After around a year of planning, design and construction, we have commissioned our first and probably unique planetary stranding machine for fibre ropes at the newly established Rope Technology Centre (STZ) at Chemnitz University of Technology. This completely new and self-development machine is equipped with 3 rows of 6 baskets, flexible reverse rotation per basket row, a fibre capacity of approx. 12 kg per basket, catterpillar puller and can be operated in both left- and right-handed modes. This provides the professorship with a unique test object. In future, we want to develop, manufacture and test multi-layer, high-strength fibre rope constructions on a laboratory scale. This will close a long-standing gap in the research infrastructure. I would like to thank my entire team for implementing this new large-scale machine for the STZ Chemnitz.
Christoph Müller (TUC-FTM)