Wire Rope Fittings
Wire rope fittings are essential parts of cable assemblies, wire rope assemblies and wire rope slings used in a wide spectrum of applications. Ropes, cables and wires must be spliced or swagged into various fittings in order to be anchored to equipment or connected to other ropes as cable assemblies. Fittings "terminate" wire rope to keep ends from fraying, and they are used to make end loops, attachments and connections strong and safe. Wire rope manufacturers often offer fitting manufacturing as well as wire rope and cable manufacturing, and fittings are made to fit the broadest range of wire rope and cable sizes, materials and applications in transportation, marine ship and offshore rigging, construction and architecture, mining, petro-chemical processing, electronics, automotive, aerospace and many others.
While the different types of wire rope fittings are almost endless in number, fittings in general fit into a few categories:
· Sleeves - hollow metal tubes used to crimp the end of a wire rope back onto itself to form a loop (grips also serve this purpose)
· Thimbles - metal supports placed inside of wire rope loops to prevent stressing and fraying
· Sockets - terminating hardware which crimp to rope ends and provide a loop (eye end), bridge or fork end to which links and other sockets may be attached
· Turnbuckles - separate hardware pieces with adjustable eye hooks on opposite ends, used to connect two wire rope loops
· Links - separate metal loops used as connectors to hardware and fittings
· Hooks - may be used to terminate wire rope or attach to links or sockets, providing an easily removed connection to other loops or hardware
· Terminals (Stops) - are attached to the cut ends of wire rope to prevent fraying; button stops and ball stops terminate ends without connection, while eyelet stops have holes through which other
ropes or hardware may be connected.
Other types of hardware are often used on wire rope and cable, and the above categories have many variations. A few of these variations and supplemental fittings include rings, clips, eyelets, eyenuts, pulleys, clevises, bushings, cotter pins, ferrules, threaded studs, shanks, forks and bridge sockets. Wire rope fittings prevent ropes from stressing, fraying and wearing and provide easy solutions for connecting, terminating and attaching ropes at their most critical points. Cable assemblies and wire rope slings of all sizes, materials and applications are built and assembled with wire rope fittings.