At home, we use rope to tie or tie things together, without thinking about the technical details behind the product. However, our ropes are used in various business processes or in applications where quality assurance is paramount. Guaranteeing impeccable quality requires specific expertise as well as rigorous quality control using adapted equipment and established procedures.
Rope is a technical, yet artisanal product. Properties like breaking strength, diameter, and length are crucial, and we must be able to guarantee them without question. Below are some examples of how we can achieve this in practice.
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Ropes are periodically removed from the warehouse and production line and subjected to strict quality controls. For example, we test their breaking strength internally using our own tensile testing machine.
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Many of our machines operate autonomously. An operator selects the appropriate program and loads the raw materials, after which the machine can operate for hours. The machines themselves are equipped with built-in wire guards and sensors that detect broken wires.
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Cotton yarns are purchased in metric yarn counts (NM), or the number of meters of yarn per gram. The difference in thickness between the different NMs is not visually visible, so we use a yarn counter here.
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Natural ropes have the added characteristic that ensuring a consistent supply of raw materials isn't always easy. For example, the diameter or thickness can vary. In our cotton production process, different yarns are twisted together to create a thicker final product. If the base yarns have a different thickness, the recipe is no longer correct, and the final rope won't have the expected diameter. A single, irregular yarn used 48 times to create a thicker rope has a significant impact on the final result. Here too, we opt to inspect the yarns upon arrival, so that the recipe can be adjusted if necessary, ensuring a consistent final product.
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4-eye principle. Every product passes through at least two pairs of hands, allowing two people to focus on quality and potentially highlighting any additional details.
