Ropes and strands made by twisting stainless steel wires together, used where rust staining or loss of section would be unacceptable: yacht rigging, architectural tension structures, balustrades and green walls, fishing, food plants and offshore. They are slightly weaker than galvanised carbon ropes of the same size but need no lubrication or coating.
Typical usesYacht and marine rigging, balustrade and façade cables, tension structures, fishing, slings
Overview
A wire rope is built in layers: wires are twisted into strands, and strands are laid around a core. The construction is written as strands × wires per strand — 1×19 is a single strand of 19 wires, stiff and with low stretch, ideal for standing rigging and architectural tension cables; 7×7 and 7×19 are flexible ropes for running over pulleys; 6×36 with an independent wire rope core (IWRC) is a lifting rope. More, finer wires make a more flexible rope; fewer, thicker wires resist abrasion and crushing better.
Stainless rope wire is drawn from 316 or 304 wire rod to high tensile strength, typically in the range of about 1570–1770 MPa nominal, a little below carbon steel rope wire. For the same diameter a stainless rope therefore has a lower minimum breaking force than a galvanised one, and fatigue behaviour over sheaves is also different — rope selection should use the maker's breaking-force tables, not those for carbon ropes.
Stainless rope is the norm for balustrades, façades, shading structures and green walls in GCC architecture, and for marine and yacht work along the coast, because galvanised rope stains and loses its zinc quickly in hot, salty air. Nearly all of it is imported, mainly from Asia and Europe, and terminated locally by rigging and architectural-hardware suppliers.
Forms & sizes
Rope is ordered by diameter, construction, grade, lay direction and minimum breaking force, cut to length or on reels, with or without end terminations.
1×19 strand
Standing rigging, balustrades and tension structures; low stretch
7×7 rope
Semi-flexible: guy wires, control cables, light rigging
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