Tech Tip: Question Homemade Load Testing?

Hi all,

I live in Vietnam and operate a small canyoning guiding service. Recently we've come into some gear that were freebies with purchase of other products. We know the primary products we purchased are legit and quality through testing and thorough use. However, these "throw in" pieces are not stamped from any company and are thus very suspect to us. We have a half dozen or more each of simple locking carabiners (oval shape) and standard "aluminum magnesium alloy" figure 8s, so I got to thinking about doing some kind of homemade load testing to see if they are legit or not, since we would have multiple ones to test.

So my question is this: whats a good way to do some homemade load tests? We can come up with a good anchor to have a free hanging setup if need be, but what would you recommend as weights/monitors/etc to make the operation more smooth and efficient? Hoping Mr Moon sees this one and has some advice from his plentiful experience that may help. Thanks in advance to all!

I have a connection with a 25ton test rig. I'd be happy to break some stuff for you.

Home brew testing is difficult and dangerous without adequate equipment.

Even marginally adequate equipment will set you back about $1,000.

That said, the best way to home test is buy using known masses. Assuming an adequate anchor, You need to devise a way to suspend and add weight incrementally. You can use a block and tackle setup to amplify a known mass and extrapolate from that.

The other problem is QC. If it is not legitimate equipment, you can't trust that one piece will perform like the others.

This sounds like a generous offer, especially for the non-stamped items. Have Bootboy break one of each. That will give you a baseline for the unknown. Then load test/mechanical advantage/scrutinize/visualize the remaining items.

Based on what I know about that area, I bet there are some amazing places to explore...next time I'm in Vietnam I'll definitely hire your services!

There are plenty of places in Vietnam making metal products. If you can find one that has a Rockwell (or other) hardness tester, that would tell you if the items are made from 7075-T6 aluminum (in which case they are probably legit) rather than the un-legit softer alloys such as 6061 (or worse).

Here is a chart of the expected hardness via different systems: https://www.clintonaluminum.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Grade-7075-Text-data.pdf

Basically, if the hardness indicates that it is 7075-T6, and it works in all other aspects, then you are good to go. If not, then not.

Tom

just my opinion - - but the replacement cost of " 6 crabs and fig-8s " is NOT worth the hassle

just bite the bulllet and buy new from your legitimate suoplier

CAVEAT EMPTOR
The world is being flooded with untested 'safety' equipment, mostly from Asia.
The brands to AVOID in the US are ace metal products and fusion.
No serious climbing/canyoneering/rigging supplier will touch this stuff (and neither should you)
They claim to test to various standards, but
they LIE

Do you have any stories or case studies of gear failure from the above mentioned brands?

From their site I can already see signs of poor QC. Notice the missed tack on this dogbone. The rest of the tacks aren't straight either and do not appear to be sewn in sequence, but rater individually.

https://www.osha.gov/doc/engineering/2014_r_05.html

A few years back a couple of hundred ace steel carabiners were pulled from local theaters because they were found to fail at
about 2/3 of their rated strength.
Ace also used to produce harness buckles that had one rating stamped on one side and a DIFFERENT rating stamped on the other side!
A friend went to visit Aces 'headquarteters' and found it to be a mailboxes etc.
Fusion's website has a bunch of slightly weird language syntax-
badly translated me thinks (from china)
for some while fusion has been on the UIAA's blacklist (which means they claim to be UIAA certified
but are NOT).

Here is a paper that might give you some ideas.