Introduction
The Bridon group of companies of the U.K., leading specialists in steel wire rope technology, designs and manufactures a wide range of steel wires and ropes at factories around the world. Bridon's ropes are in service from the Ukraine to the USA.
Dedicated units
Offshore oil exploration and production rely on the technical expertise of Bridon's manufacturing units to enable them to reach oil and gas in ever deeper waters. New products are always in development to enable mines to operate to ever greater depths. In the crane market, Bridon is well represented by its range of Endurance high-performance crane ropes and Trulift elevator ropes, known for quality and durability. The company's steel wires are in use in many bridge and structural applications both in suspension cables and as reinforcement. Bridon's specialist spring and engineering wires are also used where safety and integrity are demanded. |
Bridon's Wire Construction Products Division
Bridon, based in Doncaster, UK, was first registered in 1924 under the name British Ropes, and is now a member of the FKI Group, a major international engineering group. Bridon Wire Construction Products, a division of Bridon international, is focused on the global construction market and supplies premium-value wire and strand for the precast, post-tensioning, and cable stay industries. Formerly at Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire, all its facilities were transferred to Bridon's headquarters at Doncaster as of the year 2000, coinciding with a £5 million investment programme.
This programme included the installation of two MFL (Italy) wire drawing machines, a new MFL PC wire heat treatment line, and a new MFL coupled strand heat treatment line, alongside a plastic extrusion line. The division's specialities include roof-bolting strand for mining applications, Dyform® strand for heavy lifting applications such as the raising of the famous London Eye, and stay cable quality strand for bridges. |
Uddevalla Bridge |
Recent bridge-building successes overseas
Bridon Wire Construction Products is celebrating the recent completion of another successful export contract, for the supply of steel cable stay strands for the Umea Bridge in northern Sweden. The company supplied 113 tonnes of strand on reels for the installation of stays ranging in length from 35 metres to 113 metres. The 16.00mm strand, manufactured at Doncaster, is galvanised, greased, and PE coated during manufacture, for protection from corrosion during service. Bridon's customer Spannarmering, the prestressing contractor, is acting on behalf of project main contractor, PEAB, also of Sweden.
Mr Dave Corby, Business Manager, Bridon Wire Construction Products, said: "Our reputation for engineering excellence is further enhanced by projects like Umea Bridge, just one of several high-profile international contracts to date for Bridon Construction Products."
In the case of the impressive Uddevalla Bridge, also in Sweden, Bridon supplied 1,100 tonnes of strand in lengths of 70 to 215 metres, each cable having between 22 and 66 strands.
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Bridon Wire supplied steel cable stay strands to Umea Bridge in northern Sweden |
425 tonnes of cable for Poland
The same Bridon 16.00mm product used on the two Swedish bridge projects will also see service on the Sucharskiego Bridge over the Martwa Wisla River in Gdansk, Poland, where 425 tonnes of cable stay quality strand were supplied on reels for the installation in Gdansk.
The cable stays range in length from 60 to 215 metres. When completed, the Sucharskiego Bridge will form one segment of a new connecting road, constructed to motorway standards, linking the Southeast Gdansk to the new port at the terminus of the main Warsaw-Gdansk highway.
The Sucharskiego Bridge linking Southeast Gdansk
to the new port of the city |
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The client for this bridge is the Polish Road Administration (Generalma Dyrekcja Drog Publicznych) who have been working on the bridge project since 1999. The bridge is scheduled to be open to road traffic in 2002. The Sucharskiego Bridge will be 372 metres long and comprise six spans: five spans of 25-30 metres each, plus a main central span of 230 metres, crossing the Martwa Wisla River. The main contract is a joint venture between Demathieu & Bard of France, and Mosty Lodz of Poland, with subcontractor VSL Polska responsible for the installation of the Bridon-supplied stay cables.
Prestressed concrete wire and strand
In addition to its contributions to these stunning bridges, Bridon Wire Construction Products is also involved in the supply of prestressed concrete wire and strand and post-tensioned concrete strand. The prestressed concrete wire is used in factory-fabricated lintels, floor beams, and concrete pipe reinforcement; the prestressing strand, in factory-fabricated railway sleepers, bridge beams, sign gantries, flooring, and lintels and stairways, among other applications.
One of the most high-profile recent uses of Bridon Wire Construction Products post-tensioning strand can be seen on the South Arne oil platform that is now operational and in production off the coast of Scandinavia. Bridon worked on the project for SIMEX/SIMCON (UK) Ltd, who acted as the prestressing subcontractor to Brown & Root on behalf of overall project owner Amerada Hess. Over 1700 tonnes of post-tensioned strand was supplied by Bridon for the South Arne platform, which has a storage capacity of 500,000 barrels of crude oil.
The South Arne oil platform off the coast of Scandinavia |
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Cable stay quality strands for a stadium
The same type of post-tensioning strand used for the South Arne project can also be found in some of the world's most eye-catching bridges, car parks, and stadiums such as Blackburn Rovers FC's stadium and the home of Rugby Union at Twickenham, both in the UK. It is also in service in the newly opened Cardiff Millennium stadium in Wales, temporary home of the FA Cup since the closure of England's national stadium at Wembley.
Conclusion
Whatever the application, quality, reliability, and endurance are key words for Bridon Wire Construction Products. All Bridon factories operate under a complete inspection and quality control system, fully detailed in a manual defining all controls at every stage from rod to finished product. These include procedures for control of auxiliary site services, calibration of recording equipment, and internal audit of the system in line with internationally recognised standards.
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