Page 22 - Wire Rope News & Sling Technology - December 2018

continued from page 20 The sole way to do what I wanted “Before that time, my knowledge re-
monthly. “Every ten years they dis- was to be on my own garding wire rope was limited to that of
mantle all the machinery for inspec- Jean-Marc Teissier bought DEP En- the field of cable cars and ropeway sys-
tion and so on, and after the first 10 gineering in 1992. He was just 33 years tems, i.e. almost nothing compared to
years, in 2005, they computed that 85 old, but his business career had begun what I learned when I entered the real
million people had ridden the Space in high school. An avid skier from the world of wire rope and then the world
Mountain train.” time he was 10, Teissier says he ap- of fiber rope.”
Another issue was estimating the plied for his first patent when he was Following the success of Space Moun-
wear of the winch drum. “The Ameri- 17. “I was on the national French rac- tain, DEP did a variety of design and
can team of engineers asked to have a ing team. I invented a machine for engineering projects, including the in-
removable lining for the drum. And I waxing skis and sharpening the edge.” clined lift of the Eiffel Tower and the
said, ‘No, it’s not good for the rope. We After receiving a mechanical engi- shaft sinking machine for an under-
will provide the drum and you will face neering degree at the University of ground research laboratory.
no problems with wear.’ Finally, they Grenoble, France, Teissier worked first Teissier says that the latter, which
said OK. But just in case, they pur- for Gimar-SA, which specialized in cable transported people to a 500-meter
chased two spare drums. And it was re- cars and ropeway systems. From 1988 depth, was the most difficult. “But the
ally expensive. At the time it was more to 1992 he worked for AKROS, another moving roof of the Singapore Sport
than one million francs. And when we engineering firm, specializing in hoist- Hub is the most important” because
dismantled the drum after 10 years, it ing systems, cranes and inclined lifts for of its unique design and tremendous
was like brand new. So, they bought transporting people. “I had a huge level size. In fact, it’s the largest moving roof
three instead of one.” of responsibility because I was technical structure in the world.
manager for the company and we were
A Glance into OIPEEC Today involved in the people transportation. This roof opens above a stadium
by Jean-Marc Teissier, President But I did not have all the tools or engi- full of 50,000 fans
neers I needed when I wanted to make In some aspects, says Teissier, “the
Q: What is the mission of The
International Organization for the tests. I had to make do with the means roof was really an easy job. It is big, but
Study of Ropes (OIPEEC)? given to me, not necessarily what I it is much more difficult to make a very
A: The aim of OIPEEC is to col- needed. I wanted to be able to make the continued on page 24
lect, preserve and disseminate final decision. And the sole way to do
knowledge about a wide range of that was to be on my own.”
applications related to wire and fi- “And I was very lucky at the time be-
ber rope and lifting. cause at just about the same time we
Q: What are your responsibilities got involved in renovating a historical
as President? monument, the transporter bridge in
A: Essentially, [chuckling] mak- Martrou, on the west coast of France.
ing the organization work. And because of our involvement in the
Q: Has OIPEEC changed since it renovation of the Martrou bridge, we
was created in 1963? got the contract for the catapult for
A: Formerly all the research for Space Mountain. And this is the real
wire rope was financed by Euro- significant project because thanks to
pean public funding. Now it is a this project I met Roland Verreet and
volunteer organization funded by Professor Oplatka and so on and so on.
private business. So, it’s more dif-
ficult to get people involved because
someone who is volunteering for
OIPEEC is losing time from work-
ing on his or her own business. Also,
more of the research is private.
Q: What are your goals for the fu-
ture of OIPEEC?
A: Today we have about 100 mem-
bers. We have to keep it on track. We
are now involved in both wire and
fiber rope. For the 2017 conference,
more than 30% of the papers were
related to fiber ropes.
Q: How can someone access infor-
mation?
A: We just modified our website to
make all the research papers acces-
sible to our members. We’ve spent a
lot of time doing that, but it’s more
or less a moral obligation. I hope
this will be finished by the end of
the year. We have about 700 pub-
lished papers. I think so far we have
digitized almost 600 of them. The monstrous Serapid machine, so-named because it uses Serapid “Rigid Chain Technology,”
moves a platform in the Singapore Stadium with a vertical lift of more than 5,390T.
22 Wire Rope News & Sling Technology December 2018