Technology transfer of winder ropes research

Abstract

In the early 1980's, winder ropes research in South Africa gained new momentum when it was decided to investigate the validity of the regulations governing the strength of winder ropes. Although knowledge of, and experience with winder systems and winder ropes were available at the time that the research effort started, very little was actually written in the form of reports that could have been used as motivation for changes to the regulations. By the year 2000, more than 100 research reports had been produced. These reports either had some bearing on the new rope load factors that were included in the South African regulations, or were produced as a result of the changes introduced to the regulations. In total, the reports consist of more than 5 900 pages. The main part of this document describes the events and history that led to the creation of this vast amount of research. The research reports that were produced are listed and a summary of the contents of each report is given in an appendix.