Wire Rope Drums by GloryCrane – Key Features
- Various Materials: generally include gray iron, cast steel and steel plate. Gray cast iron is HT200(GB 9439), cast steel is generally cast steel 20#, and steel plates for welded are available in Q235B, Q345B, and 45#.
- Improved Lifespan: carburized and hardened grooves greatly increase the lifespan of both the drum and the wire rope.The clamping design enhances safety and reduces wire rope costs by minimizing wear.
- Superior Hardening: deeply hardened to a minimum depth of 2mm, often reaching 2.5 to 3.8mm, with optional hardness exceeding 60 HRC.
- Fully Customized: customizable options include size, grooving pattern and material selection to meet load requirements or space constraints for crane drums.
- Quality Control: we thoroughly inspect and test each wire rope drum during manufacturing to ensure it meets top quality standards before entering the market.
Feel free to consult GloryCrane to provide you with customized solutions, whether it is for your winch, electric hoist, or double girder crane system.
How to Choose Your Best Wire Rope Drums?
What is a wire rope drum?
A wire rope drum, also called a rope reel, is often referred to as a crane rope drum, crane rope reel in the crane industry.It should be noted that it is different from the crane cable drum.
Crane rope drum, is crucial to the crane hoisting mechanism and serves the key functions of winding and storing wire rope during lifting operations.
Essential in electric winches, it’s also widely used in the traveling trolley mechanism of double-girder bridge cranes, bearing significant lifting forces. The drum assembly includes the drum shaft, gear connecting plate, flanged internal ring gear, drum hub, bearings, and bearing seats. Crane drums are typically compound drums with opposite spiral grooves on each side, which guide the rope and distribute load evenly.
What material is the drum made of?
In crane manufacturing, wire rope drums are produced from various materials, typically including gray cast iron, cast steel, and steel plates. Common material options are:
- Gray Cast Iron: HT200 (GB 9439)
- Cast Steel: Cast steel 20#
- Steel Plates: Q235B, Q345B, Q355B, and 45# for welded assemblies.
At GloryCrane, we use Q355B rolled seamless pipes for drums with diameters of 800 mm or less, eliminating welding defects from steel plate rolling and reducing production time. For drums over 800 mm, we use Q355B steel plates, with circular butt welds undergoing 100% UT flaw detection for quality and structural integrity.
What sizes of crane drums can we supply?
We usually supply the following types of steel wire rope drums:
- φ300 series wire rope drums sets, length 1000/1200/1500mm.
- φ400 series wire rope drums sets, length 800~2500mm.
- φ500 series wire rope drums sets, length 1200~3800mm.
- φ650 series wire rope drums sets, length 1500~5500mm.
- φ750*1860mm wire rope drums sets for grab.
- φ800 series wire rope drums sets, length 1800~4500mm.
- φ1000 series wire rope drums sets, length 2000~3700mm.
Determine your crane drum type
By Manufacturing Process: casting drums and welding drums.
The cast iron drum can use gray cast iron with mechanical properties not lower than HT200.
The cast steel drum can use cast steel with mechanical properties not lower than ZG270~500
The welding drum uses steel plates whose mechanical and welding properties are not lower than Q235B or Q345B.
Casting drums are suitable for cranes with slow speeds and lighter working types and lower load. Steel plate welding drums are mainly suitable for lifting machinery and equipment with heavy-duty cranes and high performance requirements.
By Surface: smooth surface drums and spiral groove surface drums.
A smooth-surfaced drum lacks grooves to restrain the wire rope, leading to irregular winding, high friction, and potential damage. Adding spiral grooves is recommended to guide the rope smoothly, with the pitch typically the nominal rope diameter plus 10%. Helical grooves also reduce wear and support smooth operation.
By Reel Shaft: long shaft drums and short shaft drums.
The long-shaft drum connects to the reducer’s output shaft through a gear connecting plate, making it a widely used structural type. In contrast, the short-shaft drum set introduces a new structure, where the drum and reducer’s output shaft connect rigidly via a flange.
GloryCrane has been involved in lifting equipment for many years and has accumulated rich product experience. We can design a more matching drum style according to your crane or winch model.
CONTACT US to get your style!
By Winding Layers: Single-layer wire rope drums and multi-layer wire rope drums.
Single-layer wire rope drum means that a drum that is wound with only one layer of wire rope.
Multi-layer winding drum means that the wire rope will be wound in multiple layers on the surface of the drum. Helical grooves drum sets are generally used, but folding drum sets are more often used to ensure that each layer can be wound regularly, thus extending the use of the equipment’s life.
Safety of multi-layer wire rope drums
Multi-layer winding drums should adopt a suitable rope arrangement device or a flange guide plate structure that facilitates the automatic transfer and winding of wire ropes. There should be flanges to prevent the wire rope from slipping from the end. When the wire rope fully winds onto the drum, ensure that the flange height extends beyond the rope’s outer surface by at least 1.5 times the wire rope diameter. (For tower cranes it is 2 times the wire rope diameter)
Determine key attributes
- Wire rope nominal diameter: d (mm), generally 11.5~24mm.
- Drum diameter: try to choose the following standard values, D(mm) = 300, 400, 500, 650, 700, 800, 900, 1000. For crane reels with diameters under 500 mm, we recommend to use seamless steel pipes.
- The groove bottom radius: r (mm) = (0.53~0.6)*d.
- Drum rope groove radius: Standard groove C1(mm) = (0.25 ~ 0.4)*d, deep groove C2 (mm) = (0.6~0.9)*d.
- Pitch of spiral: Standard groove t1(mm) = d +(2~4)(mm), Deep groove: t2 (mm) =d +(8~9)(mm).
- Lifting capacity: the weight of the object that the drum needs to lift or move.
- Lifting height and lifting magnification: the vertical distance between the working position of the drum and the lifting object. The higher the lifting height, the more rope grooves on the drum required.
If you have questions about the key performance of your wire rope drum, contact GloryCrane. We specialize in providing drum design consultation and model selection. We fully consider your application scenarios and provide you with the most satisfactory solution. Whether it’s for overhead crane drum sets, grab reel sets, winch reels, or light-duty lifting systems.
Reference Specification
| Dimension (mm) | Lifting Capacity (ton) | Pulley Ration | Screw Pitch (mm) | Lifting Height (m) | Approximate Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| φ300*1000 | 3.2 | 1 | 14 | 27 | 264 |
| φ400*1000 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 15 | 340 |
| φ400*1500 | 10 | 3 | 16 | 16 | 456 |
| φ400*2000 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 36 | 564 |
| φ400*2000 | 10 | 3 | 16 | 23 | 564 |
| φ500*1500 | 10 | 1 | 28 | 27 | 908 |
| φ500*1500 | 20 | 4 | 20 | 12 | 788 |
| φ500*2000 | 15 | 3 | 20 | 22 | 972 |
| φ500*2500 | 20 | 4 | 20 | 22 | 1164 |
| φ500*3000 | 20 | 4 | 20 | 27 | 1326 |
| φ650*2500 | 32 | 4 | 24 | 23 | 1777 |
| φ650*3000 | 32 | 4 | 24 | 28 | 2154 |
| φ800*2500 | 50 | 5 | 28 | 18 | 2821 |
| φ800*3000 | 50 | 5 | 28 | 23 | 3370 |
| φ800*3340 | 75 | 5 | 32 | 20 | 4094 |
| φ1000*2000 | 50 | 5 | 28 | 18 | 2589 |
| φ1000*2500 | 50 | 5 | 28 | 22 | 3038 |
| φ1000*3000 | 50 | 5 | 28 | 28 | 3479 |
| φ1000*3670 | 100 | 6 | 36 | 22 | 9141 |
Examples Of Our Wire Rope Drum Photos
Please contact us for more references and technical details.
Other High-Quality Crane Accessories You May Need
In addition to wire rope drums, GloryCrane™ offers a wide range of crane components to meet your lifting needs. We take quality and safety as our core in all products, rigorously testing every component to meet the highest industry standards. Contact us today to discuss your specific requirements and discover how our products can enhance your crane operation.
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