Thick wire rope break test - video

[Jon]

76mm wire rope tested until failure. 45-second video. That sound of impending disaster - PANG!

Previously:

metal hose braiding GIF
How traditional rope is made, with 1800s machines - video
Rope cleaning brushes - photos

[Frank S]

Yep that was the sound. I am surprised that no sequestering blanket or safety shield was in place over the test sample though.

A rigging test lab in Kuwait tested dozens of my freight elevator cables for the certification standards I was writing. There were several companies around the world who wanted in on the freight elevator market in Kuwait which we basically pioneered there.
Prior to my setting up and manufacturing there the only elevator company who had ever built and installed any freight elevators there was OTIS elevators.
OTIS being a world renown company in business for a very long time Had their way of doing things but way too expensive for many of the smaller companies to consider. Cost of transportation import duties being the major factors.
Once I started manufacturing there one of the first things I needed was to be able to swedge my own cables instead of having to order the from Europe or the USA.
So we machined our own sockets and ends then had them certified this meant that every size we used had to be certified and any changes in design were also tested. We always did the testing with a shield in place though.

[Steved53]

It still scares me how many people stand over or near wire ropes under tension.

[NeiljohnUK]

OTIS being a world renown company in business for a very long time Had their way of doing things but way too expensive for many of the smaller companies to consider. Cost of transportation import duties being the major factors.

OTIS freight and personnel elevators were once the best, now with flat-belt designs instead of cable I'm not so sure, we regularly have issues with belts that have stretched, even though the car has an overload cut out, do you know if the belts are tested to the same standards as cables?

[Frank S]

OTIS freight and personnel elevators were once the best, now with flat-belt designs instead of cable I'm not so sure, we regularly have issues with belts that have stretched, even though the car has an overload cut out, do you know if the belts are tested to the same standards as cables?

Yes belts and every other means of lifting or suspension have to meet very strict standards These standards are upgrades each time new technology comes along.
Some of the elevators of today travel at near relativistic speeds when compared to those of 30 or 40 years ago and would be considered above warp speed if compared to 100 year old technology.
One of my freight lifts had so much lifting capacity that in order for the end user to have some idea of just how much load they were actually loading into it I installed weight cells with a read out because we were constantly getting calls about the lift would not raise off of the stops to be lowered to the basement due to the preset weight limiters we had installed. One time the log showed that they had tried to lower over 40 tons at on the platform the lift was rated and had limits set at 23 metric tons the locks would not release if there was over that amount even though the platform might raise enough to allow them to release if there happened to be a little over the rated load. the elevator was cable suspended from a hydraulic cylinder.
One of my service technicians found once where someone had adjusted the relief valve setting to raise the pressure we put a stop to that by installing a pre set non adjustable relief valve

[Ralphxyz]

gee, ever thought that the reason there are no safety blankets is because they wanted to take a unobstructed video?

Often times manufactures will remove "safety" equipment to make a video of there operations.

Ralph

[NeiljohnUK]

One of my service technicians found once where someone had adjusted the relief valve setting to raise the pressure we put a stop to that by installing a pre set non adjustable relief valve

That comes as no surprise, too many people 'tweak' things without the requisite knowledge. One of the worst lift 'accidents' I was involved with down the line was an interfloor hydraulic scissor platform lift in a retail food store, the manager to save time had modified it to continually cycle between the limit switches, with staff expected to load/unload with it whilst moving, one of the 'saturday lads' (school children over 14 earning a small wage) slipped and had his head separated from his body. And it seems the lift industry needs to sort out its act too, though the 'engineer' would probably have been fired if he'd locked out the lift? https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news...old-girl-59772

[Frank S]

Clearly posted on my freight lifts was a warning that under no circumstances should riders be allowed except for a trained operator if required like if the forklift driver had to move from floor to floor on the larger capacity lifts. Many of my lifts were pit-less with automatic fold down ramps. when the platform/ cr was all the way down there mighty be less than 3" clearance. One evening a maintenance worker thought it a good idea to inspect some of the safeties and cable connections underneath, so instead of raising the platform to a point where he could rotate the service locks in place for under body work and tag with his lock out clip he crawled under on his hands and knees this was a very large lift with a beam structure in the platform that was 12". while under there someone saw the platform not all the way down and pushed the down button and walked on by.
The guy knew he was trapped once the platform started down so he laid flat as he could between where he thought the beams would miss him. Unharmed but with no way to get out from under he managed to use his cell phone and call for help it was nearly an hour before he got hold of someone to get him out from under it