Hairline Fractures on Kong Black Diamond Screwgate Carabiners

On a climbing trip this weekend one climber noticed that most of his Kong screwgate carabiners had hairline fractures in the same place (refer to image http://www.sreynolds.net/images/caribiner.png )

When the other climbers checked their screwgate carabiners another found the same type of hairline fractures in a Black Diamond carabiner.

All the affected carabiners were relatively new and had never been dropped. Has anybody else noticed this problem in Black Diamond or Kong screwgates?

Please send me one of these carabiners. Can you possibly take a high resolution photograph and post these on your site? If so please try to get the steel ring that keeps the sleeve from overrotating in the photo.

What I suspect you are seeing is a deep scratch left by pushing the steel ring onto the gate. Each ring has two ends on it and these scratch the gate when assembled. They are put on such that the opening is between the slots of the gate and appear exactly as shown in the drawing on your site.

If they are cracks then I need to see a sample as soon as possible. Note, I will be out of the office until the 20th. Send these to the attention of Paul Tusting at the address below.

Quality Assurance Manager. Materials Engineer ME-MSE Black Diamond Equipment Ltd. www.BlackDiamondEquipment.com 2084 East 3900 South, SLC, UT 84124 phone: 801-278-5552

I have not had this problem with either Kong or BD. I HAVE had it with SMC, Omega, and some other biners. The cracks aren't 'brand specific' as far as I know. The process of ramming the pin into the gate is a design 'weakness' that all pin gate biners potentially suffer from. A few years ago I did a close inspection on all my biners after I found a cracked gate on one SMC. I have a lot of biners so it's not a trivial undertaking. Final tally... I found 4 cracked gate biners! One of which was in use on my rack. You don't need a magnifying glass to see them (at least not mine).

I look them over a couple times a year now.