finsterwalder-charly.de - Finsterwalder & Charly - Hanggliding and Paragliding Equipment since 1974

Features:

• Working load limit (air sports): 115 DaN* per carabiner
• Drop-forged from Titanal, 76 g
• Breaking load: 3 000 DaN
• Breaking load, open gate: 2 000 DaN
• Load without permanent deformation, open gate: 1 600 DaN
• Inside height: 60 mm
• Suitable for belt widths 25-30 mm, tucked in up to 45 mm

* 1 daN (Dekanewton) = 10 N (newton)  ≈ 1 kg

• 5 years replacement interval for PG mono use and 2 years replacement interval for HG and PG tandem use with unimited flight hours.
  In a dynamic fatigue test with open gate, the Snaplock withstood 5.000.000 load cycles at 115 daN as well as 2.000 load cycles at 240 daN.
  
  
• Lightweight and safe:
  Snaplock carabiners are drop-forged instead of bent which results in increased material strength. The material of bent carabiners, in contrast, is weakened by inner tensions in the bended areas.
  With an open gate breaking load of 1.600 daN, the Snaplock can bear approx. four times more load than conventional paragliding carabiners. Snaplock carabiners weigh a mere 76 g and thus save approx. 150 g of weight compared with steel carabiners.
  

  * 1 daN (Dekanewton) = 10 N (newton)  ≈ 1 kg
  
  

• Convenient:
  The Snaplock's conventional twist lock is easy to operate as the locking sleeve does not need to be pushed down to open the gate. The carabiner is self-locking after releasing the sleeve. 
  
  As the counterpart of the snapper is closed, the risers cannot get caught whilst hooking in and out.
  
  
• Universal fit:
  The Snaplock is suitable for band widths of 25-30 mm and narrower, but also accomodates the previously common 44 mm webbings if they are tucked in (see assembly instructions for 44 mm wide webbings).
  
  
• Non-twist:
  Thanks to its distinctive "nose", the Snaplock can be attached to the harness in such a way that a sidewise turning is reliably prevented. Moreover, harness manufacturers have the possibility to use the nose for back strap attachment. Back support can thus be significantly improved.
  
  

More information on the fatigue endurance of air sports carabiners...
Paragliding carabiners are subject to permanent load changes during flight. Measurements by the DHV show that they can amount to between 10 and 110 kg and more, depending on pilot weight, pilot flight behavior and thermals, and that they can occur up to 26 times per second. Given the carabiners' high breaking load (at least 1.500 kg), such load changes should generally be unproblematic. However, conventional carabiners exhibit a construction-related peculiarity: their play in the gate. This play is necessary for the snap hook to open and close frictionless. However, the snap hook is force-locked only at weights of 30-120 kg (depending on the amount of play in the gate). As a result the pilot flies as if the carabiner lock was open within the range of the play in the gate. Since the carabiner construction - as practice and dynamic fatigue tests show - is not designed for such load cases, already the relatively low operating load during normal flight operations can lead to breakages due to material fatigue. As the play in the gate cannot be reliably limited and as it is difficult to control, we have constructed the Snaplock in such a way that it is fatigue endurable also within the range of the play in the gate. Please note: Not all carabiners are tested for fatigue endurance. Special caution is required when the carabiner manufacturer does not give information about the replacement interval.

Steel is good ?
The fatigue endurance of carabiners is not a question of material but a question of design! In dynamic fatigue tests, some aluminum carabiners exhibited substantially higher fatigue endurance levels than steel carabiners. Although stainless steel is generally more fatigue endurable, harder and more resistant to corrosion, the difference in strength can easily be outweighed by a larger width of the aluminum component. Due to the better strength-to-weight ratio, high-quality aluminum alloys are the standard in aircraft construction.

The crack in the steel carabiner on the left occurred after 1.739.700 load changes between 5 and 50 daN. The steel carabiner on the right broke after 287.000 load changes between 7 and 70 daN. For comparison: Titanal Pin Lock carabiners withstood 5.000.000 load changes between 40 and 400 daN without failure.
* 1 DaN (Dekanewton) = 10 N (Newton) ≈ 1 kg