A comparison of non-destructive defect detection methods for steel wire ropes

Abstract

Steel wire ropes are among the essential technical elements widely used in many industries. The impeccable condition of these elements has a major impact on the safety of entire facilities where they are applied, be it construction, mining, agriculture, transport, engineering or another area. This article focuses on comparing two non-destructive methods designed to study the internal defects of steel wire ropes. They are defectoscopes with different principles of operation, namely the MID-3 magnetic defectoscope with both excitation and detection of the magnetic field by means of induction coils, and the REMA defectoscope with Hall sensors. Four reference samples of steel wire ropes used in underground mines with well-defined defects corresponding to damage due to fatigue of the wire rope material were created for the study. Based on the experiments performed, it was confirmed that defectoscopes working on the principle of Hall sensors can detect metal cross section loss adequately.