Wire Rope Slings
The sling everything else is built from: a length of wire rope with an eye at each end, flemished and swaged rather than tucked, so the splice is stronger than the rope around it.
Nine standard configurations, from a plain eye-and-eye up to a master link on one end and an alloy hook on the other. All of them are made to order in any length, so the code below is really just shorthand for what goes on each end.
Features
- Flemished eye splice
- Sizes available from 1/4” to 2”
- 6×19 & 6×37 class bright EIPS IWRC wire rope
- Galvanized & stainless steel wire rope available on request
- Heavy duty stainless steel tag
- 5:1 design factor
- Proof testing available on request
- Made in Hatfield, PA
How to order
- Specify wire rope size
- Specify leg length
- Specify end fittings
Standard configurations
These are the codes the catalog and the shop both use. Quote the code and a length and we know exactly what to build.
11-1-1Standard eyes both ends
11-1-1CStandard eyes + sliding choker hook
11-1-2Standard eye / thimble eye
11-2-2Thimble eyes both ends
11-1-3Standard eye + alloy hook
11-2-3Thimble eye + alloy hook
11-3-0Thimble eye + hook one end
11-1-SBStandard eye + swaged button
11-9-3Oblong master link + hookRated capacities
Every sling is made to order — tap Add on the size you want and tell us the length in the quote.
Tons of 2,000 lb, at a 5:1 design factor. Three constructions, because the same diameter behaves differently depending on how the rope is made.
| Rope Dia. (in.) | Eye Size (in.) | Min. Sling Length | IWRC EIPS 6×19 & 6×37 | Cable Laid 7×7×7 & 7×7×19 | Hidden Tuck Hand Splice | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Width | Length | Vert. | Choker | Basket | Vert. | Choker | Basket | Vert. | Choker | Basket | ||
| 1/4 | 3 | 6 | 1’ 6” | .65 | .48 | 1.3 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3/8 | 3 | 6 | 2’ | 1.4 | 1.1 | 2.9 | 1.1 | .74 | 2.2 | 1.2 | .94 | 2.4 |
| 1/2 | 4 | 8 | 2’ 6” | 2.5 | 1.9 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 4.0 |
| 5/8 | 5 | 10 | 3’ | 3.9 | 2.9 | 7.8 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 5.5 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 6.2 |
| 3/4 | 6 | 12 | 3’ 6” | 5.6 | 4.1 | 11 | 4.1 | 2.8 | 8.1 | 4.3 | 3.7 | 8.6 |
| 7/8 | 7 | 14 | 4’ | 7.6 | 5.6 | 15 | 5.4 | 3.7 | 11 | — | — | — |
| 1 | 8 | 16 | 4’ 6” | 9.8 | 7.2 | 20 | 6.9 | 4.7 | 14 | — | — | — |
| 1 1/8 | 9 | 18 | 5’ | 12 | 9.1 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1 1/4 | 10 | 20 | 5’ 6” | 15 | 11 | 30 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1 3/8 | 11 | 22 | 6’ | 18 | 13 | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1 1/2 | 12 | 24 | 7’ | 21 | 16 | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1 3/4 | 14 | 28 | 8’ | 28 | 21 | 57 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 16 | 32 | 9’ | 37 | 28 | 73 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Which construction
- IWRC EIPS 6×19 & 6×37
- The standard and the strongest of the three at every size. What we build unless you ask otherwise. See 6×19 and 6×37 class.
- Cable laid 7×7×7 & 7×7×19
- Rope made from rope. Much more flexible and far kinder to handle, at roughly three quarters the capacity. Worth it where a sling has to be worked by hand all day or wrapped tight.
- Hidden tuck hand splice
- A hand-spliced eye rather than a swaged one, in the sizes where it is still made. Softer and more flexible than a flemished eye; slightly less capacity.
A dash means that construction is not made in that diameter.
Fabricated in Hatfield and proof tested in house. Tell us the size, the length and the fittings and we will build it; if you would rather tell us the load and the geometry, we will work out the sling.
Vertical, choker, basket
The same sling has three ratings depending on how you hitch it, and the table gives all three. Read the column that matches what you are actually going to do.
- Vertical
- Straight pull, hook at the top, load at the bottom. The sling’s full rating, and the number every other hitch is worked out from. A single vertical leg lets the load spin, so it wants a tag line or a second leg.
- Choker
- The sling passes round the load and back through its own eye. Roughly 75% of vertical, because the body of the sling is bent hard where it passes through the eye. It grips, so it is what you use on a bundle or anything that could slide — but it does not make a bundle safe on its own.
- Basket
- Both eyes on the hook, the load cradled in the bight. Twice vertical when the legs hang straight down, because two legs share the load — and less than that the moment they splay, which is what the angle table below is about.
Basket capacities on this page assume the load is over a pin or a hook of adequate diameter. Bend a sling round something too small and you lose strength fast; that is the D/d ratio, and it is set out below.
Sling angle is the thing that catches people
The moment a leg is not vertical it carries more tension than its share of the load, and the flatter the angle the worse it gets. The angle that matters is measured from the horizontal — from the top of the load up to the leg — not from the vertical, and confusing the two is the single most common mistake in rigging.
| Angle from horizontal | Leg carries | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| 90° | 100% | Straight vertical lift. Nothing lost. |
| 60° | 87% | The usual working angle, and what the first column of the table assumes. |
| 45° | 71% | Legs spread as wide as they are tall. |
| 30° | 50% | Half your capacity gone. The flattest angle you should ever work at. |
| Under 30° | — | Not to be used. Tension climbs so steeply that a small error in the angle is a large error in the load. |
A quick way to picture it: if the legs spread out as wide as the sling is tall, you are at about 45° and each leg is doing 1.4 times the work it would do straight down. The fix is almost always a longer sling or a spreader beam, not a bigger one.
The rated capacities in the table already have the angle worked in — the 45° column is the capacity of the assembly at 45°, not something to reduce again. Just read the column that matches how you will rig it.
D/d ratio — what you bend it around
Wire rope loses strength when it is bent. How much depends on the ratio between the diameter of what you bend it over (D) and the diameter of the rope itself (d). Bend a 1/2 inch sling round a 5 inch pin and D/d is 10; round a 1 inch shackle pin and it is 2, and you have thrown away roughly a quarter of the sling.
| D/d | Strength retained |
|---|---|
| 8 or more | 95% |
| 6 | 92% |
| 4 | 87% |
| 2 | 75% |
| 1 | 50% |
This is why a basket capacity comes with a condition attached, and why a sharp corner is worse than a small pin — a square edge is effectively a D/d of nearly nothing. Pad it, or use a softener.
When to take a sling out of service
Look at a sling before every lift, and have it inspected properly at least once a year — more often if it is working hard. Remove it from service and destroy it if you find any of this:
The rope
- Ten randomly distributed broken wires in one rope lay
- Five broken wires in one strand in one lay
- Wear or scraping of one third the original diameter of an outside wire
- Kinking, crushing, birdcaging or any distortion of the rope structure
- Heat damage — melting, charring, or weld spatter
- Severe corrosion, or pitting you can feel
- A section that has stretched noticeably thinner than the rest
The ends and fittings
- Broken or worn wires at or near an end attachment
- A cracked, deformed or worn end fitting
- A hook opened past the manufacturer’s limit, or twisted
- A missing or unreadable identification tag
- A sling that has been shock loaded
- Any repair not made by a qualified person
This follows ASME B30.9. A sling with no legible tag cannot be used, whatever condition the rope is in — and retagging is not something to do from memory, because the tag has to match what the sling actually is. Bring it to us and we will identify it, test it and tag it, or tell you plainly that it should be replaced. We also inspect on site and cover all of this in rigging training.
Need a price or a lead time?
Most stocked items ship the same day from Hatfield. Call and we’ll confirm what’s on the shelf.