Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

i think ive invented something 8-Mar-2006 At 3:56:56 PM tmarsh

Message

>- is most climbing gear cast (i assume but not sure)

The most common manufacture methods for metal gear would be forging and machining. Complex shapes are possible through hot forging (ie some of DMM's biners). Less complex shapes can be cold forged. In every industry other than the climbing industry people seem to recognise that cold forging produces a stronger product through better grain alignment in the metal. It may be that the complex shapes hot forging permits allow a mechanically stronger product to be made even though the metallurgical properties are technically inferior to cold forging. Components may be CNC machined either as a process in itself or as an adjunct to a forging process. AFAIK machining is generally done only on essentially 'flat' components like cam lobes but I could well be wrong on that.

I don't know of any cast climbing components.

>- what is it typically made of

Heat treated aluminium alloy. As to which grades... Depends on the application. Cam lobes are produced using at least 3 different grades of aluminium, each of differing hardness. 6061-T6 would be the most common alloy used though

tim