1. The Development of Ultra-High Strength Wire
A joint development project by
and
Presentation this morning will cover the development of ultra high strength cold drawn steel wire to be utilised within a specialised offshore mooring application for the demanding oil & gas industry,
To meet these requirements a through supply chain, joint development approach was desirable. Each party bringing its specific specialisty knowledge to the final benefit of the end user.
Corus specialists developing the steel chemistry
Shared metallurgists skills identifying and fine tuning the steel processing, heat treatment, wire drawing and surface treatment.
Bridon specialist optimising cable designs to make best use of the developed wire strength.
I will introduce the target applications and highlight how we established the project objective, Shaun will review the alloy development phase and the metallurgical aspects before I conclude with the associated prototype testing and the application of the resultant wire in the finished product.

2. Company Profiles Turnover Employees £ 1,290 million 14,100
48,100
This slide is just to give a little indication of the scale of expertise available as a joint development project.
Corus RD&T and Corus Construction & Industrial are part of the Corus group of companies. Bridon is part of the FKI group of companies. With any development project the support of parent company is essential to its success.
As a group Corus is the Europe’s fourth largest steel manufacturer and Bridon is the world leading supplier of specialist steel wire rope applications, particularly the permanent mooring applications. In order to secure parent company support for a development a commercially viable market and application has to be clearly identified and in this case PMS provides that focus.

3. Application Demands Permanent Mooring Cables
Deepwater activities for long term fields.
Setting the objectives of the product development was driven by the requirements of the PM application.
Floating production systems are utilised at oil fields in deep water locations where the option of building a static structure to the sea floor is not viable. The basic principle is that the operations are positioned on a floating structure which is kept on station within an acceptable watch circle by moorings comprising of rope and/or chain. Historically the ropes have been steel however this is under threat from light weight synthetics at deeper water locations. Hence - The permanent mooring application particularly benefits from a high tensile cable solution due to the need to minimise the suspended weight and to limit the need for the alternative non-steel solutions.
There are various different generic floating structures – the ship shaped FPSO and the Spar are shown here.
Considering it simply the required strength of the cable is a function of the system pre-tensions necessary for station keeping, the fluctuating environmental loads and the self weight of the mooring. As oil production demands require the development of more remote deeper locations the self weight of the cable becomes an increasing proportion of the load – theoretically there is a maximum water depth for the use of such as system but practically the increasing costs become the limiting factor.
The availability of a higher strength cable would require a smaller diameter lighter weight cable to support the system pretension and environmental loads, hence reducing the load element associated with cable self weight.
While it is essentially a static, structural application that is it is not a working rope travelling round sheaves or pulley like, say, a crane rope, the fluctuating environmental loads require that the cable provide an appropriate long term fatigue performance in addition to long term corrosion resistance. The

4. Application Demands Permanent Mooring Cables
High strength to weight ratio
Large diameter wire.
Field life performance.
Corrosion Performance.
Fatigue performance.
We now have an understanding of what is required by the application.

5. Opportunities for Development
Understand the application requirements we can identify the targets for the product development. Through investigation of the manufacturing route we can review the opportunities for strength development.
Corus are responsible for the basic steel making, refining the chemistry which is continuously cast to bloom, hot rolled to billet and then to rod which is controlled cooled along conveyors of controlled speed and forced air blasts.
At which point the rod is transferred to Bridon.
The rod is in line lead patented to refine and homogenise the microstructure prior to preparation for cold drawing to wire through water cooled tungsten carbide dies. For this application a heavy galvanised coat is added to ensure corrosion protection over the life time and then the individual wires are spun into the strand construction and fitted with the appropriate terminations and accessories.
At each manufacturing operation there is an opportunity to develop or degrade the tensile strength or to fail to optimise the strength available. For example developing a suitable steel chemistry will gain strength, however developed strength needs to be maintained under the temperature exposure of galvanising. Optimum strand design is necessary to ensure the developed strength is utilised to its full.
The strand design also defines one of the limiting parameters of the wire properties. Each wire layer is added in turn and the manufacturing facilities limit the number of wires in each layer therefore typical strand geometry defines the minimum diameter of the individual wires. The target wire diameter is relatively large typically 4-6mm.

6. Strength Progression Development Target – 1960 MPa 1860 MPa Grade
As indicated in the paper we have previously done work in improving tensile strength of the spiral strand for this applications. This has been achieved mainly through internal Bridon activity with support from Corus as a supplier.
Patenting
Increase draw ratio and speeds
Increase carbon levels
Optimise strand design
This achieved 15% improvement over international standard (DNV CN 2.5)
Next major step targeted further 10% strength improvement (or weight reduction as the user would interpret the development).
This required a Joint Development approach with a much more combined involvement and greater understanding of each others processes and applications - focusing on end user requirements.

7. Application Demands Project Objective
5mm diameter final hot dip galvanised wire
1960MPa grade
Achieving a 10% improvement in strand breaking strength
maintaining corrosion & fatigue performance.
And how this translates to the resultant wire properties.
And this set the overall objectives of the project between Bridon and Corus.
Had you over now to Shaun who will talk through the laboratory and steel and wire processing stages of the development:

8. The Development of Ultrahigh Strength Wire Alloy Development Phase
Shaun Hobson
Corus RD&T – Swinden Technology Centre - UK
Hello, I'm Shaun Hobson, a metallurgist from the RD&T function of Corus.
NEXT

9. Objective
To design a steel composition, capable of attaining a minimum UTS of 1960MPa in the hot dip galvanised wire
(~5mm dia) condition, enabling a 10% improvement in cable strength.
As Sara has outlined, the objective of this work was to design a new steel composition, capable of being processed to galvanised wire with a minimum tensile strength of 1960MPa. This ultrahigh strength wire should enable a 10% improvement in mooring cable strength.
NEXT

10. Background
When designing a new steel for rod/wire, the following need to be considered:-
(a) MICROSTRUCTURE
A fully pearlitic microstructure is required, to optimise
UTS / ductility / drawability.
Before I detail the development phase, I would like to briefly outline a few important points for such wirerod developments.
The first being microstructure. In order to draw rod to high strength wire, we need to start with a fully pearlitic microstructure in order to benefit from a high work hardening rate, whilst retaining ductility for the cold reduction. Pearlite is ideal, as it consists of ferrite and cementite laths, as shown here.
NEXT

11. Background As-Rolled Rod Microstructure
During drawing, the cementite laths re-orientate and thin out, whilst the dislocations work harden the ferrite laths. This increases the strength of the steel, whilst the lamellar structure retains its ductility.
NEXT

12. Background As-Rolled Rod Microstructure
This allows heavy reductions to be made without damaging the steel, by which I mean introducing voids, which can cause wire breaks during drawing.
NEXT
Microstructure after 80% reduction
from wire drawing
Drawing Direction

13. Microstructure Laying Temperature Controls austenite grain size
Forced Air Blast / Conveyor Speed
Controls cooling rate, hence
transformation products
In order to produce a fully pearlitic microstructure in the as-rolled rod, we control the laying temperature (the point where the rod is coiled and laid onto a conveyor), as this defines the austenite grain size, and cooling rate through transformation, via fans underneath the conveyor.
If the rod mill conditions are not tightly controlled, then cementite networks or martensite may form within the microstructures, which are detrimental to further processing.
NEXT

14. Microstructure : Lead Patenting
Isothermal Transformation diagram
Cooling
S (nm)
TS (N/mm²)
Rod Mill
130
1000
Patenting
5.5mm 50
1180
12mm 80
1100
The strength of a steel can be increased further by refining the pearlite (reducing the interlamellar spacing). This is carried out by heat-treating the rod, prior to drawing, in a process known as lead patenting.
The rod is re-austenitised and then quenched in a molten lead bath at a fixed temperature, (ideally just above the pearlite nose on the isothermal transformation diagram) until transformation to pearlite has completed. This results in a finer pearlitic structure, which is much stronger than that attained off the rod mill, as shown in table.
The patenting conditions, that’s the furnace temperature, lead bath temperature and throughput speed, must all be optimised to suit a particular steel composition, as alloy elements will move the pearlite nose position on the isothermal diagram.
NEXT
Plain 0.7% C Steel

15. Background
When designing a new steel, for rod/wire, the following need to be considered:-
(a) MICROSTRUCTURE
A fully pearlitic microstructure is required, to optimise
UTS / ductility / drawability.
(b) WIRE PROPERTIES
Definition of the various ductility tests.
And now a little about wire properties.
In the wire industry, the ductility of the finished wire is important, with a number of tests commonly used.
We will all be familiar with tensile ductility (as measured by the reduction of area on a tensile test) and elongation, but two others are used :-
NEXT

16. Wire Properties Torsional Ductility
Length of wire is gripped at one end, whilst the
other end is rotated at a fixed speed. The number
of twists to fracture is recorded , along with the
fracture type. A type is preferred ductile fracture.
The first being the torsion test, where a fixed length of wire is gripped at one end and rotated at a set speed. The number of twists to fracture is recorded
NEXT

17. Wire Properties Torsional Ductility
Length of wire is gripped at one end, whilst the
other end is rotated at a fixed speed. The number
of twists to fracture is recorded , along with the
fracture type. A type is preferred ductile fracture.
A Type
B Type
C Type
Along with the fracture type, with 90° flat faced type-A fractures being the preferred ductile fracture type. The irregular type-C breaks are an indication of poor ductility.
NEXT

18. Wire Properties Torsional Ductility Reverse Bend Ductility
Length of wire is gripped at one end, whilst the
other end is rotated at a fixed speed. The number
of twists to fracture is recorded , along with the
fracture type. A type is preferred ductile fracture.
A Type
B Type
C Type
2nd bend
1st bend
Reverse Bend Ductility
Another measure of ductility is by the reverse bend test, where a length of wire is repeatably bent through 90° over a specified radii until fracture.
NEXT
Length of wire is repeatably bent through 90°
over a specified radius in opposite directions
until fracture. The number of reverse bends
is recorded.

19. Background
When designing a new steel, for rod/wire, the following need to be considered:-
(a) MICROSTRUCTURE
A fully pearlitic microstructure is required, to optimise
UTS / ductility / drawability.
(b) WIRE PROPERTIES
Definition of the various ductility tests.
(c) AGEING RESPONSE
Dynamic / static strain ageing of wire.
Finally, the ageing response of a drawn pearlitic wire should be understood. This is best illustrated by examination of the tensile and torsional properties of drawn wire immersed for varying lengths of time at typical galvanising temps (~450°C), followed by a rapid water quench.
NEXT

20. Ageing Response of Drawn Wire
C Clustering &
Pearlite Spheroidisation
Dislocation locking
by C migration
Delaminations (C type)
A Type
So, during galvanising, interstitial C and N atoms migrate to dislocations within the ferrite laths and pin them, which increases the UTS and lowers the ductility (so we see a reduced number of torsions, with type-C fractures).
With time, these atoms cluster and grow, freeing the dislocations. The cementite laths also begin to spheroidise. So the UTS drops and the torsional ductility recovers.
The kinetics of this reaction are controlled by
NEXT
Recovery

21. Ageing Response of Drawn Wire
Increasing Temp
Drawing strain, schedule
and speed also influence the
ageing response during
galvanising.
The temperature, as well as total drawing strain, drawing schedule and drawing speed.
So for high strength high carbon wire, we have dynamic strain ageing during drawing and static strain ageing during galvanising.
NEXT
Increasing Temp

22. Ageing Response of Drawn Wire
Ideal position, just enough to recover
torsions, without too much loss of UTS
Torsional recovery
to type A fractures
Ideally, we would like to galvanise, so that we finish up in the position here, where we have recovered the ductility, with minimum loss in UTS.
So, that’s a very brief introduction of the essentials for wirerod developments, and I’ll now detail the development phases we carried out to produce an ultrahigh strength wire.
NEXT

23. Development Programme
Three Stage Development Programme
Laboratory assessment of experimental compositions
(2) Small scale production trial of most suitable steel
(3) Full scale trial cast, and cable manufacture
The development route was a 3 stage process.
This involved a laboratory assessment of small experimental melts, followed by small scale production trials, leading up to a full scale trial cast.
NEXT

24. Stage 1 – Lab Assessment 60Kg Ingots
Rolled and Ground to 10mm Rod Samples
Patented (using a laboratory saltbath)
Drawn to 4.4mm Wire (single hole drawbench)
Simulated Galvanising (using laboratory saltbath)
So, for stage 1, 60kg vacuum melts were produced and processed in the laboratory to simulate commercial production, in order to gain a good indication of the potential of a new steel chemistry, before any costly full scale trials were carried out.
These ingots were forged, rolled and ground to 10mm dia rod samples.
They were then patented using the lab saltbath, which has a slower quench-rate than lead, and so a coarser pearlite is formed, which is lower in strength than would be achieved in production using a leadbath.
The rod samples were then drawn to 4.4mm wire, representing 80% reduction of area.
and then immersed in the saltbath again, this time at 450°C to simulate the galvanising thermal cycle, which will influence the ageing reaction, as described earlier.
NEXT

25. Stage 1 – Lab Assessment Steel C Si Mn Cr 1 0.90 0.60 0.50 0.20 2 3
1.20 C
Maximise strength, and refine pearlite.
(need to avoid proeutectoid cementite / segregation) Si
Solid solution strengthening of pearlitic ferrite, suppresses
cementite formation and influences the ageing response
during galvanising.
Mn / Cr
Increase the hardenability, i.e. reduce the temperature
at which pearlite begins to transform from austenite,
thus refining the pearlite and increasing the UTS.
For this development, 3 steel compositions were examined, as detailed here.
The main elements were added for the following reasons:-
NEXT
0.90 wt% carbon was added to maximise the UTS, by refining the pearlite. We can't add much more than 0.90wt%, as segregation becomes a problem during casting, which can lead to the unwanted formation of proeutectoid cementite.
Silicon is a solid solution strengthener of the pearlitic ferrite, and also suppresses cementite formation and influences the ageing response. 3 different levels of silicon were assessed in this work.
Mn/Cr were added to increase the hardenability, by which I mean reduce the temperature at which pearlite begins to form from austenite. This refines the pearlite and so increases the strength.

26. Stage 1 – Lab Assessment
The wire from the simulated galvanising was tested after different immersion times, in order to examine the ageing reaction, in terms of the UTS and torsional ductility.
NEXT

27. Stage 1 – Lab Assessment Increasing Si Increasing Si
The graphs show that increasing the silicon content reduces the loss in UTS due to over-ageing, but at the same time promotes recovery of the torsional ductility (pushing the ‘trough’ to the left). Therefore, the benefits of high silicon content can be clearly seen.
The data from this work is summarised in the next slide, which shows the simulated galvanised wire properties.
NEXT

28. Torsional Ductility, n (fracture type)
Stage 1 – Lab Assessment
Steel
UTS, MPa
Tensile Ductility, %
Reverse Bends, n
Torsional Ductility, n (fracture type) 1
1835 39 11
18 (C) 2
1840 40
26 (A) 3
1905 45 13
28 (A)
Steel 3 was deemed the most promising composition and was progressed
through to stage 2.
So, steel 3 (1.2%Si) had the best combination of properties, with both the highest strength and ductility.
The UTS was lower than the target strength of 1960MPa, BUT patenting was carried out in a saltbath.
Therefore steel 3 was progressed to stage 2 of the development phase.
NEXT

29. Stage 2 – Small Scale Production
Steel C Si Mn Cr 3
0.90
1.20
0.50
0.20
60kg Vac Melt
Corus RD&T
Forged and welded onto ‘carrier’ billets
Corus Scunthorpe
Rod Mill
Rolled to 12mm rods
Lead Patent
Bridon International
Doncaster
Wire Drawing (5.3mm)
Stage 2 consisted of producing another small 60Kg ingot, only this time, it was forged and welded onto the backend of a commercial high carbon billet and rolled to 12mm rod at the rod mill. This resulted in a coil, with the backend consisting of the experimental steel, in rod form.
This material was then supplied to Bridon for patenting, drawing and galvanising trials.
NEXT
Hot Dip Galvanise (5.4mm)

30. Torsions, n (fracture type)
Stage 2 – Small Scale Production
Dia, mm
UTS, Mpa
Tensile Ductility, %
Torsions, n (fracture type)
Reverse Bends, n
Patented Rod
12.0
1445 30 -
Wire
5.30
2030 56
32 (A) 18
Galv Wire
5.40
1975 49
26 (A) 12
The rod was lead patented, using revised conditions to suit the new composition, as the pe nose was raised, due to the high silicon content. This resulted in a high strength, fully pearlitic rod.
The rod was then drawn to wire, using an 80% reduction. The UTS was high (2030), with good ductility, as measured by torsional and reverse bend testing.
After drawing, the wire was hot-dip galvanised, and it was shown that the finished wire met the target strength (1975MPa) , whilst retaining its ductility.
These results gave us the confidence to progress to stage 3, and trial a full 300t cast of the new steel for this application.
NEXT
For an 80% drawing reduction, the target properties were met, without any
processing difficulties. Therefore a full-scale commercial trial was
recommended.

31. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
A full cast (300t) of steel 3 was successfully made at Scunthorpe Works.
This was cast to bloom, rolled to billet and supplied to the rod mill.
8.0 – 13.5mm diameter rod was produced at Scunthorpe Rod Mill.
All the rod was fully pearlitic.
No production problems with :-
(a) Mill loads / hot stiffness
(b) Increased hardenability
(c) Scale / descalability (high Si)
So, a full cast of steel 3 was made, cast to bloom, rolled to billet and supplied to the rod mill, where it was rolled to rod in a range of diameters.
The previous trial work had supplied the data to enable all the rod diameters to be successfully rolled to fully pearlitic coils, without any of the processing problems (shown in blue) being encountered.
The UTS levels attained off the rodmill were very high, with the next slide showing a comparison with other common high strength grades.
NEXT

32. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Plain 0.90C
So we have a plain 90C steel, followed by
NEXT

33. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
V-Microalloy
Plain 0.90C
A higher strength vanadium microalloy, which was the highest strength grade produced by Scunthorpe rodmill.
NEXT

34. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
UHC-Si-Cr (steel 3)
V-Microalloy
Plain 0.90C
And the new UHC-Si-Cr steel. So, the as-rolled rod strength advantage is clearly shown here.
This rod was supplied to Bridon for subsequent wire drawing in the as-rolled and patented conditions.
The work hardening rate curves (UTS vs amount of drawing) from Bridon are shown in the following set of slides
NEXT

35. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Work Hardening Curves
Plain 0.90C
Direct drawn
So, the curve for a plain 90C steel is shown here (in the as-rolled / direct drawn condition)
NEXT

36. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Work Hardening Curves
V-Microalloy
Plain 0.90C
Direct drawn
Patented
The V microalloyed curves for both direct drawn and lead patented are both a little higher, as expected.
NEXT

37. Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Work Hardening Curves
UHC-Si-Cr
V-Microalloy
Plain 0.90C
Direct Drawn
Patented
And the uhc-si-cr steel higher still.
It can be seen that the new steel in the direct drawn condition has a similar curve to that of patented vanadium microalloyed steel.
Therefore, it’s possible to use the new grade and omit the expensive patenting stage, for some applications.
However, for the high strengths required for the mooring cable application, patenting is still required
The results from the mooring cable trial are summarised in the following table…
NEXT

38. Torsions, n (fracture type)
Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Wire Size, Mm
Condition
UTS, Mpa
Torsions, n (fracture type)
Elong to Fracture, %
Reverse Bends, n
5.20
4.90
As-drawn
2095
2100
33 (A)
29 (A) -
5.30
5.00
Galvanised
2040
2070
11 (C)
8 (C)
8.1
8.3 10
Here, it can be seen that the strength target has been comfortably met, using patented rod feedstock, with good torsions in the as-drawn wire.
However, it can be seen that galvanising has led to a deterioration in the torsional ductility. The reverse bends were slightly lower than the 12 measured in stage 2.
It is thought that the processing conditions utilised for this trial had resulted in a more sluggish ageing reaction. Therefore, the galvanising conditions were altered slightly (the temperature raised slightly), in order to age the wire further, with the following results….
NEXT

39. Torsions, n (fracture type)
Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Wire Size, Mm
Condition
UTS, Mpa
Torsions, n (fracture type)
Elong to Fracture, %
Reverse Bends, n
5.20
4.90
As-drawn
2095
2100
33 (A)
29 (A) -
5.30
5.00
Galvanised
2040
2070
11 (C)
8 (C)
8.1
8.3 10
5.0
Non-Std
2025
26 (A)
10.0 9
So, we have a lower UTS, BUT a recovery of the torsional ductility to the preferred type A fracture type. The reverse bend ductility was also slightly lower, which was to be expected, as this property tends to fall gradually as ageing progresses.
This work demonstrates quite nicely how a range of variables influences the ageing characteristics of a given steel, and hence its final properties.
NEXT
Ageing response at galvanising is influenced by :-
Microstructure, Drawing Strain, Drawing Speed, Galvanising Times/Temps

40. Fatigue limit increases with strength, but reduces as % of grade
Stage 3 – Full-Scale Production
Fatigue Testing of Single Wires (Fatigue limits at 2 x 106 cycles)
The fatigue properties of single wires of the new steel were measured at Bridon, and compared with various lower strength grades.
The results are shown in this slide, where it can be seen that the fatigue limit increased with strength, but reduced when expressed as a percentage of the grade.
This work demonstrated that the fatigue properties for the new ultrahigh strength 'single wires' were no worse than the 1860MPa grade, and so were deemed satisfactory.
The fatigue behaviour of the wires in a cable is slightly different, and will be covered a little later on by Sara.
NEXT
Tests were conducted to BS 5896 for 2 x 106 cycles. Industry standard uses max.
stress = 45% of grade UTS, with min. stress changed until a fatigue limit is reached
Fatigue limit increases with strength, but reduces as % of grade

41. Summary of Steel Development
So, to summarise, the development phase has successfully produced an ultra-high strength wire.
Small scale trials have taken place demonstrating the levels of UTS improvement, which have led to a full sized cast being rolled, patented, drawn and galvanised to ultrahigh strength wire, with satisfactory fatigue properties.
The galvanised wire was then supplied to the ropery at Bridon to be made into a full sized mooring cable for further testing, the details of which will be presented by Sara, so I will now pass you back….
Thankyou…
The galvanised wire was supplied to the ropery at Bridon, where it was
spirally spun to a full sized mooring cable.

42. Opportunities for Development

43. Strength to Weight

44. Fatigue Performance NRM = K Where Log K = a – b.Lm
Fatigue assessment for mooring components is defined by standard API RP 2SK. We completed full scale tests with the 102mm diameter cable to make a comparison with the API assessment. The spiral strand case was developed from relatively few tests on standard (1570 and lower) tensile grade material.
N- number cycles
R – fluctuating load tension range as proportion of breaking load (0.2 ie +/-10%)
M – is a geometry based constant for the component type
K – is dependent on the ratio of mean load (Lm) as a proportion of breaking load – we utilised two different mean load cases 20% and 30% of cable breaking load.

45. Fatigue Performance Test 1 Test 2 Conditions 30% ± 10% 20% ± 10%
Achieved N
384,650
808,279
Expected:
Spiral Strand
562,220
1,239,595
Six Strand Wire Rope
166,878
316,418
Two tests completed – the first test was actually stopped prior to failure of the whole sample although a large proportion of wire breaks had been experienced it was still supporting the applied loads.
The result indicated that the cable fell short of the standard grade spiral strand performance (35%)
We also compare the result with the prediction for six strand wire rope which typically comprises of the less ductile drawn galvanised wire and could see that was still well in excess of that performance. So at this stage we had assumed that the higher tensile impacted upon the ductility such that the fatigue performance of a spiral strand had been reduced but we had to review the mode of failure to check this assumption.

46. Mode of Fatigue Failure

47. Fatigue Performance NRM = K Where Log K = a – b.Lm
Returning to the API assessment, and based on the two test results we were able to estimate the a revised K factor for the high tensile spiral strand. Keeping the geometric factor (M) unchanged.
This set of assumptions will be tested with further testing.
Practically confidence in the fatigue performance was all that was necessary as the spiral strand is only part of the overall assessment. A complete cable comprises of the spiral strand and the terminations. The terminations are assessed separately using the chain curve, which is considerably lower performing than even the amended spiral strand performance.

48. Fatigue Performance Conventional Grade Spiral Strand
UHC-Si-Cr Grade Spiral Strand
Six Strand Wire Rope
Fittings / Common Chain
Life Span
1.8 x 106 yrs
1.2 x 106 yrs
2.2 x 105 yrs
9.45 x 104 yrs

49. Commercial Application
Three full scale mooring systems manufactured.
Assessment of alternative applications.
Bridges
Structures
Next stage of strength improvement initiated.
As we discussed right at the beginning a development can only really be considered successful if it can demonstrate a commercial benefit.
And we can now shout about this development as exactly that. We have supplied this material to three mooring systems Santos Bajipera / Salema in Brazil, Kerr McGee Constitution in GOM and Murphy’s Kikeh field offshore Malaysia tonnes.
Other areas where this can be directly applied include Bridges and structures in both cases use spiral strand and also aerial spun wire for bridge applications. Smaller diameter cables mean that the necessary structural components (suporting pylons, saddles, hanger clamps etc) not only reducing costs but enabling more innovative design solutions.
While this is still leading technology for wire manufacture we are not intending to stand still and are already starting on the next stage of the development looking to achieve the next step in strength improvement which is planned for development over the next 12 months.

50. The Development of Ultra-High Strength Wire
A joint development project by
and
Overall Introduction to the Project:
Presentation will be completed by myself SS from Bridon International and Shaun Hobson from Corus. Initially review the demands of the market and historical developments in high strength steel wire which effectively defined the objectives of this work, passing to Shaun to review the development work within steel making and processing operations, then concluding with the practicalities of the use of the high strength wire within the target commercial applications and the options for the future.
Market demands require that we are continually increasing the available breaking strength of steel wire and wire rope products in any application from manufacture of compact hoses for vacuum cleaners to reducing the diameter of bridge suspension cables assisting in keeping other hardware components to optimum size and more importantly minimum cost. For the purposes of this development we focused on the particular application for offshore oil production facilities where the high strength wire enabled minimum weight steel mooring cables supporting the move to deepwater exploration and production activities.
Bridon International and Corus have worked together on numerous through supply chain developments. This paper details one of the most recent successes achieved through shared knowledge and focus on the requirements of the end customer ensuring both commercial and technical success.