Carabiner

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This is an article about climbing and safety hardware. For an article about the weapon, see Karabiner 43.

The word comes from the German expression "Karabinerhaken". Yet German climbers would always call it shortly "Karabiner". Note that, in German, "Karabiner" also means "carbine" (a short rifle).

A carabiner or karabiner (colloquially: crab, d ring, krab, or 'biner) is a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate. It can quickly and reversibly connect components in safety-critical systems; for example, a common use is to attach a rope to a fixed anchor.

1 Intro
2 Non-Locking carabiners
3 Locking Carabiners
4 Shapes of Carabiners
5 Fashion

[edit] Intro

Carabiners are widely used in sports requiring ropework, such climbing, caving ("Single Rope Technique"), canyoning, and sailing, and in industrial rope access work, such as construction or window cleaning.

Carabiners used in climbing 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 only be opened and closed using a special tool.

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. The UIAA, the International Climbing and Moutaineering Association, regulates standards for carabiners used in climbing. 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.

There are broadly two sorts of carabiner used in climbing, with some subdivision within those: non-locking carabiners and locking carabiners.

[edit] Non-Locking carabiners

There is a sprung swinging gate that can be opened to insert or remove a rope, webbing sling, or other climbing hardware. The gate will snap shut under pressure of the spring. Mountaineers also frequently use a short sling to connect two non-locking carabineers to each other, creating a quickdraw.

The gate used will depend on the use and preference of the user. The following are the different types of gates for non-locking carabiners:

straight - These gates are most common and are the cheapest and strongest.

bent - These gates don't sacrifice strength but allow things to be clipped in easier than a straight gate. These can unclip more easily so are only used to connect ropes to quickdraws.

wire - These gates are made of just a wire and have strength comparable to a normal carabiner. The advandtages are that they are the lightest type of carabiner which allows the climber to carry more before being loaded down, and the reduced weight of the gate has been known to prevent it from swinging open while a rope is sliding through at high speeds.

[edit] Locking Carabiners

Locking carabiners have the same general shape as non-locking carabiners, but have an additional sleeve around the gate. The sleeve can be released along the gate and when it is at one end of the gate the gate cannot be opened (except by releasing the sleeve and moving it to the other end of the gate). This provides security against the carabiner opening accidentally, for example if struck against the rock or if caught in a loop of rope. The sleeve can be either auto-locking or a twist-lock.

auto-locking gates - These gates allow for quick locking and also prevent the user from forgetting to lock the carabiner. The disadvantages are the spring can wear out or break preventing it from locking and harder to use with one hand because you have to hold the gate lock to keep it from locking again.

Twist-lock gates - These gates are similar to a nut on a bolt. They are sleeves that twist up and down and must be done manually. This of course can be forgotten at times, but when trying to clip stuff into the carabiner it's easier to deal with because it stays unlocked just like a non-locking biner until you lock it.

[edit] Shapes of Carabiners

You also have several different shapes of carabiners. These include, oval, D, offset-D, and pear.

Oval - These are your cheapest and most basic because they are symmetric and can be used for anything. The downfall is the load is equally shared with the gate side, which is the weakest part of the biner.

D - These are in the shape of a D and move most of the force onto the spine of the carabiner which is the strongest part. This makes the carabiner stronger, but in turn they are more expensive.

Offset-D - These are similar to the D biners, except the gate opening end is bigger than the hinge side. This allows the gate to open more and makes it easier to clip things into the biner.

Pear - Pear shaped biners are oversized, offset-D biners. This allows more to be hooked onto the biner. These are also used for Munter hitch belays. These are your most expensive and heaviest biner.

[edit] Fashion

Carabiners are also useful in everyday life. Larger mountaineering carabiners that are used as keychains can also double, for self-defense purposes, as brass knuckles. Cheap carabiners that vaguely resemble mountaineering carabiners, but are generally thinner have become quite popular. They have an extremely simplified latching mechanism, without a pin to allow the gate to carry load.