Carabiner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the climbing and safety hardware. For article about the weapon, see carbine.
A carabiner or karabiner (colloquially: crab, d ring, krab, or 'biner) is a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate.[1] It can quickly and reversibly connect components in safety-critical systems. The word is short for "Karabinerhaken", meaning "hook for a carbine" in German.[2]
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[edit] Usage
Carabiners are widely used in sports requiring ropework, such as climbing, caving ("Single Rope Technique"), canyoning, and sailing, and in industrial rope access work, such as construction or window cleaning.
Carabiners used in climbing tend to be lighter and faster to use than carabiners used in industry. For recreational climbing, almost all carabiners are made from aluminium. For rope rescues and industrial uses, where the weight of the carabiner is not an important factor and larger working loads are encountered, steel carabiners are commonly used. Some carabiners used in industry do not have a sprung swinging gate but have a screw shut gate that generally can only be opened and closed using a special tool.
[edit] Certification
When sold for use in climbing in Europe, carabiners must conform to standard EN 12275:1998 "Mountaineering equipment - Connectors - Safety requirements and test methods" which governs testing protocols, rated strengths, and markings. The UIAA, the International Climbing and Moutaineering Association, regulates standards for carabiners used in climbing. A strength of around 20 kN with the gate shut is considered a standard strength for most climbing applications, although requirements vary depending on the activity.
[edit] Types
There are broadly two sorts of carabiner used in climbing, with some subdivision within those: non-locking carabiners and locking carabiners.
[edit] Non-Locking carabiners
There is a sprung swinging gate that can be opened to insert or remove a rope, webbing sling, or other climbing hardware. The gate will snap shut under pressure of the spring. Mountaineers also frequently use a short sling to connect two non-locking carabineers to each other, creating a quickdraw.
The gate used will depend on the use and preference of the user. The following are the different types of gates for non-locking carabiners:
- Straight Gate
- These gates are most common and are the cheapest and strongest.
- Bent Gate
- These gates don't sacrifice strength but allow things to be clipped in easier than a straight gate. These can unclip more easily so are only used to connect ropes to quickdraws.
- Wire Gate
- These gates are made of just a wire and have strength comparable to a normal carabiner. The advantages are that they are the lightest type of carabiner which allows the climber to carry more before being loaded down, and the reduced weight of the gate has been known to prevent it from swinging open while a rope is sliding through at high speeds.
[edit] Locking carabiners
Locking carabiners have the same general shape as non-locking carabiners, but have an additional sleeve around the gate. The sleeve can be released along the gate and when it is at one end of the gate the gate cannot be opened (except by releasing the sleeve and moving it to the other end of the gate). This provides security against the carabiner opening accidentally, for example if struck against the rock or if caught in a loop of rope. The sleeve can be either auto-locking or a twist-lock.
- Auto locking gate
- These gates allow for quick locking and also prevent the user from forgetting to lock the carabiner. The disadvantages are the spring can wear out or break preventing it from locking and harder to use with one hand because you have to hold the gate lock to keep it from locking again.
- Twist/Screw lock gates
- These gates are similar to a nut on a bolt. They are sleeves that twist up and down and must be done manually. This of course can be forgotten at times, but when trying to clip stuff into the carabiner it's easier to deal with because it stays unlocked just like a non-locking carabiner until you lock it.
[edit] Shapes of carabiners
There are several different shapes of carabiners.
- Oval
- These are the cheapest and most basic because they are symmetric and can be used for anything. The biggest disadvantage is that the load is equally shared with the gate side, which is the weakest part of the carabiner. The advantage to the oval shape is that its smooth radius allows for smooth repositioning of the type of shifting loads produced in aid climbing.
- D
- These are in the shape of a D and move most of the force onto the spine of the carabiner which is the strongest part. This makes the carabiner stronger, but in turn they are more expensive.
- Offset-D
- These are similar to the D carabiners, except the gate opening end is bigger than the hinge side. This allows the gate to open more and makes it easier to clip things into the carabiner.
- Pear/HMS
- Pear shaped carabiners are oversized, offset-D carabiners. They allow more to be hooked onto the carabiner. These are also used for Munter hitch belays. These are the most expensive and heaviest carabiner. These are generally known to climbers as HMS Carabiners, and are frequently used as the primary carabiner for sport climbing.
[edit] Fashion
Carabiners are also useful in everyday life. Cheap carabiners that vaguely resemble mountaineering carabiners, but are generally thinner have become quite popular as keychains or in other applications as a universal connector. They have an extremely simplified latching mechanism, without a pin to allow the gate to carry load.
[edit] Gallery
 Screwgate D-shaped carabiner |
 Screwgate pear-shaped carabiner |
 Carabiner-inspired keychains, unsuitable for climbing. |
 Straight-gate offset-D shaped non-locking carabiner |
 Unusual shaped, auto locking carabiner |
[edit] References
- ^ Climbing Dictionary & Glossary. MountainDays.net. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary: carabiner. Bartleby. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
