Abstract: To investigate the fretting wear of steel wires in hoisting ropes, specimens were made of 6×19 point contact ropes. A model for the fretting wear was developed and a fretting wear test rig was deigned in laboratory. A series of experiments were performed on this test rig.The wear volume was taken as a characteristic parameter to describe the fretting wear in relation to the contact load, reciprocating cycles and amplitude. Moreover, the wear mechanisms were discussedin the fretting process.