Empty reels from wire rope and rigging

Heavy rope, heavy reels

Wire rope is steel strands twisted into rope, used for cranes, hoists, elevators, winches, towing, mooring, guying and lifting. It is dense and stiff, so the reels it arrives on are built heavier than cable reels of the same size: thick flanges, solid drums, often tie rods and steel arbor plates, and sometimes all-steel construction. Rigging shops, crane companies, elevator contractors and marine suppliers around the Delaware Valley receive wire rope on these reels, cut it to length for slings and assemblies, and end up with empties.

Two sides of the reel question

Rigging shops are both sources and buyers. They produce empties when bulk rope is used up, and they need sound reels to wind cut lengths and returned rope onto. A shop with too many 48-inch reels this month may need a set of 36-inch reels next month. That makes rigging one of the trades where we both collect and supply.

What to check before reusing a reel for wire rope

Wire rope is heavy and unforgiving, so reels for it need to be in the best condition:

• Drum diameter suited to the rope. Wire rope makers specify a minimum drum or sheave diameter for each rope; winding onto too small a drum damages the rope.
• Solid drum. No missing or loose staves; on heavy rope, a solid or reinforced drum.
• Flat, sound flanges. Rope bears on the flanges when it is wound tight; split boards fail.
• Undamaged arbor hole or plate. A heavy reel on a stand puts a lot of load on the centre.
• No protruding nails on the inside faces, which damage the rope.

Reels that are fine for light cable may not be fine for wire rope. When we supply reels for rigging use, we say what they were used for before and describe their condition plainly; the decision to load them is the shop's.

Returnables

Wire rope often comes on reels the manufacturer or distributor wants back, including steel reels. Check for stencils, numbers and tags. Returnables are set aside and listed.

Weight and handling

Even empty, rigging reels are heavy for their size. Use forks under the drum or a spindle through the arbor hole, chock reels standing on their rims, and keep people clear of the downhill side.

Recycling

Broken rigging reels yield heavy timber and a lot of steel: tie rods, plates, bolts and sometimes steel drums. The wood and steel are separated and recycled.

How wire rope is made and wound

Wire rope consists of steel wires twisted into strands, and strands laid around a core, which may be fibre or an independent wire rope core (IWRC). Lay direction, regular or lang, and construction, such as 6x19 or 6x36, determine flexibility and wear resistance. When rope leaves the mill it is wound under tension onto a reel in tight, even wraps so that it does not kink, crush or unlay. Rope wound loosely, or onto a damaged reel, can be ruined before it is ever used. That is why rigging lofts are particular about the reels they reuse.

Slings, assemblies and the cutting floor

Rigging shops cut bulk rope into slings, chokers, bridles and pendants, finishing the ends with swaged sleeves, spliced eyes, thimbles, hooks and poured sockets. Every assembly is tagged and often proof-loaded on a test bed. The shop pays out rope from master reels mounted on stands, and as the master reels empty, they are set aside. Those empties are heavy, often steel-reinforced, and valuable to other users of rope, cable and chain.

Spooling onto cranes and winches

Rope going onto a crane drum or winch is spooled from a reel with the right back tension and fleet angle, so that it lays neatly in the drum's grooves. Rigging crews use reel stands, brakes and turntables for that job. The reels that come back from crane sites are sometimes damaged by that handling: bent arbor plates, split flanges and scuffed drums. We grade them honestly.

Marine, elevator and construction users

Marine suppliers sell mooring and towing wire; elevator contractors replace hoist ropes in buildings; tower-crane operators change rope during erection and maintenance. Each trade leaves empties in its own yards across the region.

Inspection, discard criteria and retired rope

Rope in service is inspected for broken wires, corrosion, kinks, bird-caging and diameter loss, and replaced when it reaches discard criteria set by standards and manufacturers. Retired rope goes to scrap. Its reel, if it had one, comes to us. Inspectors and crane owners clearing out stores of used rope can ask us to take the empty drums once the scrap dealer has taken the steel.

Synthetic rope and fibre slings

Many rigging shops now also sell synthetic rope, round slings and web slings. Synthetic rope is light and arrives on smaller wooden or plastic reels, which are excellent for reuse by arborists, theatres, sailing clubs and farms. Keep those separate; they often go to different buyers than the heavy steel-rope drums.

Galvanised, stainless and compacted rope

Speciality ropes, galvanised for marine use, stainless for architecture, or compacted strand for high-strength cranes, come on particularly strong reels.

Theatre and entertainment rigging

Stage riggers use aircraft cable, chain motors and truss; their lighter drums suit makers well.

Bridges, towers and guy wires

Suspension and cable-stayed structures, radio masts and wind-measurement towers rely on guy strand and bridge rope. Maintenance crews replacing those members receive new strand on extra-robust drums, which then need somewhere to go.

Questions

Can you supply reels with a particular drum diameter?

Often, from the reels we collect. Give the drum size, flange and traverse you need, and how many.

Will you take reels with wire rope left on them?

Not as empties. Wire rope offcuts are steel scrap and best sold to a metals recycler.