THREE60 Energy was engaged by a leading global business to investigate recurring wire rope integrity issues affecting automated high-bay cranes at its London facility.
Following a series of broken wires and the failure of a main hoist crane wire, the client required greater confidence in the condition of its wire ropes and a more reliable method of identifying defects than visual inspection alone.
Challenge
The facility operated 12 automated high-bay cranes, with hoist wires under continual tension. Following previous issues, complete hoist wires had repeatedly been replaced based on visual inspection findings.
The client needed to establish the actual condition of the wire ropes, identify defects that may not be visible externally and avoid unnecessary replacement where equipment remained fit for service.
Solution
THREE60 carried out wire rope non-destructive testing (NDT) on three high-bay crane hoist wires using specialist sensor head technology.
The system uses magnetic saturation and flux leakage to identify discontinuities within the wire rope, enabling both internal and external defects to be detected without relying solely on visual inspection.
Testing identified broken wires on two crane hoist ropes that had not been detected during previous visual inspections. Inspection of the third rope found no broken wires, despite it having previously been classified as defective by a third party.
Result
The NDT assessment gave the client a clearer and more reliable understanding of the condition of its wire ropes, identifying previously undetected defects while also confirming that one rope considered defective showed no broken wires.
This helped the client address the underlying lifting integrity issue while avoiding unnecessary replacement and associated time, cost and resources, demonstrating the value of combining specialist NDT technology with engineering expertise.
