Brief rope lore
How are a rope’s qualities developed? Can you create a perfect rope that is suitable for practically all applications? Can a successful construction simply be copied? You’ll find the answers here!
Two factors determine the typical qualities of a rope: its basic construction and the choice of raw materials used.
Rope constructions
We distinguish between five basic rope constructions:
Mooring. Achieving higher performance together. Seven braided cores, firmly bundled in a protective core provide extremely good performance characteristics.
Twin. With a double braid construction rope, the core and cover share the load equally, even though applications may vary considerably.
One. With a round plait rope, a supporting braid determines the rope’s technical properties: It functions without a core – or without a cover, depending on your view of things …
Square. In a square plait rope, eight strands are interwoven to form a roughly quadratic cross-section. It is very robust and has good grip, while at the same time being relatively economic and easy to splice.
Twist. Laid (twisted) rope has existed for centuries. It is economic to manufacture and absorbs impact elastically, although it can open up under strain.
Raw materials
In principle, every construction can be combined with any raw material or a mixture of different fibres. We
distinguish between two classes of raw materials:
Mega. The triumph of high modulus fibres began with Aramide, also known as Kevlar®. Dyneema®, Zylon® and Vectran® have meanwhile taken the lead. Because almost all molecular chains in the fibres are aligned in parallel, outstanding qualities result. Dyneema® provides even greater strength than steel with the same cross-section. And Gleistein Ropes, with its stretching technology, can truly claim to be a worldwide leader in this area, so that the strength and stretch of braided ropes has been further optimised.
Geo. Polyester, Polyamide and Polypropylene are high-strength fibres and provide especially well-balanced all-round properties at moderate prices. They ensure excellent handling and are clearly superior wherever elastic stretch is required. High-strength fibres are also extremely versatile and form the basis of our broad range of products, right up to optically similar, but technically far superior natural fibre substitutes. Real natural fibres now play hardly any role in the yacht ropes sector …
Worth knowing
High-tenacity double-braid ropes: GeoTwin. The twin construction with its braided-over core provides a strong and evenly rounded cross section. Core and cover are made of the same high-strength material and take the strain equally.
High modulus double-braid ropes: Mega-Twin. A high modulus fibre core ensures extremely high breaking loads with minimum stretch. This takes the strain, while the high-tenacity fibre cover provides grip and protects the high-quality core from damage. Gleistein also uses a woolly intermediate cover, which decreases friction between core and cover – otherwise the core slips in the stopper through the cover.
Mooring. Several braided cores in one rope. Every construction has its limits. Twin ropes are only useful and technically feasible up to a certain diameter. Beyond this the cross-section becomes unstable and it becomes difficult to pre-treat the highly modular core … This Is where Mooring takes over. Seven cores, each of them individually optimised, ensure incredible strength with perfect use of materials to form a stable rope. Breaking loads of over 5,500 tonnes can be achieved - enough to securely anchor the world's biggest drilling rigs.
High modulus round braid: MegaOne. The cover is omitted to give outstanding strength with a minimum cross-section and weight for high-performance applications. To protect the high-quality materials from the effects of weather and friction, they are refined with special coatings.
Braid lengths. Depending on the haul-off speed in the machine, braids can be manufactured with a very short twist pattern, a strong cross-section, and high elasticity. Braids with a long twist pattern have a more flexible cross-section and very low stretch, due to the low number of turns in the fibre. Mega-Twin and Mooring ropes combine these properties: long braid lengths in the core for low stretch and shorter braid lengths in the cover for better abrasion resistance.
The first usable textile halyard. In 1972 Gleistein produced a revolutionary new development: CUP. Double-braid polyester ropes had too much stretch, which was the result of the combination of material stretch and construction stretch. In those days there was no better material available, so the braid length of the core of CUP was increased to "infinite" - the fibres are simply aligned in parallel, completely eliminating the constructional stretch.
Heat-set rope. Gleistein is a pioneer in the area of stretching technology. Braided cores made of high modulus fibres are subjected to controlled tensile loading under certain physical conditions, – including heat. For Dyneema® in particular, breaking load and stretch are significantly further improved, also improving the efficient use of materials.
The best material for covers. Polyester is an excellent material for the protective covers of MegaTwin and Mooring ropes. Polyester is very durable and retains its outstanding all-round qualities in almost all conditions, but it is fairly heavy so we use light Polysteel, a highly-tempered polypropylene fibre, where one gram less in weight or buoyancy are vital. Gleistein provides Polysteel in the core both on its own and combined with polyester as Gleistein Plus-yarns
Square-plaited ropes: Square. The square-plaited rope is a bridge between braided and laid (twisted) rope. It is cost-effective to manufacture and has a relatively high level of constructional stretch, but it is torque-free. It plays an important role in industrial shipping, because any professional sailor can splice it.
Laid (twisted) ropes: GeoTwist. Laid or twisted rope is already 5,000 years old, but it’s not on the scrap heap yet: it still can shine in many areas, namely anywhere where a high degree of constructional stretch is needed – as a mooring line, for example. Or wherever the fact that this construction has been around so long is appreciated: on traditional ships for instance! Gleistein has a separate range of rope products for all lovers of traditional ships: the Classics.
High modulus laid ropes: MegaTwist. Laid (twisted) ropes made of high modulus fibres are of course possible – but not practical. With twisted rope, there is a relatively high loss in the strength conversion. They are thus less efficient than braided ropes and hence require more material. The less expensive construction is ultimately made more expensive by the higher price of the raw materials.
The ideal rope. There are of course universal ropes, but there’s no such thing as the perfect rope! A high level of stretch might be required or not, a buoyant rope can’t be an Anchor Warp. High-end ropes increase performance, but can be harder to handle and put too much strain on most fittings. A very strong cover provides more durability, but reduces flexibility, and so on. Gleistein can supply the optimum product for every task – or a universal rope, but not both at once! Nobody else can do it either …
But can't a good rope be fairly easily copied? Yes, given the right machines and lots of time for experimenting – and of course they are copied. But the support and security of a reputable manufacturer can’t be copied. And because a good rope is not necessarily a well-deployed rope, a copy is just not enough. From Gleistein you will get the right rope for every application – and that makes better economic sense in the long run.