The rope manufacturers publish nice data tables for their ropes, including such things as tensile strength, stretch under load, density, and so on. I imagine most people who use such ropes, aware of the rated strength, have no worries about the rope failing under far smaller loads, such as a climber's weight.
Unfortunately there are no such nice tables when it comes to splices, even though the manufacturers publish detailed instructions on how to make a safe splice. The obvious concern about splices is that they will simply pull apart under load, and I am certainly among those who have worried about this. If the manufacturers would publish numerical data for the various rope and splice types, the engineered safety factor for spliced eyes would be apparent and a lot of people would sleep better at night.
For a spliced eye in a 12-strand rope like Tenex, it is common knowledge that the splice works because the outer cover squeezes the inner core when the rope is under tension, and the squeeze force creates friction that holds the core in place. Just how hard is the core squeezed by the cover? Since the manufacturers won't tell us, I decided to find out.
But first a short detour. Even though it will be interesting to know how much squeeze force is generated by a given amount of tension, we really care about the resulting friction that holds the splice together. This is simply the total squeeze force times the coefficient of friction between the two surfaces. To find the coefficient of friction of 3/8 in Tenex rubbing on itself, I used the setup shown below.
The one-inch copper pipe is wound with a very tight spiral of Tenex which is clamped at each end. Then a separate Tenex line with a 20-lb weight on one end is used to take measurements, as detailed in the thread on Friction Saver Friction: http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=64807
The results showed an efficiency of 48%, meaning it would take 100 lbs pulling straight down on one leg to lift 48 lbs on the other. Mathematically this translates to a coefficient of friction of .234, a very middle-of-the-road figure for coefficients of friction. With this number in hand, it was time to return to the main problem, measuring the squeeze force.
Unfortunately there are no such nice tables when it comes to splices, even though the manufacturers publish detailed instructions on how to make a safe splice. The obvious concern about splices is that they will simply pull apart under load, and I am certainly among those who have worried about this. If the manufacturers would publish numerical data for the various rope and splice types, the engineered safety factor for spliced eyes would be apparent and a lot of people would sleep better at night.
For a spliced eye in a 12-strand rope like Tenex, it is common knowledge that the splice works because the outer cover squeezes the inner core when the rope is under tension, and the squeeze force creates friction that holds the core in place. Just how hard is the core squeezed by the cover? Since the manufacturers won't tell us, I decided to find out.
But first a short detour. Even though it will be interesting to know how much squeeze force is generated by a given amount of tension, we really care about the resulting friction that holds the splice together. This is simply the total squeeze force times the coefficient of friction between the two surfaces. To find the coefficient of friction of 3/8 in Tenex rubbing on itself, I used the setup shown below.
The one-inch copper pipe is wound with a very tight spiral of Tenex which is clamped at each end. Then a separate Tenex line with a 20-lb weight on one end is used to take measurements, as detailed in the thread on Friction Saver Friction: http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=64807
The results showed an efficiency of 48%, meaning it would take 100 lbs pulling straight down on one leg to lift 48 lbs on the other. Mathematically this translates to a coefficient of friction of .234, a very middle-of-the-road figure for coefficients of friction. With this number in hand, it was time to return to the main problem, measuring the squeeze force.
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