RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH PERFORMANCE ROPES FOR MINING APPLICATIONS AND THE PROSPECTS OF NEXT GENERATION ROPES

摘要

Ropes are probably the only tool developed by human beings which keeps its shape and basic structure almost unchanged after several thousand years of evolution.Nowadays ropes are still playing critical roles in a variety of lifting, pullingand holding operations including mining applications.Moreover there are so many unknowns and unsolved technical problems that quality issues of ropes or/and abuse of ropes cause huge damages and often fatal accidents.This paper starts with a brief review of historical development of modern wire ropes and synthetic fibre ropes from a technical point of view following an introduction of the definition of rope, its typical construction and constitutes the basic principles of rope mechanics and strength realization, primary performances of ropes required by different applications.The second section of the paper reports R&D of high performance wire ropes particularly mining ropes carried out by the authors and their colleagues in Briton, including..(a) Applying FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to understand the deformation mechanisms in wire ropes to provide information to improve constructiondesign; (b) Bridon patented technology DYFORM for compaction of strands and sometimes ropes to increase strength, wear and crush resistances and (c) Plastic impregnation and sheathing to increase corrosion, wear and fatigue resistance for ropes used both in underground mining(hoist and balance ropes) as well as surface mining (draglines).The last section of this paper provides an outlook of future rope development.In recent years ultra deep mining (over 3000m) and offshore operation in ultra deep sea have raised a new and higher level of strength, weight, length, service life and safety requirements.This paper discusses the possible technical routes to achieve these performances, in particular: are high modulus fibre ropes better solutions to the above mentioned requirements? What are the advantages and disadvantages when steel wire ropes and fibre ropes are compared? What is theoretically the ultimate strength of the ultimate rope? Is nano fibre material feasible to be used for new rope development? And will intelligent rope that can detect the condition of it and gives warning when maintenance, repair or replacement is required remain a fiction?