Synthetic rope manufacturer Bexco has invested in a new test bench facility capable of automated testing 25m lengths of rope for one week or longer, with remote electronic data interchange and on-site certification of made-to measure rope solutions.
The Belgium-based firm, which produces DeepRope, single point mooring (SPM) and maritime synthetic rope for offshore oil and gas mooring and lifting projects, installed the test bench at its manufacturing facility in Flanders.
The bench has 5m dual cylinders, which allow for precise, digitized stress tests for both large diameter finished synthetic rope (500-tonne cylinder) and smaller diameter synthetic subrope (80-tonne cylinder).
This unit can test an entire range of maritime, SPM, DeepRope and special lifting products. Testing includes breaking strength, stiffness, splice integrity, fatigue, creep and torque-match testing.
Peter Van Den Berghe, chief operations officer of Bexco says: “The unit is semi-automated for prolonged testing and is well beyond the usual 15m length to focus on both splice and rope body behaviour.”
The new unit is capable of torque-match testing Bexco’s made-to-measure DeepRope to ensure it has the same twist behaviour in operating conditions as its 6-strand steel equivalent.
The unit is already being used for internal product testing, and will be made available for external use as of the first quarter of 2014.
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