Tech-Info 09.3: What influences the flexibility of a rope
09.3 Rope property: Flexibility
A wire rope is usually more flexible the more strands and wires it has. However, flexibility is also affected by the lay lengths of the strands, the core rope, and the rope, as well as by the blocking (spacing) between the wires and between the strands. If a wire rope is not flexible enough, it must be forced to bend around a sheave of a specified diameter. This reduces the bending fatigue strength of the rope.