Wire Rope Terminations Talk went with a bang!

We had a small but select gathering in the wonderful Arthur Beale basement for a talk about wire ropes and their various terminations. We went through the different wire materials and constructions then demonstarted the hydraulic press for making ferrule secured eyes. After that we used the roll swaging machine to secure an M8 threaded stud to the end of a 5 mm stainless wire. We then moved onto a hands-on demonstration of Nicopress tools and finished by making a 2 mm stainless steel wire rope assembly and testing it to destruction. The minimum breaking load of the wire was stated at 248 kg so the working load limit would be 20% of that at 49 kg. We then take 90% of that load to take into account terminal inefficiency giving a theorectical WLL of 44 kg. We attached the assembly to the test rig via a load meter and loaded the wire to its WLL. All nice and calm. Then we started to crank up the load with a lever hoist. At 100 kg the wire feels very tense. We carried on up to breaking point when it becomes drum tight and quite exiciting! The Nicopress termination showed no sign of failure even at five times it's WLL. It wasn't until we got to 314 kg that the whole thing went BANG!

Great fun and also rather reassuring that such a simlpe single compression Nicopress crimp can take such a load. I think everyone enjoyed the session.