02.08.2012

Bridon invests in big rope making

Bridon has begun installing the world’s biggest machine for the manufacture of steel wire ropes at its UK plant in Newcastle.
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Part of the new machinery is unloaded

The investment includes a new £10 million ‘closing’ machine built by German engineering company SKET, which forms dozens of strands of wire into a single finished rope enabling the company to manufacture the world’s largest and most complex ropes in package weights of up to 650 tonnes.

The ropes are targeted at the offshore sector which is looking for cables that can handle 600 tonnes at depths of up to 4,000 metres – requiring multistrand ropes that boast massive breaking loads, optimised bend fatigue performance, effective lubrication, and minimal rotation under load.
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The scale of the new machinery is immense

The facility also boasts a new SKET stranding machine which winds dozens of wires together into the individual strands that are then spun together by the closer machine.

To ease the load-out of 650 tonne rope reels onto vessels moored at the factory’s deepwater quayside, Bridon has commissioned Newcastle-based engineering firm Pipe Coil Technology to deliver an innovative take-up stand- a machine which is used to move new ropes on the final reels from the closer to the Quay side without assistance.
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The building that will house the new machinery

Bridon Group chief executive Jon Templeman said: “In constructing a state of the art factory that will lead the world in the production of large, complex ropes, we knew we could settle for nothing less than the biggest and best rope making machinery ever produced. The closer, strander, and takeup stand at Bridon Neptune Quay are not only the largest rope making machines in existence; they also have the capacity to make the most complex and highly engineered ropes ever conceived.”

“Close collaboration with our customers has developed our understanding of the complex tasks they face in the world’s toughest environments. Thanks to this collaborative approach, and to the ingenuity of our key suppliers SKET and Pipe Coil Technology, this machinery will surpass all previous ropemaking equipment in manufacturing ropes tailored to 21st century offshore challenges.”