QC Lab: Strength of old fixed slings

One of the boys from work brought a few weathered and beat slings into work the other day.  They had been fixed in his tree (for some random) for seven years.  Sun, rain, snow, wind, the whole deal… for seven years. I’ve tested numerous old slings from fixed routes, but figured we’d add this one to the mix.

As you recall new slings and dogbones must meet 22kN (~ 4950 pounds), though some are slightly stronger. My guess is these are Spectra, though can’t be sure. These both tested to ~ 12kN (~2700 pounds).

Obviously a significant drop in strength, which is to be expected given the weathering that they have seen. And once again this just goes to show you that gear doesn’t last forever and proper storage is critical  to the integrity of your gear.

There you have it.
KP

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Kolin Powick (KP) is a Mechanical Engineer hailing from Calgary, Canada. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the engineering field and has been Black Diamond's Director of Global Quality since 2002. Kolin oversees the testing of all of Black Diamond's gear from the prototype phase through continual final production random sample testing.

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qclab, climb, kolin-powick, testing, slings, qc-lab