Ring Failure

1

1bigtree

Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Just thought some attention should be brought to this subject. A competitor at the MTCC had an aluminum ring break during competition. Sounds like the injuries are not serious, though could have been!!!
DISCARD ANY RING IN QUESTION!!!
(better yet lets test them, Any volunteers?
PLEASE BRING THIS TO EVERYONES ATTENTION!!!!
 
Woodland Tree has a lot of people on staff. Looks like a nice company. Which person are you?

Dang. Can you shed any light on the manufacture, thickness of the ring, diameter if the ring, etc...?

Not serious injuries? Such as, bruises and scrapes?

I'd love to bring this to everyone's attention, but I'd need more information before I "throw out the baby with the bathwater."
 
The ring in question was the small, bridge attachment ring on a saddle. It was silver and unmarked,(no manufacturer markings/ratings). It snapped into two c shaped pieces. The most alarming thing is the ring broke under body weight. This is no joke! If this ring failed a few minutes earlier the climber could have died.
 
He really is lucky! There were a couple swings in in work climb that he was in. He was at the last station and dropped down to swing over to the target and about ten feet down in mid swing his ring failed. Like a true tree climber he was worried about his score for the climb more than himself. This whole situation is all to wierd. He was the last competive climber in the workclimb for the rest of the day. The workclimb tree was set up great whoever set it up must have been great climbers!
 
Hmmm, I have a large and small ring that I bought from Wesspur - they are natural aluminum, anodized I presume, and have no markings of any kind. I wonder?????
 
It'd be nice if a shop started selling some nice thick stock steel rings, i'd gladly replace all my Al ones. That being said, I don't use unmarked gear. Who knows where it came from?
 
His ring was silver and had no markings on it to show ratings. That ring that failed looked as if one end broke open and pulled the ring apart enough to break the other side. This all happened in what seemed like a micro-second. Its a wierd feeling to see someone fall right in front of you after watching climbers do the work climb all day. That ring just popped and he hit the ground.
 
Drew -

Any idea where the rings came from? I just received a replacement ring from sherrill tree -

btw, did you compete? who won?

peace,

matthew
 
[ QUOTE ]

The ring in question was the small, bridge attachment ring on a saddle. It was silver and unmarked,(no manufacturer markings/ratings). It snapped into two c shaped pieces. The most alarming thing is the ring broke under body weight. This is no joke! If this ring failed a few minutes earlier the climber could have died.

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmm, my Dragonfly saddle came with a small aluminum ring on it's bridge. I don't think it has any markings. I wonder if it's similar to what this guy had.

glad he's okay, wow.
 
I know that I'm ditching the stock aluminum ring on my butterfly for sure--no markings. Does anyone know what kind of effect a steel ring on the bridge would have on aluminum biners? Would the steel wear on the carabiner more? After watching this with my own eyes I'm having a hard time trusting any aluminum ring marked or not.
 
I've always wondered about steel working on aluminum as well.

the past year or more, I've been using my steel snaps on the petzel alum swivel and sometimes steel biners on aluminum rings and such and haven't seen any noticable wear.

I would think the steel would have to wear the aluminum though after a long enough time.
 
I've been using a steel biner on an aluminum ring (one of the unmarked ones) for about two years with no ill effects. Unless you're talking about galvanic corrosion, I can't think of anything that makes them incompatible.
 
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