Tech-Info 04: The fill factor of a strand increases with an increasing number of wires.
04 Fill factor of wire rope
The fill factor of a wire rope is understood to be the quotient of the metal cross-section of the rope (according to the definition, simplified as the sum of the individual wire cross-sections) in relation to the cross-section of the smallest of the smallest enveloping circle of the rope. The fill factor indicates what proportion of the space occupied by the wires and strands in the rope are filled with steel. The fill factors of the most common ropes are approximately between 0.46 and 0.75. This means that the proportion of steel to steel content of the rope volume is about 46% to 75% of the rope volume. Wire ropes with steel cores have higher fill factors than ropes with fiber cores. For example, a 6 x 25 Filler – FE rope has a fill factor 0.50, a 6 x 25 Filler – IWRC rope has a fill factor of 0.58.