Synthetic lines for marine and other applications: Rope design, selection and best practice

In order to properly design and select a rope, one needs to understand the key limitations and factors for a specific application. Some of these factors, such as cost, rope strength, elastic elongation, size, and weight, are universal rope parameters. Some other factors are more application-specific such as tensile fatigue, bending fatigue, abrasion resistance, spooling, surface characteristics and stiffness. These factors are all functions of material selection, rope construction, and product fabrication. In addition to proper design and selection of the rope, past field experiences also showed the importance of best practice to extend the service life of the synthetic lines. Through both looking into individual cases and viewing the collective picture as a whole, we identified critical factors in rope design and selection for safe operation. Specific topics for in-depth discussion of some case studies also include assignable causes for cases with poor performance, jacketed vs. non-jacketed rope, material consideration, residual strength of used ropes, selection of accessories, and hardware options with best practice recommendation.