Rope drives

Ropes and rope drives have long been an important focus at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. The intensive research began with the stressing of the rope drum under multi-layer winding with steel ropes. The challenges of the present with increasing working heights of cranes while maintaining wheel loads, increasing hoisting depths with constant loads, sustainability through increased bending fatigue strength are taken into account at the institute through current research.

In addition to steel wire ropes, research is increasingly being conducted on fiber ropes. The rope properties differ considerably in some cases, so that the stresses on the rope drive also vary considerably as a result of the different types of rope. Failure mechanisms and design principles for fiber and steel wire ropes are the subject of current research. The aim is to make the properties, system and failure behavior understandable, describable and safe for users.

The institute has a spooling test rig available for testing, with which high rope tensile forces can be achieved via a hydraulic drive. Two electric motors, which are electrically tensioned against each other, enable sustainable and cost-effective endurance testing.

A transverse testing device for up to 500kN and rope diameters from 11 mm to 100 mm has been developed at the institute to determine the transverse stiffness.

Laser scanners can be used to determine the ovalization of ropes or the winding pattern during spooling.

Powerful computer servers are available for numerical investigations.

A detailed description of the institute's testing facilities can be found under Equipment.

Current research topics are

• Influence of the fiber rope properties on the load scenario and the operating behavior of the rope drive
• Determination of the winding behavior using laser-optical measuring methods
• Investigation of the winding behavior of plastic-coated wire ropes
• Methods for determining and describing rope properties

The current research projects can be found here.

All bachelor students of mechanical engineering at Clausthal University of Technology are taught the basics of rope drives in the course "Machine Elements". If you are more interested in the subject area, you can attend the elective course "Rope drives" in the Master's program.