Evolution TK 16

“When Östu-Stettin asked us to supply the rope for the winch flown to Chile for the rescue mission, our staff went out of their way to get the steel wire rope ready for shipping as fast as possible”, explains Florian Teufelberger, director of the TEUFELBERGER Group. “We owe it to the tremendous efforts of the whole team that the rope was ready for air transport within such short period of time”.

The rope was a 1,000 meter long non-rotating EVOLUTION TK 16. In this case, it had to be non-rotating, as it was absolutely necessary to prevent any rotation of the capsule during the rescue. TEUFELBERGER’s non-rotating high-performance wire ropes are made in Wels (Upper Austria) and St. Aegyd (Lower Austria), by using special technology and relying on decades of experience.

In the production of ropes such as the EVOLUTION TK 16 for Chile, not only our staff’s rope-making expertise is put to use, but also our experience as one of Austria’s biggest processors of plastics, as the rope’s core is overmolded with plastic material. As the Wels-based maker of ropes is regarded as a specialist in both segments and combines all the necessary technologies “under one roof”, it did not take us long to come up with the right rope for the winch.

“We are proud to have been able to contribute to the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile”, says Florian Teufelberger. “As globally acting group of enterprises, we are aware of our social responsibility and will, with our utmost commitment, always find a fast solution for special challenges like this”.

Only a few days after ÖSTU-Stettin’s inquiry, the rope weighing almost three tons was air-lifted to Chile and mounted on the winch. Usually, such ropes are always transported via sea freight, but in this case losing several weeks in transport was not acceptable.

With its crane ropes of the EVOLUTION TK 16 family, TEUFELBERGER has taken wire ropes to a new capacity level. TEUFELBERGER ropes are used around the globe in the most challenging scenarios, for example in special civil engineering, on container loading cranes in harbors, and on oil platforms.

Thank you to Loos & Co for helping the Wire Rope Exchange in the development of this article.  Full article to be included in the next issue of the Exchange.