Steel Rope Diagnostics by Magnetic NDT: From Defect Detection to Automated Condition Monitoring

Abstract

Today it is hard to imagine an industry or an application that uses steel wire ropes in which the application of a magnetic flaw detector would be unsuitable. The ropes of loading cranes, mine hoists, ropeways, cable-stayed bridges, flare stacks, antenna masts, overhead power transmission lines, and other installations are not only subject to regular inspections (Sukhorukov and Mironenko 2003; Kotelnikov and Sukhorukov 2006; Sukhorukov et al. 2014), but the appropriate guidelines for these rope types are now described in industrial standards such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for crane ropes, ISO 4309 (ISO 2017); the European Standards (EN) standard for ropeways, EN 12927 (BSI 2019); and the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) standards for offshore ropes, IMCA LR 004, IMCA HSSE 023, and IMCA M 197 Rev.1 (IMCA 2018). This paper examines how magnetic flux leakage testing (MFL) is used as the basis for an automated wire rope condition monitoring system, in which the human factor is completely removed.