Here's to my first post. For he who he sticks his head above the parapit should be prepared to get shot at!
There's been a lot said about what KN's are and a lot of good examples but the easiest way to work out what KN rating your kit is, is to replace the KN with two zeros, example if your karabiner is rated to 25KN's (25000 newtons) equals to 2500KG's (there abouts). Here is a snippet from my LANTRA workbook from my LOLER course.... "a karabiner rated at the rate of 25KN is actually rated at 25000 newtons, which represents a force equivalent to 2551kg acted upon by gravity (25000 divided by 9.8)
Expressed the other way around, 2551kg x 9.8m/s2 = 25000 newtons or 25 kilo newtons
Force may sometimes be expressed as kilograms of force (kgf). In that case, in the example just given, 25KN = 2551kgf
for crude but simple conversion, KN x 100 is approximately equal to the old kilogram rating of equipment"
The important thing to remember is to work out the safe working load if it is not stated on the piece of kit (it has to have SWL before the number). If a karabiner had got 20KN stamped on it (2000KG) SWL is 4KN (400 KG). Metal objects have a 5:1 ratio (in other words divide it by 5). textile objects i.e. slings and ropes have a 10:1 ratio (divide by 10).
If health and safety are happy for LOLER inspectors to inspect climbing kit converting KN into KG's to work out SWL's then I think it is OK for you guys to do it. It makes thing hell of a lot easier to work out.
