Swaging rope

[NickfromWI]

Treemachine eluded to this in a recent post on the Grillon thread. I have heard this concept supported by Petzl reps in the past. I have seen aluminum swages applied to rope occasionally in the past.

What do you all think about this?

It goes against what I know about rope. Rope bends. The swage puts a lot of pressure at one point. Plus it's clunky.

Would any of you all climb on a swaged rope? I hope petzl (or anyone else) never market swaged rope products.

love
nick

 

[Stumper]

Nick, Do you mean crimp sleeves? Yuck.

 

[MasterBlaster]

What's swag?

 

[Burnham]

Nick, the one swagged rope I have ever worked with is the rappel device specific line supplied with the Sky Genie, made by Descent Control, Inc. The rope is a single braid nylon, very limp hand, very soft and easy to pick. They don't see much use in tree work, but lots of high angle riggers use them. Descent Control is super conservative in their approach to the safety margins of their products...as an example, they recommend replacement of the Sky Genie rope every two years, based on age alone. The same with their full body harnesses. This leads me to believe that the swagging has been extensively tested...these units have been on the market for over thirty years and if a problem had surfaced. it would have been dealt with, for liability reasons alone. In this application it meets breaking strength standards.

Don't think the above means I favor swagged eyes. They are clunky. Undoubtedly they would be more likely to snag in a tight crotch than a spliced eye. I'd rather have a splice or a knot. But it would seem to me they wouldn't put any more stress at a single point of a rope than some knots do.

The other application for swagged rope we all are familiar with is on cable cored lanyards. This is obviously a different situation than rope alone, but nonetheless, it shows that swagged fittings are not so off the wall as we might at first think.

 

[NickfromWI]

Yes, swaging makes perfect sense in steel cable. But in rope? No me gusta.

love
nick

 

[NeTree]

Maybe it's simply economics?

Any fool can run a swage press.

Splicing is a skilled craft.

 

[NickfromWI]

Maybe it's simply economics?

Any fool can run a swage press.

Splicing is a skilled craft.

That's the draw to sewn-eyes, too.

Maybe this is why I'm so against it. Deep down I know it will just lessen my profit!

love
nick the splicer

 

[Gord]

Do you have any beef with sewn eyes Nick? They've always seemed like a good idea to me...

 

[MasterBlaster]

What's swag?

Ok, ignore this question. I'm sure I'm the only one who doesn't know. I think I've figured it out, but now I really don't care. :alien:

 

[Stumper]

Butch, He means swaged. To swage means to shape metal by forcing into or over a die or by compression.

 

[NickfromWI]

First off, what I mean by swaging (maybe there are other definitions) is that you slip an aluminum sleeve over the end of the rope, you double the end of the rope over, insert tip into sleeve/ferrulle, then crimp shut. See pic for clarification.

Beef with sewn eyes? Not really, but they are not smooth. They often have sharp edges affiliated with them (though that can be fixed) they will get caught on things.

A good splice get's all the strand share the work. They do it in such a way that one strand is doing a bit more or less work than the strand next to it. In a swage or stitched eye, it's all in one spot..BAM, all at once.

Finally, I don't think they'll last long term.

love
nick

 

[NickfromWI]

grrr. I forgot the dirned picture....

 

[luke montelius]

Good for utility, bad for my cilming rig. Give me a splice or knot any day!

 

[NickfromWI]

Good for steel cable!

 

[glens]

Yeah, wire rope likes them.

Butch, go look at the loops in the hoist cables attached to the bottom fixtures on your garage door.  They're formed by swaging the aluminum ferrule in place.

Glen

 

[a_lopa]

ive used a wire rope breaking(hydraulicd ram) press on new england ferraled whilst doing a rigging course, it holds its own for longer than you would expect.