Wire rope selection for manual winch application

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of analytical decision making during the selection of engineering entities in an engineering design setting. Design/methodology/approach: The paper develops a quantitative method for wire rope selection and uses handbook data to demonstrate the use of the method in selecting a suitable type and size of wire rope for the hoisting/hauling mechanism of a hypothetical manual winch. Findings: Wire rope data can be processed into forms that are more readily useable in a quantitative selection method. Moreover, computer software such as Microsoft Excel may be used in the selection process, so long as the data are in suitable form. Originality/value: The selection of engineering entities often occurs in engineering design processes. An information processing approach to wire rope selection has been developed and demonstrated. The method demonstrated in this paper should be applicable in other situations in which a need for the selection of engineering entities arises.