New fishing rope development centre opens

The Centre features purpose-built equipment for rope testing, enabling Bridon to refine complex rope constructions and optimise their design.

The Centre was developed in response to the fishing sector’s need for stronger and more sophisticated ropes. Bridon’s plans for this facility are to develop the largest and most sophisticated rope products for fishing customers.

The Centre’s custom-made testing and analysis equipment has been designed to evaluate advanced rope constructions for their suitability in the most challenging conditions.

The facility can test samples from ropes that will weigh hundreds of tonnes, assessing their strength under extreme loads, their endurance against bend fatigue, their rotational characteristics, and their response to repeated layering on smaller, more economical spools. It is also invested with the latest 3D Microscope technology to examine ropes in minute detail, allowing for some of the most rigorous examinations ever conducted.

The launch of this Centre follows the recent opening of Bridon Neptune Quay, a manufacturing facility said to be capable of producing the largest and most complex ropes in the world.

Bridon chief executive Jon Templeman said, “BTC will be a high-tech hub for next generation rope development, where the finest minds in rope technology use sophisticated testing equipment to validate the designs of the largest and most complex ropes ever made.”