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President's Message
By Bill Putnam
Greetings and welcome to our Spring Newsletter!
We are looking forward to seeing you at our Annual Conference in May. We are glad to see a return to our more traditional scheduling. We have developed a great a program and agenda, and I want to thank the Board members and our excellent staff for all their efforts to set this year’s conference plan. Colorado Springs should be an amazing venue in May. You will find the full details included in this newsletter.
Our winter technical meeting continued as a Virtual Meeting on January 31 and February 1. We got well practiced with virtual tools and we don’t want to lose all our skills! The Technical Subcommittees continued their work and offered updates on progress to date. We appreciate the efforts by all the volunteers for these subcommittees and the support of their employers to allow this participation. For those still looking to get involved, there are always openings, and new members are encouraged to take part.
Enjoy the Spring. Book your tickets and reservations for Colorado Springs and we will see you at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in May!
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Cordage Institute Happenings | |
The Cordage Institute’s Annual Conference is Almost Here! Register Today! | |
Please make sure to register for the Cordage Institute’s 2023 Annual Conference on May 16-18 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs.
The program will feature a technical working group meeting, a meeting of the Technical Committee, the annual business meeting, a technical seminar, the Annual Sim Whitehill Memorial Golf Tournament, and plenty of opportunities to interact and connect with Cordage Institute members and industry professionals.
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Annual Conference Speaker Highlights
The following presenters have been confirmed for the Cordage Institute's 2023 Annual Conference in Colorado Springs:
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How to Thrive in an Economic Winter:
Take the Fear out of Finance
Bob Schumann, MA MBA MDiv CFP® AIFA® PPC®
General Business Session - Wednesday, May 17
The ascent of man to the top of the evolutionary ladder began with the recognition of four seasons and the organization of life around those seasons. Two thousand years of recent history, especially the last 500, suggest the world is entering the fourth and final stage of an economic pattern which matches the 84-year human lifecycle. This pattern predicted the beginning of an economic winter triggered by a banking crisis in 2006 (+/- couple years) and ending in 2027 with an economic spring and new world order. Bob will take the fear out of this once in a lifetime transition by using the 1986 Challenger disaster to illustrate the power of quantum forecasting. He will give a brief history of its evolution since the American Revolution and demonstrate how individuals and businesses can use this forecasting power to build the perfect, all-weather investment portfolio. Finally, he will close his address with a Q&A session through which the audience will experience how it feels to thrive in an economic winter. He says, “the only thing more powerful than a belief, is an experience.”
Bob is a financial coach, and provides training to corporations, small business owners, foundations, endowments, non-profits, retirement plan sponsors, and investment advisors who have been entrusted with the management of other people's money. For more information on Bob, click here.
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Fast Rope Technology Development at
United States Air Force Academy
Col. Cory Cooper, United States Air Force Academy
Technical Seminar - Thursday, May 18
Col. Cooper is Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy, where he manages the Academy’s largest research center, the $35M Center for Aircraft Structural Life Extension (CAStLE).
He is excited to present the process of how his team worked their way through problems of designing, building, and patenting several key technologies to replace the current Fast Rope Insertion and Extraction System (FRIES). These actions were undertaken by Air Force Academy cadets and faculty, and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The team used a unique design approach to make the fast rope system safer, faster, lighter, and more mission responsive; and resulted in AFRL and DARPA innovation awards and multiple patents in the years since.
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Technical Papers to be Presented at Annual Conference
The Cordage Institute’s Technical Operating Committee is very excited to announce the following technical papers, which will be presented during the 2023 Annual Conference:
- “Parametric Model for the Yarn-on-Yarn Abrasion Test Geometry” by Forrest Sloan, Kuraray
- “Technical Aspects of Mooring Arrangement for Ship Building During Typhoon Seasons, Part I – Connection Between Mainlines and Tails” by Bingbing Hou, Yuhua Wang and Chiate (Rafael) Chou, Zhejiang Four Brothers Rope Co., Ltd
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"Non-Destructive Examination Technology for Fibre Ropes Based on Advanced Vision Equipment and Algorithms” by Cristiano Bonetti, Alan Bell, John Churchfield, Koray Bineklioglu, Joseph Karedan and Pengzhu Wang, Bridon Bekaert Ropes Group
These papers, which will be presented during the Technical Seminar on Thursday, May 18, were selected from the submissions because they best meet the committee’s objective to “cover timely and noteworthy topics related to fiber ropes, cables, chains, and other synthetic tension members.” Following the conference, these papers will be published on the Cordage Institute’s website.
The abstracts for the selected technical papers can be viewed by clicking on the below link.
Review Abstracts
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Rollin Stirman Selected for the 2023
Gale Foster Award of Merit
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Rollin Stirman, longtime friend of the Cordage Institute, will be posthumously awarded the Gale Foster Award of Merit during the Cordage Institute's 2023 Annual Conference in Colorado Springs. Named after the well-respected former CI Technical Director, the Gale Foster Award of Merit is presented to individuals who have contributed outstanding service to the organization and to the industry over a substantial period of time. Rollin led Miami Cordage through fires, moves, and acquisitions. As a testament to his legacy, his son, Jason Hoffman, and daughter-in-law, Fran Hoffman, now run Miami Cordage.
Past recipients of the Award of Merit include John Flory, Steve Swiackey, Sim Whitehill, Tom Yale, and Bill Hagenbuch.
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Seeking New Home for Hooven & Allison Memorabilia | |
The family of Bill Hagenbuch is looking to preserve history and hopes that rope enthusiasts can help. Hooven & Allison memorabilia is available for individuals and companies that are willing to preserve, display, and care for the items. The family is asking for help after the local historical society turned down their donation. Christine Martin, daughter of Bill, hopes to find a person or company that has the space and ability to properly display and care for the items.
Continue Reading
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Highlights of the Winter 2023 Technical Meeting | |
On January 31 and February 1, 2023, the Cordage Institute held its latest Virtual Technical Meeting. The two-day event consisted of Technical Subcommittee and Task Group Meetings, and a meeting of the full Technical Committee. During the full Technical Committee meeting, reports from each Subcommittee and Task Group were provided.
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New Cordage Institute Members
The Cordage Institute is happy to welcome the following new members:
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Neocorp has been providing service driven, customer focused solutions for over 30 years from our 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Pawtucket, RI. Our trained workforce, high speed production technology and wide range of on-hand raw materials let us lead with service, aimed at being increasingly effective and efficient in our customer eyes.
Our proprietary manufacturing capabilities allow us to make product shapes beyond the standard circular, including triangular, rectangular and square. These capabilities also allow us to make varying densities, unique technical fiber blends and varying heat resistance abilities that few others can offer.
Our continuous improvement efforts support our service orientated goals and are ongoing, including Lean/MEPS initiatives for machine maintenance and a robust quality assurance program. Our goal remains to contribute to the success of our OEM and distribution customers for the long term. We hope to have the opportunity to produce a simple or engineered product for your organization.
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KTL Marine Services (KTLMS) is incorporated in the U.A.E., provides a wide range of inspection, certification and technical services to the offshore oil & gas and marine industries for high performance HMPE mooring lines and heavy lift slings (steel & synthetic). Our services are in compliance with major international standards and guidance documents such as API, ASME, BSEN, DNVGL, IMCA, LOLER, CI-1500 (for Synthetic ropes) and others.
Some of the services we provide are:
-Retrofitting of vessels from steel wire to HMPE (High Modulus Polyethylene) mooring lines, including:
- Pre-installation inspection and consultation;
- Rope Installation / Spooling using Constant tension spooling machine adapted for synthetic rope;
- Customer Training
-Inspection of HMPE mooring ropes; synthetic and steel heavy lift slings;
-Repair, splicing and certification services for synthetic ropes;
-Sampling and destruction testing for steel and synthetic rope and slings (up to 750mt).
Our services are backed with many years of experience in the lifting and mooring market.
KTLMS has been at the forefront of many major technical advancements using synthetic material to replace steel wire rope.
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KATRADIS GROUP operates since 1936 with strong presence in the Marine & Offshore Industries as a manufacturer of a wide range of products such as synthetic mooring ropes, wire ropes and sacrificial anodes for all vessel types and also global supplier of anchors, chains, port development & deck equipment.
We offer advanced customer service meeting the highest demands and complying with the international guidelines and standards for safe operations. This way we ensure that our clients in the Greek and international market are fully satisfied and confident when using our products. Yet, the strategic expansion of our partnerships and stock points though our global network are the key points to provide excellent customer service at major ports worldwide (Europe, Canada, USA, Singapore, China, UAE, Egypt, Durban and more).
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Knots & Notes
By Sarah Padilla, Cordage Institute Technical Director
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The Knots and N otes section of Ropecord News informs you of the standards being developed by the Cordage Institute, as well as by other industry organizations. As we develop this section of the newsletter, please let us know what type of content is of interest to you by sending an email to [email protected] or [email protected].
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Standards Update
Updates from the Cordage Institute Standards subcommittees on how things are progressing since the last newsletter.
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The Standard Review
Updates from other standards bodies that are relevant to the cordage industry.
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TP Industrial Yarns Acquires Technotex Ankum | |
TP Industrial Yarns has taken over the complete production of Technotex Ankum as of 1 March 2023. The new entity – part of the TPI Group – will be called TPI Germany GmbH.
With the acquisition of production activities in Ankum Germany, we are expanding our processing capacity from approx. 2,000 MT per year to a capacity of 6,000 MT. As a consequence, we are now one of the largest producers of technical and high-performance yarns in Europe.
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Samson Introduces Fusion-X | |
Samson, the leading developer of high-performance synthetic rope solutions and global market leader in commercial marine applications, is pleased to announce their latest innovation, Fusion-X™.
Made from a blend of polyester and HMPE (High Modules Polyethylene Fiber) and building on the success of Fusion-12, Fusion-X continues to bridge the gap between performance and investment in towing operations. Fusion-X is a high-visibility two-color rope with increased abrasion resistance, strength, and permanent and obvious twist identification. Twist reduces the strength of braided rope and can lead to unexpected failures. Now, it is easier than ever to identify and mitigate twists in the line.
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I&I / Slingmax and Yale Cordage Join Forces | |
River Associates Investments, L.P. (“River Associates”), a longstanding lower middle market private equity firm based in Chattanooga, TN, announced the acquisition of I&I Sling, Inc and Slingmax, Inc. (“I&I /Slingmax”). This acquisition, in addition to River’s purchase of Yale Cordage in 2020, solidifies the combined businesses as an industry leader of innovative custom solutions in synthetic ropes and heavy lift slings serving the Utility/Electric, Energy/Off-shore, Infrastructure/Construction, Arborist, Inland Marine and Commercial Marine industries.
Each company will continue to operate autonomously delivering the same level of commitment of relentless focus on serving customers, manufacturing in America, and driving innovation through custom engineered solutions across all 50 states, Canada, and other countries.
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Eurocord Corner
By Philippe Verschueren, Secretary General
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Europe, and its economy, shaken by a succession of events.
Many political and/or economic analyses do exist in the Brussels world, provided by columnists close to the EU institutions and working on their so-called “lobbying, influencing” tasks. Lectures of their contributions and discussions with them lead me to the following striking points.
And let’s face it right away: Europe is sputtering on many fronts even though we would like to see it differently. Indeed, economic Europe is highly dependent on its own Western European demand, and growth is likely to be stagnant or negative in 2023. At the end of 2019, the economies of emerging Europe (a growth hub focused on 23 countries of Central, Eastern, South-Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus) were still thriving. Macroeconomic and political stability had been secured, inflation was low, exchange rates were pretty stable, budget deficits were small and public debt moderate in most countries, while growth rates were satisfactory. What happened since then?
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Cordage Companies Continue to Tout the Benefits of Synthetic Towlines
By Micael Crowley, WorkBoat Magazine
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Getting inland barge companies to replace wire towing cables with synthetic line is key for cordage companies that want to gain more traction in the towing market. But it can be difficult convincing companies to make the switch.
To start with, “riverboat operators may not be aware of this type of rope and the benefits and options they have,” said Garrett Krapf, regional account manager with Yale Cordage, Saco, Maine. He added that “change is difficult.”
The benefits of synthetic line include weight savings and usability. Synthetic line is seven times lighter per-diameter than wire and easier for deckhands to work with. There’s significantly less chance for injuries, and “that’s the big thing, back injuries and worker’s comp claims,” said Krapf. “One worker’s comp claim from a deckhand with injuries from throwing wire around can really hurt the company. It’s a lot easier to handle something that’s seven times lighter.” Additionally, synthetic line doesn’t rust or kink.
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Artist Recycles Retired Rope
By Piper Curtin, The Ellsworth American
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Just outside of downtown Ellsworth on the edge of Graham Lake, there is a small, wooden cabin with a blue, double-doored shed. The house is home to Mischa Ostberg and their husband, Eric, and the shed is home to Mischa’s fiber arts studio, East Mountain Designs.
Inside the blue doors, a pile of rock-climbing rope looms in the corner, waiting to be turned into a landscape, a portrait, an animal or some other yet unforeseen design. Soon, the long, tangled coils will be measured, cut, curved and glued onto canvas, wood or cloth to create completely recycled artwork.
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AWRF Spring General Meeting
April 16-19, 2023
The Scottsdale Plaza Resort
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Offshore Technology Conference
May 1-4, 2023
NRG Park
Houston, Texas
Techtextil North America
May 10-12, 2023
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, Georgia
Cordage Institute Annual Conference
May 16-18, 2023
Cheyenne Mountain Resort
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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Eurocord Annual Meeting
June 5-6, 2023
Hotel Caesius
Bardolino, Italy
ITMA
June 8-14, 2023
Fiera Milano Rho
Milan, Italy
WSTDA Fall Meeting
September 18-20, 2023
AC Hotel Greenville
Greenville, South Carolina
International Work Boat Show
November 29-December 1, 2023
Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
Techtextil Frankfurt
April 23- 26, 2024
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, Germany
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Ropecord News
Ropecord News is published by the Cordage Institute. The Cordage Institute is an international association of rope, twine, and related manufacturers, their suppliers, and affiliated industries. Articles appearing in Ropecord News are the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Cordage Institute. Members are encouraged to contribute articles and items of interest by emailing them to [email protected].
Rates for advertising are available from the Institute.
Peter M. Lance, Executive Director
Tel: 610-971-4854
Fax: 610-971-4859
E-mail: [email protected]
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