Abstract: As a key component of the crane, the performance of steel wire ropes has a significant influence on the safety of the hoisting equipment. Because of the complicated space structure of wire ropes, traditional stress analysis is difficult to accurately solve the mechanical properties. Therefore the finite element method and fatigue analysis softwares are used to explore the stress distribution and fatigue life of the wire rope in lifting weights. The 3D solid model of the 6×6+WS structure of stone cross strand wire rope for a certain lifting equipment was built by SolidWorks 2014.After that, the model was imported into the ABAQUS6.14-1/ACE. The finite model of the wire rope was established and analyzed to obtain the stress distribution under the 0.2% deformation in the axial direction. Finally, combined with FE-SAFE, the fatigue analysis of the steel wire rope is carried out to obtain the fatigue life distribution. The results show that the stress of the steel wire rope presents a space spiral distribution and the maximum Von-Mises stress is located on the core wire of the wire strand whose fatigue life is the least. Steel wire rope manufacturers should take measures to improve the strength of core steel wire. If the performance of core wire can be improved, the life of wire rope will be greatly improved as well.