Patent ID: 7908955

Claim:
A rope structure comprising: first and second sets of fibers, where the first set of fibers is twisted together, the second set of fibers is twisted around the first set of fibers to form a plurality of yarns, and twists applied to the first and second fibers are determined such that lengths of fibers in the first and second sets are approximately the same; the plurality of yarns are combined to form a plurality of strands; wherein the rope structure has a strand/rope ratio of the nominal diameters of the strands to the nominal overall diameter of the rope structure of approximately between 0.33 and 0.40; the plurality of strands are combined using a single braid process to form the rope structure, where the rope structure defines a void space; and at least one of the fibers, the yarns, and the strands are configured substantially to reduce a volume of the void space and thereby maintain a shape of the rope structure when the rope structure is under load.