Cranes: CEN warning notice on harmonised standard EN 13001-3-2:2014 — the calculated fatigue life of steel wire ropes may be overestimated; ISO 16625:2025 is an alternative until the revision
On 1 October 2026 the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing (ÚNMS SR) published a CEN/TC 147 warning notice on STN EN 13001-3-2:2015, i.e. EN 13001-3-2:2014. The design life of ropes determined under this standard may be overestimated, in particular for high tensile strength running ropes and small D/d ratios.
- The notice was prepared by technical committee CEN/TC 147 “Cranes — Safety”; after its approval the CEN Technical Board informed the national standards bodies on 12 August 2026. It concerns harmonised standard EN 13001-3-2:2014 on limit states and proof of competence of wire ropes in reeving systems of cranes; ÚNMS SR gives the text of the notice in Slovak and in the English original.
- The issue lies in the proof of fatigue strength of ropes: with an overestimated life a rope can reach a safety-critical condition or fail prematurely. CEN recommends that existing wire rope drives whose fatigue strength was verified under EN 13001-3-2:2014 be reviewed regarding the reeving system design and the inspection and discard criteria.
- Until the standard is revised, the fatigue strength verification of running ropes can be carried out under ISO 16625:2025, which takes actual fatigue test results into account; the ongoing revision of EN 13001-3-2 is to adopt the updated calculation method. ISO 16625:2025 (second edition, replacing ISO 16625:2013) gives a proof of competence and selection criteria for steel wire ropes in cranes, incorporating drum and sheave geometry; it does not apply to fibre ropes.
- The difference had already been described in an article in the journal innoTRAC (vol. 3, no. 1, December 2024) comparing DIN EN 13001-3-2:2015 with the working draft ISO/WD 16625:2023: the European standard relies on a single characteristic curve with a defined exponent, which gives a higher calculated fatigue capacity of the rope and a risk of premature, unpredictable failure. The ISO draft took into account the maximum rope force depending on the D/d ratio and in some of the calculation examples required significantly more ropes over the service life of a crane.
Source: ÚNMS SR — Varovné oznámenie k STN EN 13001-3-2:2015 (1.10.2026)