Roman Predl, Offshore Crane Rope Manager of Wire Rope Department
TEUFELBERGER is a family owned company famous for its wire rope and fiber rope products. The company was founded in 1790 in Austria. This year marks the company’s 225 years anniversary. The company has around 950 employees.
In the exhibition OGA Malaysia, we had a chance talking to Roman Predl, TEUFELBERGER’s Offshore Crane Rope Manager / Wire Rope, here is our interview:
LRW: Please tell us a bit about TEUFELBERGER.
Roman Predl: TEUFELBERGER is made up of the three divisions, WIRE ROPE, FIBER ROPE, and FIBERS + PLASTICS, catering to various market segments. We have six production sites in the world, among them three are located in Austria, the remaining sites are in Czech Republic, the USA and Thailand. Our wire rope are manufactured in two production sites in Austria.
At the moment, we are specialized in crane wire rope and ropeway rope. I work in the wire rope division and I am mainly responsible for crane ropes which are widely used in the offshore oil & gas sector, construction & port sector.
We are supplying crane ropes for many offshore crane manufacturers such as Liebherr, Seatrax, Kenz, Huisman, National Oilwell, SCM China etc.
Our customer portfolio includes crane manufacturers and also distributors like Gaylin International in Singapore, and we have many different distributors worldwide.
The latest development at Teufelberger is, that we offer also high performance drill lines and riser tensioner ropes for the new generation rigs and drill ships.
LRW: What are the main advantages of TEUFELBERGER’s crane ropes compared to the competition?
Roman Predl: One advantage is our low total cost of ownership. That means when our customer has the opportunity to use our rope for a very long lifetime, he can spread out his overall cost. In the beginning the investment costs may be a little bit higher than the competition, but the combination of our perfect rope tech and our strong customer focus enhances the service life of the rope and reduces both down-times and maintenance cost.
In terms of technology, one special thing is our compaction technology. Most of our ropes are compacted, and there are different technologies how you compact the strands. We have our special compaction technology called “SUPERFILL®”, which ensures a smoother compaction process, and allows a tight tolerance in diameter for the whole length of the wire rope and of course higher minimum break force than for regular ropes.
The second technology worth mentioning is our “PLASTFILL™” technology. With this technology the lubricated steel core is enclosed in a tight synthetic coat, this should keep the permanent lubrication in the core of rope. As it is difficult to re-lubricate compacted rope, we want to keep the lubrication inside for permanent usage.
And the use of a plastic coat reduce friction between the outer strands and the core. So there is less mechanical wear within the wire rope. This technology give rise to higher safety, as it provides a high margin between actual break-load and minimum break-load and this will lead to longer specific rope life time.
Our target is to create a value for the customer using our high performance ropes.
LRW: How does TEUFELBERGER work in different markets?
Roman Predl: The European markets are our main markets, with the share of the American and Asian markets continuing on the rise. Teufelberger operates via worldwide distribution network.
Our distributor for SE Asia is Gaylin based in Singapore. For other distributor enquiries we kindly ask to contact our headquarter in Austria for further information.
For the Chinese market, we work with a company called LV YANG, it’s a subsidiary of GAYLIN. They are based in Tianjin. Together with their team, we sell our ropes to major clients in the Oil & Gas market. TEUFELBERGER ropes are also well known in ports with highest reputation, and as well we are also active in the construction sector.
We supply the ropes to ZPMC China (Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited) which is one of the biggest port crane manufacturers in the world.
