IDEX 2019: Synthetic rope wire replacement by Marlow.

Vehicle towing and winching wire rope replacement is becoming increasingly important in many vehicle applications due to the significant benefits gained from modern synthetic ropes, offering significant strength, handling and safety improvements over traditional wire products.

Marlow's products at IDEX 2019 (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Marlow’s superior range of British made technically better ropes provide engineering solutions for all towing, winching and recovery operations across the combat vehicle and commercial support sectors.

Historically wire ropes have been used for many applications requiring strength members, however replacing ropes made from steel wire with those made from high performance fibres holds significant advantages and none more so than in safety and performance. They are are 8 times lighter than steel wire for a given diameter and 15 times stronger than wire weight for weight.

At approximately 60% of its breaking load, steel wire reaches its yield point, beyond this point steel wire becomes permanently and irrevocably deformed. Not only does any stretch not recover, but the wire becomes stiffer and brittle and must be retired immediately.

An important feature of synthetic fibre (HMPE) rope is that unlike steel wire, HMPE does not have a yield point. Winch lines (taken to just before the point of break) will not be damaged and there will be no change in the strength to stretch characteristics of the rope.