Steel rope safety system with compacted ropes
AssigneeNV Bekaert SA
InventorsXavier Amils, Dale King
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A steel rope safety system includes at least one steel rope having at least one strand, and the at least one rope or at least one strand is compacted. Further, a method is provided for making a steel rope safety system comprising the step of providing at least two wires, the step of stranding the wires thereby forming a strand for a rope and the step of compacting the strand. The steel rope safety system includes a guardrail system having vertical poles and horizontal compacted ropes which are held in place by hooks. The steel rope safety system may include non-round shaped, such as trapezoidal shaped compacted wires. There is likewise provided the use of compacted steel ropes as impact reducing material.
Claims12
A guardrail configured for being installed along a road, comprising:
- a) a plurality of guardrail posts;
- b) a multi-strand steel rope being mounted and horizontally positioned on the plurality of guardrail posts;
- c) the multi-strand steel rope including a plurality of steel wire strands, the steel wire strands being twisted around a central axis without a core strand being present, the steel wire strands contacting each other, and each of the steel wire strands including:
- i) a steel core wire provided with a corrosion-resistant metal coating;
- and
- ii) a plurality of steel outer wires provided with a corrosion-resistant metal coating enclosing the steel core wire;
- d) the multi-strand rope being subjected to external radial compacting forces, the external radial compacting forces being partially transmitted into transversal forces between the contacting steel wire strands;
- e) each steel outer wire being compacted and compressed against the steel core wire and against respective adjacent steel outer wires such that the steel core wire and the plurality of steel outer wires are each compacted resulting in non-round cross-sections of the steel core wire and steel outer wires to reduce gaps between adjacent steel outer wires and to reduce gaps between the steel outer wires and the steel core wire in a non-stretched condition and to reduce elongation of the wires;
- and
- f) each steel wire strand being compacted and compressed against respective adjacent steel wire strands such that the steel wire strands are each compacted resulting in non-round cross-sections of the wire strands to reduce gaps between adjacent wire strands in a non-stretched condition and to reduce elongation of the strands.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.