Bridon, the global manufacturer of wire and fibre rope for demanding applications and a market leader in shovel hoist ropes, has launched “a revolutionary rope for electric shovels operating in surface mines globally.” Bristar Tiger Blue has been developed and produced by Bridon in response to increased demand for hoist ropes with extended service life, which raises productivity and lowers mines’ total operating costs.

Dave Sleightholm, a Bridon engineer with over 45 years of wire rope experience applied in surface mining equipment, states: “Bristar Tiger Blue is Bridon’s most technically advanced shovel hoist rope, incorporating years of rope design and manufacturing experience, field trials and investigations, and failure mode analysis to develop the best combination of characteristics for this demanding application. Our extensive field trial results prove that Bristar is a game changer.”

Bridon has one of the world’s most advanced facilities for the development and testing of mining ropes. The Bridon Technology Centre (BTC) is where the company pushes the boundaries of current rope capabilities and finds new solutions to a range of mining problems. Bristar Tiger Blue was designed and developed at BTC, and the new shovel rope features the Bristar core. The revolutionary core features flutes designed to maintain a uniform gap between the outer rope strands, hold strand positioning, promote equal load sharing, improve strand to strand wear, and increase fatigue life.

Bristar was field proven in varying mining conditions stretching throughout North America and South America at coal, copper, iron ore and gold mines, and in the oil sands in Canada. Compared to a plastic jacketed rope as a baseline, Bristar improved average service life can be more than 50%. Bristar Tiger Blue will be manufactured by Bridon American, and it will be marketed and sold globally to the Surface Mining Sector. Bristar joins the other Tiger Brand of surface mining ropes which includes Tiger Blue, Tiger Big T, and Duracore.