Fiber Line

Equipment Operator Basic - Beginning construction equipment operators manual
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Figure 13-27.—Anchor shackles. Figure 13-28.—Chain shackles. shackle with the screw pin on the dead end of the rope. If placed on the running end, the movement of the rope may loosen the pin. Shackles are moused whenever there is a chance of the shackle pin working loose and coming out because of vibration. To mouse a shackle, simply take several turns with seizing wire through the eye of the pin and around the bow of the shackle. Figure 13-26 shows what a properly moused shackle looks like. FIBER LINE Fiber line is commonly used to hoist and move heavy loads. Fiber line is constructed similar to wire rope. One difference is yarn. Yarn is used to make the strand in place of wire. Another difference is fiber line does not have a core. TYPES OF FIBER LINE The most common types of fiber line are manila, sisal, hemp, cotton, nylon, and Kevlar. The character- istics of these fiber lines are discussed below. Manila Manila is a strong fiber that comes from the leaf stems of the stalk of the abaca plant, which belongs to the banana family. The fibers vary in length from 1.2 to 4.5 meters in the natural state. The quality of the fiber and its length give manila rope relatively high elasticity, strength, and resistance to wear and deterioration. In many instances, the manufacturer treats the rope with chemicals to make it more mildew resistant, which increases the quality of the rope. Manila rope is generally the standard item of issue because of its quality and relative strength. Sisal Sisal rope is made from two tropical plants that yield a strong, valuable fiber. These plants, sisalana and henequen, produce fibers 0.6 to 1.2 meters long with sisalana producing the stronger fibers of the two plants. Because of the greater strength of sisalana, these fibers are used to make the rope known as sisal. Sisal rope is about 80 percent as strong as high-quality manila rope and can be easily obtained. It withstands exposure to seawater very well and is often used for this reason. Hemp Hemp is a tall plant that provides useful fibers for making rope and cloth. Cultivated in many parts of the world, hemp was used extensively before the intro- duction of manila. Its principal use now is in fittings, such as ratline, marline and spun yarn. Since hemp absorbs tar much better than the hard fibers, these fittings are invariably tarred to make them water resistant. Tarred hemp has about 80 percent of the strength of untarred hemp. Of these tarred fittings, marline is the standard item of issue. Cotton Cotton rope is a very smooth white rope that stands much bending and running. Cotton is not widely used in the Navy except in some cases for small lines. Nylon Nylon rope has a tensile strength that is nearly three times that of manila rope. The advantage of using nylon rope is that it is waterproof and has the ability to resume normal length after being stretched and/or absorbing shocks. It also resists abrasion, rot, decay, and fungus When nylon rope is properly handled and maintained, it should last more than five times longer than manila line subjected to the same use. Nylon rope is also lighter, more flexible, less bulky, and easier to handle and store than manila line. When nylon rope is 13-13

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