Practical Rope Inspection of World-Record Installations
The world’s largest, highest, and deepest installations represent impressive technical feats. Steel wire ropes play a crucial role in the safe operation of many of these facilities.
For this reason, ROTEC also conducts rope inspections on unique installations around the globe. The various ROPESYS rope testing devices are employed depending on the rope diameter and the specific application.
Global records in cable car technology and mining
World records can be found in a wide variety of industries around the globe.
In La Paz, the world’s largest urban cable car network spans the metropolis. In Venezuela, the Teleférico de Mérida ascends to an altitude of 4,765 meters. In South Africa, mine hoisting systems operate at extreme depths.
Vietnam is also home to record-breaking cable car systems. At Fansipan, a 3S lift traverses one of the world’s largest vertical rises. Other record-breaking lifts are located in Ha Long Bay and on Phu Quoc, while ROTEC inspected approximately 60 kilometers of cable across nine different systems at Ba Na Hills. The team also worked on several extraordinary installations at Ba Den Mountain.
Record-breaking cable cars from the Alps to the Caucasus
ROTEC’s operational scope extends from the Zugspitze to Armenia. This encompasses the Wings of Tatev as well as the cable car technology at the Zugspitze.
The Bursa Teleferik in Turkey is a record-holder. Built by LEITNER, the line—spanning just under nine kilometers—is considered the longest monocable gondola lift in the world. Dr. Martin Wehr trained the on-site staff in the use of the ROPESYS R58 rope testing device and demonstrated the practical application of magnetic-inductive rope testing.
From passenger transport to the heaviest work machine
However, such superlatives are by no means limited to cable cars. Excavator 293—the world’s largest and heaviest land vehicle—operates at the Hambach open-cast mine. Its four hoist ropes each have a diameter of 75 millimeters. The ROTEC team performed magnetic-inductive rope testing directly on the machine using the ROPESYS R83.
This brings together vastly different operating environments that share a common technical challenge: wire ropes perform critical tasks and are often subjected to high loads. Consequently, reliable monitoring of their condition is essential.
Magnetic-inductive measurement technology provides important information.
A purely visual inspection of the rope surface is not always sufficient for large wire ropes, as certain types of damage can occur within the rope without being clearly visible from the outside. Magnetic rope testingtherefore complements visual inspection by providing measurement data on changes within the wire rope.
This allows various applications to be connected with one another: from cable cars high above a city to massive machines used in open-pit mining.
The systems could hardly be more different. Yet the task remains the same: to reliably assess the condition of the wire ropes in use.
ROTEC – we make ropes safe.
Further information
▶YouTube
Discover more videos about our rope testing systems, application examples, and innovations.
💼 LinkedIn
Follow ROTEC for current projects, new products, and insights into our development work.
Im Bild:
