steel strop snapped

[Tom D]

 

There was a comment that a LOLER inspector suggested that steel core lanyards could last longer than 5 years. I would suggest that if your hitch or rope grab in attached to the outer (textile) sheath and it fails you might slip, fall and potentially injure yourself so on this basis alone I would suggest you follow textile guidelines and replace these every five years (of use) that way if there was any corrosion in the core it won't matter as you have retired the item before it becomes an issue.

 

 

That was me, the man in question is not only an inspector but an instructor, ie he trains and asseses other loler inspectors specifically for arb gear. I see no reason to throw out 5yo+ kit on the basis of 1 neglected example out of many thousands out there. the sheath on these strops is easily examined by the climber as part of his pre-climb inspection.

 

I had a look at my 2003 yale 3m wirecor line today, I managed to expose the core and found that it was NOT rusty. The zinc was intact and although dull looked fine, the wire is still evenly flexible allong its length and I am happy for myself and my employees to continue using it. It will be retired soon due to the poor condition of the sheath however.

 

As for the broken one in question, here are my observations:

 

The position of the break is so close to the end of the line that I would suspect the core has been kinked at that point by being chockered onto something and loaded excessively. I can only speculate as to what. The resulting kink ought to have been "feelable" through the sheath. I would be very interested to see the last loler inspection for this peice of kit, any chance of scanning it and posting it up?

 

Having inspected mine and found no rusting despite its age the rusty condition of the core of this one can only be down to two things, exposure to corrosive chemicals or a change in the manufacturing from bare to galvanised wire. The chap from yale didn't mention this so I suspect its not the case.

 

I just don't buy the theory that this kind of corrosion could occour under "normal" conditions, mine has been used in the rain, often, it has been put away wet, often, it has been "lost" on jobs and left out in the weather for a week at a time before being stuffed back into its bag. In short it has had a hard life and yet shows nothing like the corrosion on this one.

 

There is a lot about this one we just don't know, even its owner doesn't know for sure that it has not been used inappropriately by employees while his back is turned. He may have aqquired it second hand for all we know. There is in fact an awful lot about this thing that we don't know and never will.

[treequip]

Nice post. Interesting comments. Thank- you Jamie for your reasoned input.

LOLER is there to protect the user. As far as is reasonable in what is a very tough environment, but as someone has said the daily pre-climb checks form part of the LOLER system. We have 8-9 climbing kits that all have to be checked twice a year on top of the daily checks and weekly form filling. Self-employed climbers and/or business owners don't have to have LOLER but if anything was to go wrong your insurance and HSE wouldn't be too pleased.

All our big clients ask for our LOLER, PUWER etc before being allowed to start on site and this information is available for inspection by any of our other clients.

Most guys who've been climbing for a while know pretty well how to look after their gear and don't conciously put themselves in unnecessarily risky situations by using defective gear. Most of our regularly used kit doesn't make it past 3 years let alone 5. Nicks from saws or spikes being the main reasons.

IMO some form of refresher training or a short module might make sense to educate users of climbing gear exactly what to look for and more importantly why a piece of equipment is a fail. We do tool box talks when a piece gets failed in-house as well as by our LOLER inspector.

I also support very strongly the post that said to check the gear and the tree all day long. Become too reliant on textbook safety systems and you end up unsafe.

 

Errrrrr, Are you sure about that?

[treequip]

So what is the purpose of paying good money for a LOLER inspection????????

 

Well it’s part of the wider scope of LOLER which is a Europe wide legislative framework and UK statute law so for the majority of us that’s reason enough.

 

Let’s not forget that arb is but a tiny part of what this legislation encompasses. In other industries (and to some point ours) it prevents the unscrupulous providing shoddy kit that could kill or maim. Pre LOLER days I watched a crane lift a bulk bag of fist sized rocks for a roof garden. The bag split and showered the street with rocks from 4 floors up. Carnage ensued. LOLER is supposed to stop stuff like that happening.

 

If we argue that LOLER is pointless why don’t we do the same for PUWER or CE marking? Why stop there, those MOT’s are tiresome aren’t they?

 

The annual or bi annual inspections are only part of what we LOLER in arb is. Pre climb checks and weekly checks ought to be part of routine.

 

Andy

[Mesterh]

Gentlemen, This WireCore Flipline is in excess of 8 years old. Yale started maxijacketing the fliplines over 4 years ago, and the snap on the end is ancient to what we are offering currently.

 

In no way should the climber have been on this lanyard if they follwed the inspection criteria called out in the original packaging or on the Yale Cordage website.

 

Yale Cordage has sold tens of thousands of these wire core fliplines and I have never heard of a complaint like this. I know that your orginal post was to let everyone know to be safe and check their gear, but you sir are the one who needs to inspect your gear more closley. I would not rely on someone else to check my gear. You should respect your stuff and inspect before every climb, after every climb. Things happen in the field to your gear that demand attention. If you were inspecting your gear before and after each climb, this would have been thrown in the bin long ago.

 

If you can still read the serial number on the end, I will report to you exactly how old this lanyard is. My bet is pre - 2003

 

Finally, in good spirit, I am arranging to have a brand new flipline sent to you from our distributor in the UK. In return, I would like to have this one for our museum of Arboricultural artifacts.

 

 

Can I ask what 'maxijacketing' is?

 

I would also like to know what the inspection criteria is please?

 

Thanks

[High Scale]

Maxijacket is the cover, Yale do a 12 strand cover made from Dacron and also a 16 strand cover which I guess is made from the same material but has a tighter weave to allow smoother action of mechanical devices and to provide better abrasion resistance. I hope I got this correct.

[Nigel]

Maxijacket is the cover, Yale do a 12 strand cover made from Dacron and also a 16 strand cover which I guess is made from the same material but has a tighter weave to allow smoother action of mechanical devices and to provide better abrasion resistance. I hope I got this correct.

 

Maxijacket™ is a water based, urethane coating that can be applied to finished ropes for added abrasion and snag resistance, color/size identification, added visibility, added UV resistance and rope hand or firmness while not inhibiting the ease of splicing.

 

Maxijacket Urethane Coatings - Anchoring Rope / Mooring Rope / Specialty Rope - Pleasure Marine Ropes | Yale Cordage

[Paul Jenks]

Which bit? I'm pretty sure about everything I write. I may not have explained myself fully so misunderstandings are a potential.

[Paul Jenks]

Oh the highlighted bit. Yep, pretty sure.

[skyhuck]

Which bit? I'm pretty sure about everything I write. I may not have explained myself fully so misunderstandings are a potential.

 

The bit he has highlighted in bold.

[Paul Jenks]

:blushing:Or maybe not having read the later posts