Starting to manufacture a rope….
Once these design aims have been agreed upon there are three main recognised hurdles to overcome before the manufacturing process can begin:

[1] Materials selection
this was relatively simple; high tenacity Nylon 6 is utilised by all rope companies as the basic filament and is always a very similar product across most ropes companies as it is generally purchased from one of a very few places on the planet. These ‘filaments’ are the basic rope ‘building blocks’ and are combined as explained below to form a rope.

[2] Materials Treatment
there are two major processes:

a) Yarn
The filaments are twisted into ‘yarns’. The ‘yarns’ are of a specified construction, which is expressed in terms of ‘Decitex’, this is the weight in grams of 10,000 m. of the yarn. The decitex of the yarn and the amount of twist is chosen with respect to the eventual construction and usage of the rope e.g. a higher decitex is a heavier and generally tougher yarn.

b) Heat Treatment
The yarns are exposed to a defined temperature and pressure cycle, this heat treatment process shrinks the yarn in a controlled manner. The twist and heat treatment of the yarns is key in the determination of the energy absorbtion and elongation characteristics of the yarns.

[3] Construction
Putting it all together becomes the ‘clever’ part, or if you will, the artisitry; from the machines chosen to the way the materials are defined in the two key stages - core and sheath design.

a) Core Construction
The core construction has a great effect on the elongation and fall holding capability of the rope. Given that we have already heat treated and twisted the yarn the trick is to specify the correct amount of material in the core. To achieve our fall and elongation performance goals we need to configure the materials to make sure an Infinity Rope has a balanced, flexible construction and forms a ‘round’ platform for the sheath. The core is constructed by combining a specified number of Nylon 6 Filaments to make a Yarn – Several Yarns are twisted to make a Ply – Plys to make a Bundle - Bundles to make a Core.