• rope & Material Glossary of Terms

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  • Glossary of Rope and Material Terms and Trade Names

    Only trade names which uniquely identify a material are listed. Trade names are capitalized. Acronyms and chemical abbreviations are upper case. Other terms are lower case.

    aramid: A high strength, high modulus fibre. Trade names include Kevlar and Twaron.

    Atlas: Bexco (Belgium), Drahtseilwerk Bremerhaven and Lankhorst Euronete trade name for a rope comprised of two forms of nylon. Half the outer yarns on a strand are conventional fine multifilament nylon fibre. The other outer yarns are large monofilament fibres (tradename Perlon).

    Dacron: duPont trade name for polyester

    Deltaflex: Bexco trade name for a high strength polyester and polypropylene mixed fibre rope.

    Dyneema: DSM (Dutch State Mines) name for HMPE fibre.

    HMPE: High Modulus Polyethylene, a high strength, high modulus fibre. Trade names include Dyneema and Spectra.

    Jetkore: Samson/American trade name for a 6 strand rope of nylon, polyester, and polypropylene.

    Kevlar: duPont trade name for aramid.

    Karat: Scan Ropes (Norway) trade name for a polypropylene-polyester copolymer fibre material, also used in ropes by several other manufacturers.

    LCAP: Liquid crystal aromatic polyester (not official abbreviation. A subcategory of LCP, liquid crystal polymer.

    monofilament: A fibre having relatively large diameter.

    multifilament: A fibre having relatively small diameter.

    Nelson: Marlow trade name for staple polypropylene rope.

    Nystron: Samson trade name for a double braid rope having a nylon core and a polyester cover.

    PA: Chem. abbreviation for polyamide or nylon.

    PE: Chem. abbreviation for polyethylene.

    PES, PET: Chem. abbreviations for polyester.

    PP: Chem. abbreviation for polypropylene.

    PPTA: Chem. abbreviation for aramid.

    polyamide: The common chemical name for nylon. This name is used in Europe.

    Perlon: Bayer Chemical Co. (Germany) trade name for nylon.

    Poly-Plus: Wall Industries trade name for a polyester-polypropylene rope.

    Power Braid: Samson trade name for a double braid rope having a polypropylene core and a nylon cover.

    polyolefin: The chemical group which includes both polypropylene and polyethylene. This term might refer to either of these fibres.

    Spectra: Allied name for HMPE fibre.

    spun: Yarns which are formed by twisting short fibres together in the same manner as was done for natural fibres.

    staple: Short fibres, resembling the form of natural fibres, which are spun (twisted) together to form a yarn.

    Supermix: Marlow trade name for a polyester-polypropylene mixed fibre rope.

    Terylene: ICI (England) trade name for polyester.

    Thor: Marlow trade name for the Atlas rope design.

    Twaron: Akzo name for aramid.

    Ultraline: Samson/American trade name for a polypropylene-polyester copolymer material rope.

    Vectran: Hoechst Celanese name for liquid crystal aromatic polyester fibre

    February 23, 2003