Glossary of Rope and Material Terms and Trade Names

Only trade names which uniquely identify a material are listed. Trade names are capitalized. Acronyms and chemical abbreviations are upper case. Other terms are lower case.

aramid: A high strength, high modulus fibre. Trade names include Kevlar and Twaron.

Atlas: Bexco (Belgium), Drahtseilwerk Bremerhaven and Lankhorst Euronete trade name for a rope comprised of two forms of nylon. Half the outer yarns on a strand are conventional fine multifilament nylon fibre. The other outer yarns are large monofilament fibres (tradename Perlon).

Dacron: duPont trade name for polyester

Deltaflex: Bexco trade name for a high strength polyester and polypropylene mixed fibre rope.

Dyneema: DSM (Dutch State Mines) name for HMPE fibre.

HMPE: High Modulus Polyethylene, a high strength, high modulus fibre. Trade names include Dyneema and Spectra.

Jetkore: Samson/American trade name for a 6 strand rope of nylon, polyester, and polypropylene.

Kevlar: duPont trade name for aramid.

Karat: Scan Ropes (Norway) trade name for a polypropylene-polyester copolymer fibre material, also used in ropes by several other manufacturers.

LCAP: Liquid crystal aromatic polyester (not official abbreviation. A subcategory of LCP, liquid crystal polymer.

monofilament: A fibre having relatively large diameter.

multifilament: A fibre having relatively small diameter.

Nelson: Marlow trade name for staple polypropylene rope.

Nystron: Samson trade name for a double braid rope having a nylon core and a polyester cover.

PA: Chem. abbreviation for polyamide or nylon.

PE: Chem. abbreviation for polyethylene.

PES, PET: Chem. abbreviations for polyester.

PP: Chem. abbreviation for polypropylene.

PPTA: Chem. abbreviation for aramid.

polyamide: The common chemical name for nylon. This name is used in Europe.

Perlon: Bayer Chemical Co. (Germany) trade name for nylon.

Poly-Plus: Wall Industries trade name for a polyester-polypropylene rope.

Power Braid: Samson trade name for a double braid rope having a polypropylene core and a nylon cover.

polyolefin: The chemical group which includes both polypropylene and polyethylene. This term might refer to either of these fibres.

Spectra: Allied name for HMPE fibre.

spun: Yarns which are formed by twisting short fibres together in the same manner as was done for natural fibres.

staple: Short fibres, resembling the form of natural fibres, which are spun (twisted) together to form a yarn.

Supermix: Marlow trade name for a polyester-polypropylene mixed fibre rope.

Terylene: ICI (England) trade name for polyester.

Thor: Marlow trade name for the Atlas rope design.

Twaron: Akzo name for aramid.

Ultraline: Samson/American trade name for a polypropylene-polyester copolymer material rope.

Vectran: Hoechst Celanese name for liquid crystal aromatic polyester fibre

February 23, 2003