The post How to Clean Carabiners first appeared on All Climbing.

I always find articles and videos on how climbing gear is constructed quite fascinating. A couple months ago I posted a video on how DMM makes carabiners and now Backcountry.com has written an article on Black Diamond‘s process of making carabiners from start to finish.

“Whenever you design something, it starts with a need,” says Bill Belcourt, BDâ??s Climbing Hardgoods Category Director. The BD carabiner that eventually ends up on a climberâ??s rack begins as a brainstorming session or a simply sketched idea in the design department. Product designers determine what they want the carabiner to do and look like, and from there, they design computer models. Before they physically make anything, the design team uses FEA (Finite Element Analysis), which helps determine the shapes, angles, and features needed to fulfill the companyâ??s strength requirements.

(via Backcountry.com and @BlackDiamondUSA)

The post How Black Diamond Creates Carabiners first appeared on All Climbing.

Itâ??s not the ultimate strength of a rope-worn biner that makes me the most nervous; itâ??s the risk of cutting a rope. As the biners get grooved or â??trenchedâ? from rope wear, a sharp edge begins to form on the sidesâ??and the rope runs directly over it. This edge would seem to be especially dangerous to your rope during a fall, lowering or winching/dogging up. Iâ??ve had several friends whip onto sharp biners with the end result being the â??sheathingâ? (i.e., the sheath gets cut and exposes the core) of the rope and possibly soiling of their shorts.

Check out the article as the results are fascinating.
(via Black Diamond on Twitter)

The post Black Diamond Tests Catching Falls on Rope-Worn Biners first appeared on All Climbing.

UKclimbing.com linked to a fascinating video on how carabiners are made at DMM.

DMM, named after Denny Moorhouse, has been busy making climbing hardware since 1981. DMM started life in a small barn in Bethesda, near the slate quarries of North Wales. Now their factory is in Llanberis and DMM employ 130 people, making them the second largest employer in the local area.

The bread and butter of DMM’s climbing hardware business is the carabiner – the simple snap link. This essential tool in the climber’s rack can be taken for granted, but despite its simple appearance, hundreds of hours of design and work go in to each model.

The post The Making of a Carabiner at DMM first appeared on All Climbing.