1/28/2020 Rope IQ | What is the Rope Category Number (RCN)

Wire Rope - What Is The Rope Category Number

(RCN)?

Introduction

This post will cover the Rope Category Number, it's purpose, and how to determine it's value.

What is the Rope Category Number?

The RCN or Rope Category Number is ISO 4309's attempt to categorise wire rope by the
number of load bearing wires in the outer strands. The RCN is used to determine the maximum
permissible number of random broken wires during an inspection.

What is the purpose of the Rope Category Number?

The maximum number of broken wires before a rope becomes dangerous is dependent on the
construction. As new wire rope constructions reach the market all the time, if the construction
was used in ISO 4309 to determine the safe number of broken wires, it would be necessary to
publish a new version of the standard several times a year to keep up!

As the safe number of broken wires depends on the number of load-bearing wires,
categorising ropes by load-bearing wires is logical, and future-proofs ISO 4309.

How can you determine the value of the Rope

Category Number (RCN)?

There are several ways of nding the Rope Category Number.

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1/28/2020 Rope IQ | What is the Rope Category Number (RCN)

• Many wire rope suppliers/manufacturers list the RCN in their product speci cations.

• Users of Rope IQ can input the construction to determine the RCN automatically. Rope IQ
also has a growing database containing ISO 4309 data (including the RCN) for around
18,000 products.

• Using the look-up tables below as detailed in tables 3 and 4 of ISO 4309 - Refer to ISO
4309 to determine how to apply the tables to your mechanism.

Look-up table for determining the RCN of Single-Layer and Parallel-Closed Ropes. (Seale constructions with 19 wires
or less e.g. 6x19 Seale are placed 2 rows above where they would normally be placed. Where a wire rope has Filler
wires, these are not regarded as load bearing wires)

Look-up table for determining the RCN of Rotation-Resistant Ropes. (Seale constructions with 19 wires or less e.g.
6x19 Seale are placed 2 rows above where they would normally be placed. Where a wire rope has Filler wires, these
are not regarded as load bearing wires)

Featured Feature!

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1/28/2020 Rope IQ | What is the Rope Category Number (RCN)

Rope IQ makes it easy to nd the RCN of a speci c brand by providing a rope database containing over 18,000 brand
variations.

You can nd out more about Rope IQ's features by getting in touch below.

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Conclusion

Thanks for reading our article! We hope you found it useful!

The Rope Category Number is a useful classi cation for wire rope inspectors and is an essential
component of ISO 4309. Without the RCN, determining the maximum number of permissible
broken would be an arduous process.

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1/28/2020 Rope IQ | What is the Rope Category Number (RCN)

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