There are a number of important factors to consider when using chain to lift a given obstacle. Shiny, gold, Grade 70 Transport chain is intended for load binding only. This chain is used to hold heavy items down to a flatbed truck and the gold-chromate finish as well as the carbon-steel construction makes this chain easy to spot and more difficult to break. 

In order to fully understand the importance of the regular application for wire rope lubrication during the working life of stranded or full locked coil hoisting ropes, it is first necessary to analyze the function of any such lubricant.

a) Each wire in any wire rope construction must remain as free as possible from adjacent wires so it can move to accommodate its allocated share of the varying rope tension it has to endure.  This is especially important when the rope is performing at high speed and/or under the high wire contact stresses encountered during hoisting.  Rope design is intended to minimize inter wire frictional contact but only by good lubricating practices can this effect be fully accomplished.

b) The majority of hoist ropes utilized in shafts are subject to corrosion from one cause or another. Shaft water containing a high salt content, chemical fumes, and upcast shafts producing condensation, are among the more notable causes.  Regardless of the cause, it is essential to guard against or retard the certainty of corrosive attack on the steel.  Experience has shown that the application of galvanized wire is only partially successful because the finish soon wears off. Therefore, it is clear that in-service lubricants must possess the following qualities:

a) Penetrate easily into the rope.
b) Displace moisture from the internal and external surfaces.
c) Provide good corrosion protection both internally and externally.
d) Be resistant to emulsification.
e) Possess good rope adhesive properties.
f) Resist removal by mechanical forces.
g) Possess good anti-wear properties.
h) Be compatible with the lubricant already employed during rope manufacture. 

It should be pointed out that in the case of full locked coil and many plastic enhanced hoisting ropes, in-service lubricant is confined solely to the outside wire. This is because the inner rope is already sealed off with adequate lubrication. 

Without lubrication during the working life, wire ropes may suffer from premature withdrawal from service:

1) Premature wire breaks occurring in the ropes and caused by internal and/or external corrosion.

2) Premature wire breaks occurring at the strand interstices due to lack of proper inter strand movement.

3) Strand displacement, loose wires, and rope waving, leading to loss of cross section stability. Additionally, the correct lubricant is of key importance during rope manufacture.  Through a German study (see chart below), it is proven that the proper lay-up lubricant can have a great effect on rope life. 

The chart depicts:

• Wire rope un-lubricated
• Wire rope lubricated, but with general lubricant not designed for wire ropes
• Standard lubricant designed for wire rope wires
• Wire rope application-specific lubricant Plastic enhanced

Northern Strands is an official supplier of Kirpatrick Lubricants in Canada.

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated.

Northern Strands delivers presentations on Safety with Rigging at the Agrium Safety Fair.  These presentations included aspects of rigging inspections, examples of rejections and the do's and don'ts of rigging safety.  Northern Strands provided a test bed to perform breaks on lifting slings as part of the presentation.

The test bed demonstration:

New web and wire rope slings ( 3/8 x 6ft and 1” 1ply and 2ply ) were supplied for demonstration. Agrium also supplied Northern Strands with 10-12 used wire rope and web slings in varying degrees of degradation. All new slings were benchmarked to have breaking load 5 x Working load limit. All new slings broke above this benchmark. The used slings broke all over the map. Some of the new slings were given a knot and then tested with an expected 50% reduction in breaking load. Slings with knots were 40% to 60% of benchmark. Hitches were also tested ( Choker style ) there were consistent breaks near calculated load. We did have a number of eye breaks on new web and wire rope slings but above projected breaking point.

Approx. 300 people attended the presentations and were very interested in the demonstration results

Some of the comments overheard were along the lines of: Who'd of thought...I didn't know that...great to see what we only read about before....guess we don't do that anymore.

The comments were very positive and it's very likely Northern Strands will be asked by Agrium to give additional presentations on Safety with Rigging at the Agrium Safety Fair next year. 

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada owned and operated.