Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Wire rope - why not aluminum?
(OP)
I'm in a DFM class at the moment and am actually trying to use all of the 'tools' they have taught us to this point to select a material and process for manufacturing all the parts in our design.
So.... we're stuck at the wire rope (cable). All of the material properties are pointing us in the direction of an aluminum wire rope, but when we look at what's available in production today, I see no off-the-shelf alumiminum wire rope. The only criteria we can find at the moment to discount aluminum would be if we chose to go with infinite life rather than a design life of 10^7 cycles.
Can someone give me some other good reasons why aluminum is not used as a wire rope material today?
So.... we're stuck at the wire rope (cable). All of the material properties are pointing us in the direction of an aluminum wire rope, but when we look at what's available in production today, I see no off-the-shelf alumiminum wire rope. The only criteria we can find at the moment to discount aluminum would be if we chose to go with infinite life rather than a design life of 10^7 cycles.
Can someone give me some other good reasons why aluminum is not used as a wire rope material today?
Bryan





RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
An everyday example is of ACSR grade where a steel reinforcement is introduced to prevent it from sagging.
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
What led you to feel aluminum would be the way to go?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
corrosion resistance was one criteria that forced us away from plain steels to stainless steels.
Also, it appears that most aluminums have a much lower % elongation than most steels. I'm guessing this is a big factor that makes steels more favorable because you can use smaller diameter pulleys without permanently setting the cable. The only aluminums that I found with high % elongations had very poor yield/fatigue strengths.
We've ended up choosing a stainless steel for the material, but are wanting to ensure that we have reasonable justifications to eliminate the aluminum alloys.
Bryan
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
The steels used for wire rope applications will have extremely high strength-- tensile strength over 2000 MPa depending on the diameter. The latest generation of small diameter steel wires for cables/ropes and tire cord applications has tensile strength ~ 4000 MPa.
Corrosion resistance is improved by using zinc coatings (galvanizing).
arunmrao was referring to elastic deformation when he said % elongation, not the amount of plastic deformation (fracture strain) that occurs during tensile loading. Since Al is only 1/3 as stiff as steel, it will deflect elastically more than steel for a given load and size.
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Another aspect is that the aluminum-to-steel comparison is usually looking at fairly low-strength steels, such as structural steel. Steel cable is usually a good bit higher yield stress than structural steel, and would be at less disadvantage when compared pound-for-pound.
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
good luck
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
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Cory
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RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Every utility pole I see has a wire rope made of aluminum.
Charlie
www.facsco.com
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
We just had a tornado rip apart our neighborhood last August. All the guy wires were replaced, and they were in my yard for a few weeks. They were all aluminum.
Charlie
www.facsco.com
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Charlie
www.facsco.com
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Else rolls of Al conductor,both bare type and insulated are often stolen.
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
Al-alloys do have an endurance limit. The stress levels that are required to provide an infinite life are just very small.
And the endurance limit is not generally seen when testing to 10^6 or 10^7 cycles.
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?
RE: Wire rope - why not aluminum?