Rope drive Rope drive A rope drive is a form of belt drive, used for mechanical power transmission. Rope drives use a number of circular section ropes, rather than a single flat or vee belt. The first multiple rope drive was a 9 rope drive of 200 bhp produced by Combe Barbour for their Falls Foundry, Belfast, in 1863. James Combe experimented first with circular ropes laid from leather strips, then from manila hemp. The idea of using rope drives had arisen from his earlier, 1856, experiments in using a rope drive together with an expanding vee pulley, as part of a
Fly system hoist (of an automated line set). Rope line (hemp) head blocks are typically upright blocks that mount to the rope line head block well channels at the grid level. In a counterweight rigging system the head block sheave is grooved for both the steel cable lift lines and an operating line, with the groove for the operating line provided at the middle of the multi-grooved sheave, between the lift lines. Counterweight head blocks mount atop or at the underside of the head block beam, depending on the beam's vertical position. The diameter of a head block sheave used for galvanized