Carabiners & Hardware

A carabiner or karabiner (colloquially: crab, d ring, krab, or 'biner) is a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate. The loop part opposite the gate is referred to as the spine. more...

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It can quickly and reversibly connect components in safety-critical systems. The word comes from "Karabinerhaken", meaning "hook for a carbine" in German.

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 sports 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 be opened and closed only using a special tool.

Carabiners have also found a place in popular usage as key holders, and as water-bottle holders for hikers.

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. 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. Carabiners are also marked on the side with single letters showing their intended area of use, for example, K (via ferrata), B (base), and H (for belaying with an Italian / Munter hitch).

When used for access in commercial and industrial environments within Europe carabiners must comply with EN 362:2004 "Personal protective equipment against falls from a height. Connectors" As climbing and access in these environments use shock prevention devices the minimum strength of a carabiner to EN362:2004 is lower than that of a carabiner compliant with EN 12275:1998 at around 15 kN. Carabiners complying with both EN 12275:1998 and EN 362:2004 are available.

Types

There are two broad categories of carabiner used in climbing—nonlocking and locking—with some subdivision within those categories.

Nonlocking carabiners

Nonlocking carabiners have a sprung swinging gate that can be opened to insert or remove a rope, webbing sling, or other climbing hardware. The gate snaps shut under the spring's pressure. Mountaineers also frequently use a short sling to connect two nonlocking carabiners to each other, creating a quickdraw.

Read more at Wikipedia.org