起重机钢丝绳受力复杂，受载时候，钢丝中产生拉伸应力、弯曲应力、挤压应力（钢丝绳于滑轮、卷筒之间相互挤压）以及钢丝绳捻制时的残余应力等。当钢丝绳绕过滑轮时，受有交变应力作用，使金属材料产生疲劳，最后由于钢丝绳之间的摩擦、钢丝绳于钢槽的摩擦使钢丝绳磨损而破断。通过长期的实验表明，起重机械钢丝绳具有以下特点和规律：
The stress of the crane wire rope is complex. When it is loaded, tension stress, bending stress, extrusion stress (the wire rope is extruded between pulleys and drums) and residual stress of the wire rope are produced. When the wire rope passes through the pulley, it is subjected to alternating stress, which causes fatigue of the metal material. Finally, the wire rope is broken because of the friction between the wire rope and the friction between the wire rope and the steel trough. Long-term experiments show that the hoisting wire rope has the following characteristics and rules:
1、钢丝绳的弯曲曲率半径对钢丝绳寿命的影响很大，这是因为绳轮直径减小时，钢丝绳的弯曲变形加剧，弯曲应力加大，因而钢丝绳的磨损加快，疲劳损伤加快，钢丝和绳的寿命就降低。
1. The radius of bending curvature of steel wire rope has a great influence on the service life of steel wire rope. This is because when the diameter of the rope wheel decreases, the bending deformation of steel wire rope increases and the bending stress increases, so the wear of steel wire rope accelerates, the fatigue damage accelerates, and the service life of steel wire and rope decreases.
2、钢丝绳绕过绳轮时，绳轮于钢丝接触面之间的压力和相对滑动，使钢丝磨损断丝，接触应力越大，断丝越迅速。
2. When the wire rope goes around the rope wheel, the pressure and relative sliding between the rope wheel and the steel wire contact surface make the wire worn and broken, and the greater the contact stress, the faster the wire broken.
3、钢丝绳的结构形式对其寿命影响也很大。点接触钢丝绳由于钢丝之间接触应力大，钢丝的交叉又增大了横向压力，强度损失要比先线接触型大，抗疲劳性能也差，所以线接触钢丝绳比点接触钢丝绳寿命要长。
3. The structure of steel wire rope has a great influence on its life. Because of the large contact stress between steel wires, the crossing of steel wires increases the transverse pressure, the strength loss is larger than that of the first contact type, and the fatigue resistance is also poor, so the life of the wire contact wire rope is longer than that of the point contact wire rope.
4、当钢丝绳一个捻距间的断丝达到全部钢丝绳的10%的时候，继续使用钢丝绳的断丝速率明显加快，短期内即会出现断股。
4. When the wire breakage between twists of a wire rope reaches 10% of the total wire rope, the wire breakage rate of using the wire rope is obviously accelerated, and the strand breakage will occur in a short time.
5、当其他条件相同时，选用的钢丝绳安全系数越高，其使用寿命越长。
5. When other conditions are the same, the higher the safety factor of the selected wire rope is, the longer its service life is.