New splice adds life to towing ropes
Lankhorst Ropes has developed splicing technology that reduces the size and weight of the ropes eye splice, making it easier to handle while still producing a rope that is almost a quarter stronger than traditional methods.
Called ‘A3’, the splice has a 100% efficiency, which means there is actually no loss in rope strength. It also makes rope handling easier as there is no doubling of the rope or splice stiffness in the mainline commonly experienced with traditional splicing.
Moreover, the A3 splice design is less prone to the effect of abrasion on vulnerable areas of the splice covering, thus providing a longer lasting rope.
Testing witnessed by Lloyds Register of a traditional splice and the A3 splice with a Lankhorst Strongline braided mooring rope showed the traditionally spliced rope had a breaking force of 925 kN compared with 1,140 kN for the A3 splice; demonstrating a 23% increase in breaking force with the new splicing technology.
Hans-Pieter Baaij, MD of Lankhorst, while not giving away company secrets, talked about the advantages of the new technology to MJ. ‘It’s an in-house operation which enables quite a bit of tailoring for individual rope specifications. Further, the big advantage is that when the rope is not in use, you can easily install it on a winding mechanism since the mainline keeps its ability to follow the contours of a drum.’
This is in marked contrast to the usual spliced combinations that suffer not only from the stiffening in the mainline that comes about from the splice itself, but also from the sheathing that accompanies it.
‘All this additional stiffening tends to make the rope point out forward, making it difficult to position and wind satisfactorily,’ said Mr Baaij. ‘So the A3 splice gives heightened efficiency on more than one level.’
He added that this roll out is just the first step, as the A3 splice will be progressively introduced across all the Lankhorst Ropes range over 2010/11. ‘It’s a development that has come about based on a great deal of technical experience. Actually, over 200 years of experience.’
The company has a history of working in close cooperation with its clients worldwide in order to develop innovative solutions for specific applications. These solutions can be either new products (such as the A3 splice) or optimised existing techniques.
Steven Wardenier, commercial director of Lankhorst Ropes added, ‘This is an important development for ship and tug operators. The new splice enables a stronger rope that provides greater safety in rope handling, and offers significant savings in the overall cost of rope ownership.’
