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General Climbing Discussion

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biners never break :( 8-Feb-2005 At 9:35:46 PM tonybro

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Your description of failure makes reasonable sense to me. It sounds like a cup/cone failure which is typical of ductile failure. This is the type of failure one would expect in a straight tensile load, as distinct from fatigue failure. Only a detailed examination of the fracture surfaces would tell.
Biners are aluminium alloy and the strength is derived from an artificial aging process, so the actual age of the gear is insignificant, in theory the older the better. However, age includes history and some shock loads may have induced weeknesses.
I would love to look at the bits. If you want to contact me feel free. We may be able to get some reasonable pics.
You should, at least, let the manufacturer know of the failure and allow them to conduct an investigation to help them improve design and/or quality control.