Patent ID: 7066255

Claim:
A method of protecting against loss of downhole tools in wells, the method comprising the steps of: making repeated use of a wire rope to suspend downhole tools in wells, the downhole tools being suspended from a downhole end of the wire rope; testing the integrity of the wire rope from time to time according to a maintenance schedule; and shortening the wire rope when the wire rope fails integrity testing; wherein the testing of the integrity of the wire rope comprises performing a test selected from the group consisting of: a visual test of corrosion damage; a visual test for broken wires in the wire rope; a test of the longitudinal strength of at least one wire from the wire rope; a test of the stretch of the wire rope; a test of the diameter of a wire from the wire rope; a test of the diameter of the wire rope; a test of the flex strength of a wire from the wire rope; a test of the twist strength of a wire from the wire rope; and a test of the weight of a segment of the wire rope.