Custom solutions and services for the way you work.
Every solution we offer can be customized—from our synthetic products to testing and on-site services. Whether that’s a custom-engineered rope, sling, tether, strength member or extruded product, we ensure your specific needs are always met. With specialized coatings, fiber-friendly hardware designs, and various splicing and termination options, our solutions fit your most demanding requirements and help your team work faster, smarter, and safer.
Engineering Design & Manufacturing
Because we know the ropes, our engineering knows no limits.
Our engineers have long been recognized for their unique ability to custom-engineer technically superior solutions to fit customer’s exact needs. Through close collaboration, our sales and engineering teams work with you to understand your application, design, and performance goals to ensure each of your requirements are met.
Cortland’s tried and trusted products are used in the most demanding environments imaginable and we are proud to be at the forefront of technology and design within the industries we serve. We can manufacture a rope of any diameter and strength according to your needs—whether that’s a break strength of 50 pounds or 5 million pounds.
Our team is dedicated to developing new ways to improve our product capabilities to help our customers work safer and more efficiently. If we have not already made it, just ask. Our engineers love a good challenge. After all, we always solve them.
Superior manufacturing and material capabilities.
Our technical experts have a deep understanding of all of the high-performance materials available and have access to many different UHMWPE, Aramid, and LCP fibers, including Dyneema®, Technora®, and Vectran®.This enables us to engineer optimal solutions for many different applications, resulting in proprietary designs that provide unparalleled strength and performance. Utilizing the largest 12-Strand braider in the world, we can also produce extremely large diameters—up to 200mm—and to any length.
Keeping up with the shift in technology.
Our engineers are constantly evolving products to meet critical safety, strength, and durability requirements. We continue to make breakthroughs in design, materials, and manufacturing, helping our customers excel in their industries. Some of these custom-engineered solutions include:
- The first Easy-To-Deploy (ETD) mooring system. This compact system is more than 5 times smaller and completely self-contained, including the anchor, and can be deployed by a small vessel. It not only enables easier deployment and reduces crew and vessel requirements, but also lasts longer, is more reliable, and requires less maintenance.
- Special blended synthetic fiber ropes developed specifically to overcome fatigue issues that arise when deploying heavy loads into extreme water depths.
- Subsea tether deployments are both dangerous and expensive when divers are needed. To overcome these issues, Cortland has designed deployment systems that release the tether in a systematic way so that a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) can meet and maneuver the tether as it deploys, and guides it into position.
- Custom fabrication solutions often have a single purpose, especially when an installation has no second chances. In subsea deployments, ROV handles spliced into the body of slings and tethers at determined intervals enable effortless capture by the passing ROV.
Synthetic Strength Members
Your cable carries the communication. Cortland carries the weight.
Synthetic over braids are primary strength members that provide the strength equal to steel wire armor at just 14% of the weight. And with synthetic strength members there’s no electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio frequency interference (RFI), signal suppression, directional irregularities or white noise arcing.
Cortland is among a select few manufacturers worldwide that designs and manufactures high performance synthetic fiber over braids solutions. As a leader in the development of cable reinforcement solutions for decades, we have a strong track record of successful solutions from tsunami buoy warning systems to ultra-long CTD research cables. To ensure the optimal solution is always provided, we collaborate closely with your team to understand not only the application and product requirements, but also the deployment strategy to ensure a smooth process at installation.
Performance in the most extreme conditions.
Cortland provides cable and braided synthetic strength member solutions as well as outer sheathing applications for superior strength and durability. High-performance fiber materials such as Vectran®, Kevlar®, Technora®, Twaron, and Zylon® PBO can be incorporated into strength members and applied as a serving or braided designs. Synthetic reinforcing over braids enhance a cable’s capabilities and ensure full functionality in demanding environments, including subsea applications.
Features & Benefits
- Tailored elongation characteristics, whether cable or braided
- High tensile strength
- Very high strength-to-weight ratio
- Excellent fatigue resistance
- Good performance over large temperature range
- Low creep
- No shrinkage
- Good chemical stability
Thermoplastic Extrusions
Protect your strength member completely with a custom extruded jacket.
Strong and lightweight, synthetic extruded cable systems are easy to handle and maintenance-free. We extrude a wide range of materials, including nylons, polyesters, polyethylenes, polyurethanes, and more to meet any need. The smooth jacket provides rigidity or flexibility (depending on material or application) and completely protects the strength member from mechanical damage and elements such as dust, sand, and mud.
With industry-leading expertise and capabilities, we extrude over all of our higher performance fibers (HMPE, PET, LCP, Aramids and more) and can extrude custom profiles and shapes to reduce strum and drag. We can also enhance or alter the properties of our extrusions with additives to increase gravity or mass, provide UV resistance or meet other requirements. From color to diameter, our extruded jackets are completely customized to your needs and application.
Features & Benefits
- Continuous long length capability
- Diameter up to 1.5 inches
- Terminate to interfacing hardware such as equipment or rigging hardware
- Property enhancing additives to meet unique requirements
- Buoyant and abrasion-resistant solutions available
- Post-extrusion braiding and fairing options to reduce cable vibration
- Ridged profiles
- Jacket printing capabilities (ex: name, part number, date, etc.)
Common Applications
- Protecting mechanical and or electromechanical cables
- Low drag enhanced mooring jackets for subsea anchoring lines (NOAA/Bouy lines)
- Element proof jacket for high demand environments
- Non-corrosive/nonmetallic cables for vessel lifelines
- EHS Guy Wires for long-term tower support
- Synthetic rigging for high performance yachts
- Safety systems for heavy-duty welding equipment, containerized conveyor lines and other industrial equipment
Strength & Fatigue Testing
Dedicated to quality and innovation.
All of our products are rigorously tested to ensure they exactly fulfill customer requirements while satisfying stringent environmental, health, and safety requirements. We can provide testing, quality control, documentation, technical support, customer service, and reporting procedures to meet any need.
Our team works closely with clients to better understand long-term use and retirement criteria. Our ability to simulate real-world environments when testing products enables us to provide unrivaled customer support and improve product lifecycle management. It also supports our ongoing product development as we continue to help customers operate in increasingly challenging environments.
Industry-leading testing capabilities.
We offer inspection, proof loading, and destruction testing capabilities at our facilities in Washington and Texas. Services focus on destructive testing and recertification of synthetic fiber ropes and slings up to 1.3 million pounds (589t). In conjunction with tensile testing, we have the capability to conduct tension-tension fatigue testing up to full machine capacity thanks to high fatigue rated components.
Testing Capabilities
- Standard electrical characteristics tests (e.g. IR, CR, etc.)
- Optical tests
- Mechanical tests
- Tensile tests
- Tension-Fatigue tests
- Dynamic bend / cycle bend over sheave (CBOS) tests
- Elongation tests
- Static bend tests (D:d)
- Third party witness and approval (by key industry authorities)
Splicing
Ensure the strength of your rope with proper splicing terminations.
Knotting a rope can reduce the rope’s strength by as much as 70%. Splicing provides far better strength efficiencies, maximizing—and often maintaining—strength throughout the entire rope. Cortland synthetic ropes are easy to splice and inspect. We developed fiber rope splices that minimize the required rope length needed, without conceding the holding power that locks the splice in place.
Common Cortland-approved splice types for 12-Strand and 12×12 constructions:
- Buried Lockstitch Splice
- Moran 5-4-3 Tuck Splice
- Modified Tuck Splice
New Cortland fiber rope slings are rated using the splice types with which they are fabricated and delivered. The published MBL and rated capacity of a new Cortland fiber rope sling is determined with splices taken into consideration—no further reduction for splicing needs to be calculated by the end-user.
Splicing instructions and additional services.
All splice terminations should be made in accordance with splicing instructions provided by Cortland and should be performed by a qualified person trained to fabricate these splices. We also provide responsive, on-site splicing and inspection services to minimize downtime and ensure utmost rope performance and safety.
Refer to our splicing resources below or contact us for more information.
Splicing Downloads
Terminations
We can customize terminations to meet your specific needs.
Cortland offers a wide range of capabilities for mechanical terminations. These can be tailored to be fully-synthetic solutions, such as spliced terminations or formed molds, or can be a hybrid termination which incorporates both synthetic and metallic components—such as thimbles, shackles, or chain. We can also custom engineer hardware that integrates with our synthetic solutions and increases operational efficiencies.
Hardware
Our engineering team is constantly working to develop creative hardware solutions optimized to interface with synthetic rope, round slings, and tether systems. We design unique tools that improve the safety and efficiency of rigging and lifting processes and deliver full equipment sets to outfit a specific project or ship’s capacity requirements. We also specially design equipment with ROV functionality to eliminate the need for costly and dangerous human diver interventions.
Hooks
Our engineers have designed a range of hooks that can be used for synthetic solutions. The bearing surface design of the hook bows enables Selantic® Round slings or other offerings to be utilized to full capacity. Our hooks are commonly provided as Bolt Fiber Hook (BFH), Fiber-Fiber Hook (FFH), Load Transfer Hook (LTH) and others. Any hook can be designed with ROV handles and lift points for ease of operation. These pieces can be removable for ease of replacement or as a low snag solution for pull in activities.
Need a custom solution for your application?
We will provide the optimal solution for load transfer, pull-in, and unique rigging applications, meeting client-specific dimensions and capacity requirements.
Delta Plates, H-links & Plate Shackles
All variations of delta plates, H-links, and plate shackles can be designed and provided according to your project needs. ROV functionality can be provided for subsea operation.
Tether Ancillary Equipment
Subsea tethers are often connected to the anchor by ROVs. Our ROV T-bar connection is commonly used and offers an ROV-friendly tether connection with reliable performance. Design-life times of up to 30 years are achievable.
Field Services & After Sales
Responsive field support right where and when you need it.
Our success is based on close and continued interaction with our customers, especially out in the field where we can apply our engineering expertise and deliver complete customer support. Our qualified field service teams provide responsive on-site support wherever and whenever you need it. That includes everything from design collaboration and installation to inspections and re-terminations.
Our after sales services are a 24/7 commitment.
Cortland’s skilled certified technicians can travel to the most remote locations to provide support for onshore and offshore applications. To provide the most cost-effective solution for your needs, the scope-of-work, pre-trip planning, logistics, mobilization, equipment hire, project management, documentation, certification, and close-out reporting can all be agreed upon per project.
Our after sales services include:
- Inspections
- Testing
- Repair / Maintenance
- Re-termination
- Troubleshooting
- Spooling / Installation (supervision of loading onto handling systems such as reelers or winches)
