,

• Static and dynamic mechanical stresses, and

• Wear

These mechanisms result in the loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA) and local faults (LF), such as broken individual wires and strands.

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) technology provides real engineering data that can be used to assess the structural integrity, allowable load rating, and remaining life of wire rope.