21.07.2008

The world’s largest wire rope

Bridon International, the wire rope specialist, has officially gained world record status for producing the world's heaviest cable from The Guinness Book of Records for its Big Hydra rope.
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The certificate

The 5½ inch diameter cable weighs 337 tonnes and is 4,000 metres long, it was manufactured at Bridon’s Gelsenkirchen plant in Germany and breaks Bridon’s previous record by 100 tonnes.
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The world's heaviest wire rope

The specialist low rotation deepwater handling rope was supplied through Bridon’s distributor, United Offshore Services, to Heerema Marine Contractors for use on its deepwater construction vessel Balder. A further 4,000 metres will be supplied later this year along with several other specialist crane ropes for the DCV Balder and Thialf.
The rope took 18 of Bridon’s most experienced employees over five weeks to produce, the cable reel was over 7.5 metres wide. A specialist transport company was called in to move the massive cable from the plant to the port of Gelsenkirchen.
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14 of the 18 men who made it

The move was carried out overnight using a 28 axle- 75 metre long self propelled modular transporter.
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Off it goes to the port