Mine's bigger - the world's largest line.
by Ken Quant/Sail-World Cruising on 1 Apr 2011
The world’s thickest line, largest rope SW
The phrase 'Mine's bigger' was never truer. A US company has recently produced the world's largest rope, designed to make your heaviest mainsheet look like a piece of sewing cotton.
The 12-strand rope was produced for a European client, constructed on the giant 12 strand braiding machine using Cortland’s patented Plasma® synthetic fibre.
This unique rope was created from more than 52,000 individual Plasma® strands using a patented braiding technique. This exclusive braiding process combines individual 12-braided ropes into a finished 12-strand rope of exceptional strength and flexibility.
The finished size of this particular rope is 176mm with a minimum tensile strength of 1845MT (Metric Tonnes). Now that's a rope!
Despite the exceptional size, this rope is 7 to 8 times lighter than a comparable steel rope, yet is much easier to handle and splice. The rope will be used in a grommet configuration with an MBL exceeding 3044MT for heavy lift operations.
About Cortland:
Cortland provides worldwide experience in creating lightweight rope, slings, cables and umbilicals to the oil and gas, heavy marine, subsea, ROV, seismic, defense and medical markets. Cortland is part of Actuant Corporation (NYSE: ATU), a diversified industrial company with operations in more than 30 countries. For more information, go to www.cortlandcompany.com.
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/81936
