Glossary

A swaged socket is a permanent wire-rope end fitting in which the wire rope is inserted into a socket and then permanently attached by mechanical compression applied to the socket’s shank (the socket is “swaged” onto the rope using a hydraulic swaging press and correctly sized dies).

Swaged sockets are commonly supplied as open or closed styles: open sockets typically provide a clevis/pin connection, while closed sockets provide a closed eye for a pin or shackle connection. They’re used where you need a strong, compact, fatigue-resistant termination for slings, pendants, guy wires, and other rigging assemblies, and they must be fabricated correctly because the termination is not adjustable once made.

From a performance standpoint, swaged socket terminations are widely described as having 100% efficiency based on the catalog breaking strength of the wire rope when properly applied with the correct fitting and procedure (i.e., the termination is intended not to reduce the rope’s published catalog strength). Because it’s lifting/rigging hardware, industry rules also commonly require proof testing of newly fabricated wire rope slings that use swaged sockets (along with poured sockets and certain other terminations) prior to initial use.