Steel Wire Rope and Conveyor Belt Monitoring Systems at Critical Industrial Facilities

Steel wire ropes are being used in different hazardous industrial facilities, such as mining, lifting, drilling. Steel-cord belt are widely applied in mining and primary processing industries. Failure of this structural unit can cause a severe economical losses or even accidents. It is important to implement condition monitoring of such units. The most dangerous rope defects: corrosion, abrasion and wire breaks - can be detected by means of magnetic rope testing (MRT). Main steelcord belt defects – cord breakage and splice elongation can be detected by electromagnetic testing. Application of common techniques is restricted by the necessity of qualified staff for inspection operations and result’s interpretation. Automated monitoring systems give a modern solution of this problem. The automatic rope monitoring system INTROS-AUTO was successfully implemented and run at more than 30 mine hoists and several dozens of drilling rigs for everyday rope condition monitoring. The automatic steel-cord belt monitoring INTROCON-AUTO was successfully installed and are running there service at different mining and manufacturing enterprises in Russia and in China.