When determining characteristics of a wire rope, two of the most important factors are preforming and lay. These two things directly affect operation and performance. To better understand how this works, we need to go over the most common types of wire used to create wire ropes.
Wire Rope
Bright wires are often uncoated and constructed from high-carbon steel wires. Varying degrees of steel and wire drawing techniques are used to create a unique combination of fatigue resistance, tensile strength, and wear resistance.
Galvanized wire is ideal when high levels of corrosion resistance are required. There are two types of galvanized wire: Drawn and galvanized-to-finish size.
Drawn galvanized wires are bright wires up until they are drawn down to the final diameter. The result is a thinner zinc coating than when compared to galvanized-to-finished wires. Drawn wires match the strength ratings to bright wires of the same grade and size. As a result, ropes made from drawn galvanized wires have breaking forces that match bright variants.
Galvanized-to-finish size wires start with a small diameter of bright wire coat with a layer of zinc. The coasting creates the exactly designed diameter for finished sizes. Galvanized-to-finish wires are often up to 10% lower in strength than bright wires of a similar size. It is important to keep in mind that breaking forces for these wires are 10% lower when compared to bright wires.
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