IN FOCUS / ANDROMEDA INDUSTRIES
SAFER AND STRONGER SLINGS FROM ANDROMEDA Andromeda Industries is an established innovator in the Australian wire rope industry. Andromeda is the only manufacturer of flat woven steel slings in Australia. Andromedas Industries business development manager Scott Taylor explained more. “AS A BUSINESS, OUR CORE FOCUS IS the design and manufacture of plaited and woven steel cables as well as terminal fittings for these cables. Our products are used extensively in the lifting and rigging industry and they have been for 60 years,” said Taylor. “Over the last 12 months, we have been involved with some of the bigger infrastructure projects on the east coast of Australia, including a significant amount of project work on the Cross River Rail Project in Brisbane, the Metro project in Melbourne, and we have been heavily involved in the Project Energy Connect interconnector powerline project running between Robertson in South Australia and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, where our slings were used for pulling conductor cable. “Our ability to manufacture our Superflex wire rope and a range of fittings in house at our six hectare Moonbi facility has allowed us to supply a varied range of specialised slings through our network of 58 / CAL March/April 2022
The Deano sling is designed to equalise loads on high-capacity ramshorn hooks.
distributors, which include Bullivants, Nobles, and Bunzl Safety,” he said. The Andromeda Industries’ range of products includes Superflex, a plaited 12-strand wire rope as opposed to a conventional wire rope with a sixor eight-strand round strand. “We take the round-stranded cable and plait it into what becomes our Superflex wire tope.” said Taylor. “This process makes it a highly flexible, more robust, and easier to handle wire rope for making slings. The plaited design makes it ideal for choking around smooth surfaces, and for lifting anything you can imagine wire rope gets used for. “Our Superflex cable starts at 10mm and goes through to 96mm. We buy cable from 2.5mm to 24mm as our feed stock and this gets plaited into a three by four plait, which gives us our 12-strand Superflex fi nished product. The reason it is so flexible is because it incorporates 912 individual wires woven into the wire rope. A standard six by 36, which is what
would normally be used for a sling, is manufactured from 216 wires.” Eighteen months ago, Andromeda Industries founder Raymond McLaren commissioned a new plaiting machine. The new horizontal plaiting machine was fully designed and constructed onsite at Moonbi by Raymond and his dedicated staff. “Prior to the installation of this machine, our Superflex product used to stop at a 40mm diameter, but we are now able to make slings up to 96mm in diameter. This diameter has a breaking strain of 434 tonnes and a working load of 84 tonnes in a single leg direct configuration. “With the greater diameter, we are able to manufacture a couple of different styles of slings, including our double ended strop, which can then take the working load up to 168 tonnes. We would be the only organisation in Australia capable of manufacturing a cable like this,” said Taylor. Recently, Andromeda Industries worked closely with John Holland on www.cranesandlifting.com.au
