Aluminium sleeves for wire rope are also called ferrules, crimps, or swage sleeves. Choose Aluminium Sleeves for their economy and ease of use. Aluminium sleeves cause a galvanic corrosion when used with stainless steel wire rope. -so only use them in VERY low agression environments or with Black or Galvanised Wire Rope. Aluminium is soft and easy to crush (swage) uniformly using manual or hydraulic tools. Aluminium forms soft metal tubes available in three general shapes (hourglass, oval, or round) that are used to terminate or splice wire rope. Simplex Sleeves accommodate a single wire rope strand and form a stop while Duplex sleeves join two or more strands together.
How to use Aluminium Sleeves
Sleeves are crushed onto wire rope by either a crimping process or a swaging process.
- Hourglass and Oval sleeves are the two duplex sleeve shapes that form secure loops or eyes or join two ends together with a mechanical splice.
- Typically, Hourglass sleeves are crimped using a manual tool while Oval sleeves are swaged using a hydraulic tool.
- Round sleeves are simplex sleeves and are used to create physical stops and may be crimped or swaged for efficacy.
Functions of Aluminium Sleeves
Loop Splicing creates Eyes
- Wire Rope is threaded through and back into a duplex sleeve to form a secure loop at the end of a cable. Without internal reinforcement of the loop (no thimble), the structure is termed a ‘soft eye’. When the loop has internal support by including a metal thimble to protect the wire and distribute the load, the structure is termed a ‘hard eye’.
Lap Splicing connects two wire ropes.
- Two or more duplex sleeves are threaded onto two or more strands of wire rope that are overlapped. Thimbles are never involved as no loops or eyes are created. The number of sleeves, the spacing of the sleeves and the length of the overlapped area affect the strength of the lap splice and is a function of the diameter and construction of the wire rope being spliced.
Stopping terminates a single wire rope
- A single simplex round sleeve can act as a physical block or stopper on a line. Stoppers on the end of a wire rope typically occur on control cables such as Bowen Cables that apply both tension and compression forces.
Choosing Aluminium Sleeves
Aluminium sleeves are the standard choice for durable wire rope constructions. Alluminium handles outdoor, marine, and moderate industrial environments well. When planning to make a cable assembly, clearly consider the planned
- purpose,
- longevity,
- maximum load,
- environment, and
- usage conditions.
Beyond these factors, also consider the physical characteristics of your wire rope including
- the diameter of your wire rope,
- the construction of your wire rope,
- the material of the wire rope, and
- the availability of either a manual hand crimping tool or a hydraulic swaging tool