How Wire Ropes For Aerial Trams Are Made

Wire ropes for aerial trams are highly specialized, and their manufacturing process is a blend of precision metallurgy, careful engineering, and rigorous quality control. Here’s how they’re typically made:

1.    Steel wire production

• It starts with high-carbon steel rods for strength and fatigue resistance.
• The rods are cleaned, coated with a lubricant, and drawn through progressively smaller dies to reduce their diameter while increasing tensile strength.
• The result is very strong, flexible steel wires.

2.    Stranding

• Individual wires are twisted together into strands in a stranding machine.
  The twist pattern (lay) is chosen to balance strength, flexibility, and wear resistance.
• The most common for aerial trams is a Lang lay or regular lay depending on the application.

3.    Closing into a rope

• Multiple strands are then laid around a core. Cores are often made of either a steel wire strand core (SWSC) or in most cases today it is a solid plastic core.
• For aerial trams, full steel cores are used for strength and to resist crushing under high tension.
• This stage determines the final rope design, often locked-coil or parallel-closed types for track ropes, and more flexible constructions for haul ropes.

4.    Compacting (for locked-coil ropes)

• In a locked-coil rope, the outer wires are shaped and compressed so they interlock, creating a smooth surface that reduces wear on sheaves and improves corrosion
• This also maximizes the metal cross-section, giving the rope more strength for its diameter.

5.    Lubrication & protection

• Rope is lubricated internally during manufacturing to reduce friction and protect against corrosion.
• Some aerial tram ropes are galvanized for extra corrosion resistance, especially for wet or snowy environments.

6.    Testing & inspection

• Samples are tested for tensile strength, elongation, diameter tolerance, lay length, and sometimes magnetic flux leakage.
• For aerial trams, ropes must meet strict national and international standards.

7.    Coiling for transport

• The rope is carefully spooled onto large transport reels or coils—sometimes weighing dozens of tons—ready to be delivered and installed on-site.

Key types of wire ropes for aerial trams:

• Track rope: Thick, locked-coil steel rope that supports the cabins.
• Haul rope: More flexible stranded rope that moves the cabins along the track rope.