The use of wire rope in the food and brewery industry

Wire rope is one of the most adaptable pieces of lifting equipment on the market. While it may be unsurprising that it features in industries such as construction and engineering, it also features in industries that you may not have expected, such as in home maintenance as wire rope balustrades.  One other industry where you may not have expected to see the material feature heavily is in the food and brewery industry, and we have explored this in more detail below.

 How and why is wire rope used within the food industry?

 The food industry is absolutely huge. While it is difficult to gather exact figures on just how large this industry actually is, Euromonitor International places the packaged food industry alone at a worth of almost $1.6 trillion.  The World Bank values the food industry (including agriculture) as being worth roughly 10% of global gross domestic product, which places the value of the industry as a whole at roughly $48 trillion. Clearly, this is a big industry. The world consumes over 11 million pounds of food every day, and so the amount of food produced every day is huge. To ensure that this process runs smoothly, a product is needed that is reliable, safe, and long-lasting. Wire rope, with its solid internal structure, is the perfect solution for this.   Due to the enormous quantities of raw materials that need to be transported between food manufacture sites, and in individual food manufacture sites themselves, wire rope is one of the only suitable pieces of lifting equipment that can be utilised with cranes for the heavy lifting. It is also commonly used within conveyor belts and conveyor systems to help transport food goods from A to B.

 How and why is it used within the brewery industry?

 The brewery industry, as with the food industry, is a huge sector. The number of breweries in the UK alone has risen by 8% from 2015 to 2016, with now roughly 1,700 breweries in the UK. With the ever growing demand for breweries in the UK, manufacturers need equipment and processes that they can safely rely upon to produce finished goods efficiently and effectively. The material helps to move these large quantity of items around efficiently As with the food industry, the lifting medium is used extensively in breweries, wineries and vineyards to help move around heavy items such as barrels that may contain large quantities of beer, wine, whiskey, or some other substance. As well as these industries, the material is also used in the conveyor systems too.

Want to know more?

As well as the food and brewery industry, rope is used in dozens of other industries too. For more information on this please refer to our article Wire Rope Uses Across Different Industries and Sectors. Should you have any further questions or queries regarding its use and how it may be applicable to your own industry, please get in contact with one of our team here.  

Image credit: Ed Gregory