When you decide to purchase wire rope for your next rigging job you may need your acronym dictionary handy. But take heart because it really isn’t that hard to understand when you know what you are looking for.

When you order wire rope you will want to have an idea of what you need as far as size, construction, lay, core and grade. This is the short list when it comes to figuring out this common category of rigging supply.

1. Size – this refers to the diameter of the rope.

2. Construction – this type of material is made up of strands and wires. You will see numbers associated with it like 6 x 19 or 6 x 41. The first number tells you how many strands — 6 in both cases. The second number tells you how many wires per strand. These numbers may also be followed by a letter combination such as FW (Filler Wire) or WS (Warrington Seale) which tells you how the outside layer is put together. A WS would have a combination of large and small. An FW would have the same sizes throughout.

3. Lay – this designation has to do with how the strands wrap around the core and then how the wires are formed around the strands. The ordinary lay has them going in opposition to each other. A Lang’s lay has them going in the same direction in relation to each other.

4. Core – the centers of the piece are usually a fiber material (FC – Fiber Core) or steel wire (IWRC – Independent Wire Rope Core). The fiber offers more elasticity. The steel increases weight and strength.

5. Grade – explains the grade of steel used. The classifications are, in order of strength: IPS (improved plow steel), EIPS (extra improved plow steel), GIPS (galvanized improved plow steel). EEIP (extra extra improved plow), DGEIP (drawn galvanized improved plow steel).

You can find suggested wire rope for particular uses. For example, if you were going to use it in an overhead crane you could choose 1 1/8″, 6 x 41WS, RRL, IWRC, EIPS.

BY by GAHZLY

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