Bridon invests in new ropemaker

Rope maker Bridon is currently installing the world's largest closer machine at its new state-of-the-art facility in Newcastle, UK. The new machine, costing £10 million, will manufacture steel wire ropes with lifting capacity in excess of 600 tonnes.

The UK-based firm decided on installing the new closer machine, which is used to form dozens of strands of wire into a single finished rope, following increased demand for more robust steel wire ropes from the offshore sector.

Bridon will use the new closer to make offshore ropes that are engineered to deal with the challenges of deepwater deployment under tough environmental conditions.

German engineering company SKET has produced the closer. Further investment by Bridon also sees the company installing a new stranding machine, also manufactured by SKET. This winds dozens of individual wires together into strands that can then be spun together by the closer machine.

To ease the load out of 650 tonne rope reels onto vessels moored at the factory's deepwater quayside, Bridon commissioned Newcastle-based engineering firm Pipe Coil Technology to deliver a take-up stand; a machine used to move new ropes on the final reels from the closer to the quayside. This will make it easier to then load the reels onto vessels moored alongside the plant.