Alternative Werkstoffe für Tragmittel in der Förder- und Materialflusstechnik

Abstract

The demands on running suspension means in rope drives within material handling and materials flow technology are manifold, as, e.g., when used in aggressive environmental and corrosive surroundings. Thus, the usage of non-corrosive running stainless steel ropes suggests itself for corresponding applica-tions. It is, however, the case that established dimensioning rules for load bearing wire elements running over sheaves and constructed of unalloyed carbon steels cannot be applied to stainless steel ropes. Exam-ples from industrial applications in varnishing and degreasing installations and from sluice gates in inland navigation were suited to demonstrate that running stainless steel ropes exhibit similar qualitative proper-ties with a view to their lifetime as aforementioned traditional load bearing elements. However, lifetime in running stainless steel ropes is reduced by a factor of 3 to 8 in comparison with load bearing wire elements of unalloyed carbon steels. The results and experience thus obtained were applied to initiate a pre-competitive foundational research project entitled ”Running Stainless Steel Ropes” funded by industry and through budgetary funds from the ‘Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie BMWI (Fed-eral Ministry of Economics and Technology) through the ’Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungs-vereinigungen “Otto von Guericke e.V.” (German Federation for Industrial Research Associations “Otto von Guericke e.V.”) and by funds from the German Drahtseil-Vereinigung e.V. The article here presented sets out to explain initial results regarding lifetime and discard of running stainless steel ropes as investi-gated in systematic fatigue bending tests during which relevant parameters (tensile force, diameter ratio, construction, lubrication etc.) were varied within a wide range.