UKC

Dan Middleton, the BMC's Technical Officer reports:

A recent BMC technical report investigated an incident, where a Rock Empire camming device failed. The climber fell 16m and was lucky not to be badly injured. Take the time to check the wire stems of your flexible cams every now and again...it may save your life.

Flexible camming devices have helped revolutionise modern climbing. It isn't very common, but the flexible wire stems can become damaged by repeated use. Checking for damage isn't always easy with some modern designs, but is worth the effort because damaged wire stems can fail when loaded in a fall. Check for broken wires or signs of corrosion every now and again.

Full report: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=2761

In reply to UKC Gear:

I have one RE cam which gets a fair bit of use.....interesting that they haven't responded to the findings.

In reply to Morgan Woods:
I've several, all of which are older than the one in the report...I'll be off to the shop then!

In reply to Morgan Woods: baffling really.

also they still seem to stock a similar ish design to the one inspected. Seems daft that they wouldn't take notice of this and respond or take action/issue a warning.

In reply to gingerdave13: Have spoken to manufacturers of the cam as I do know them for more than decade. His response was that they did not receive any report from BMC either direct or via Rock Empire. I will send him copy of the report with translation however at present I am too preocupied with my MIA Assessment. I will keep you posted when I receive his response.

In reply to Morgan Woods: Check my response to gingerdave 13. You can check your cams by inspecting if there is gap between the plastic sleeve and head of the unit. If there IS this could mean that the cable is damaged as they manufacture these to precisely match side to side (that is what I was told by him).

In reply to UKC Gear: Dan can you let me know who did BMC send the report as the manufacturers did not receive it yet and as you can see from responses below it does not give them very good name. Thank you

In reply to adrspach: clearly all is not as it seems.

is this a classic 'we informed you' by sending a copy by carrier pidgeon via outer siberia?

In reply to adrspach:

thanks for the tip...i also appreciate that given it is a Czech company (i think) it might take a while for the information to reach them.

At this stage i don't think i have any reason to throw out my cam....just inspect it as you say.

It might be also be instructive for them to take note of the CCH Aliens recall, where i think speculation and rumour was allowed to run its course.

In reply to gingerdave13: It is not BMC fault not to know who is the manufacturer of the cam as it is marketed under RE brand (simmilar to Vaude, Mammut and other companies). I do know them personally and for that reason I have contacted them.

In reply to Morgan Woods: Yes it is small Czech company and they do manufacture climbing gear for other brands worldwide. As with all climbing gear "If in doubt throw it out!" Life is worth more than few quid ( at least for me).

In reply to all:

Keeping track of the gear is a crucial issue and gear wears of. After each fall you should definitely check the gear and in ANY doubt, get rid of it for the sake of your own (and others?!?) life.

From a mechanical and materials scientists viewpoint this is quite obvious.

In reply to UKC Gear:
Odd I just retired a WC zero cam last night as I found a broken wire on the stem near the head of the cam. Some of my other cams this would be quite hard to check for.

In reply to UKC Gear: In reply to all concerned. Just received answer from the manufacturers after they have only seen the picture from the report. The friend is an old version of the Flex size 0.75. For long time discontinued. The new version uses a different cable on the stem. They could only elaborate on why the failure occurred and their answer is probably long term usage of the cam.

In reply to adrspach:

Are they going to let us know how to tell if you have the new or old style cable on your cams?

I've got the same rock empire cams that were rebranded by Kong and sold on as their own, bought for a song from an acquaintance out of the back of van in a carpark in Arco. now I'm a bit worried!

In reply to Max_01: This is for all those concerned.
You can check the wire cable on their cams by holding the cam head and bending the wire stem. A gap between the plastic sleeve and the head will open and you can check if any damage occurred there.

In reply to adrspach:
I can send you another couple of photos that I took after the incident took place, you can forward these to the manufacturers as this may give them a better view of the damaged piece. I was particularly surprised when I saw that there was absolutely no evident wear on the wire cable, i.e. no corrosion nor any previously damaged strands of wire. In fact, I had a couple of other cams of the same model and make that I bought in a shop in Zurich at the same time, both of which I retired, one because the trigger wires broke fairly soon after I bought it, and the other, a 0.5 size since the wires kept getting stuck in the trigger heads and the cam didn't function properly anymore. Cheers for raising this with the manufacturers directly and I appreciate that they have given you a response. I am, however, still not satisfied that a similar incident could not happen again, since I believe BMC have a point when they say that all the force goes onto one small point, i.e. the bit where the hard plastic sheet meets the metal stem.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Sorry to fuel the fire on this, but why isn't there a paid for sticky message about this at the top of the UKC forum pages?
I want to know which cams are the new design, and which are old.
I want Rock Empire and whoever this Czech manufacturer is to put a post up describing ~exactly~ how to check whether my RE cams are the new or old design. Or whether they are fatigued. If I can't do this, shouldn't there be a recall? Why no response from RE or the manufacturer? I mean, they make their money trading on my interest in self preservation don't they?

On the plus side, this has made me go to the BMC website where I have discovered that Tricams may have loose pin manufacturing faults, and a Troll harness with a manufacturing fault that meant a cracked harness buckle.

Perhaps there's a case for being able to register all climbing gear via the net, so you can get safety updates immediately from manufacturers. Not that that would have worked yet in this case, due to the lack of response so far.

Ok, rant over, of course no gear is perfect, I'm off with a fine toothed comb to check my kit before the weekend.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Just read the report. Apparently there was a similar failure with a WC Friend. However I can't find the report (TCM02/06 WC Friend) to compare.

As a owner of 4 Rock Empire Flexi cams (out of 6 cams on my rack - the other 2 are BD Camalots) I read the report quite carefully. There are a fews points I found interesting:

1. The failure was due to concentrated bending stress at where the flexi cable attaches to the stiff stem - most single stem flexi cams (of all brands) share this design. I suppose that's why double stem cams are better for horizontal cracks as them don't always need connections to stiff stems and the load can be distributed to both cables.

2. The report suggested the plastic sleeve to cover the joint - but then it's impossible to inspect unless the sleeve is transparent, a point which it also suggested. However similar cams on the market (BD Camalot/ WC Tech Friends) have the same design as the Rock Empire ones (black sleeve butt up against the stem). Perhaps we will see some changes in the future.

3. The report suggested a bigger cable diameter and more wires per strand to be used. I compare my Camalot 0.3 to my RE Flexi 1 - the Camalot do have slightly thicker cable even at a smaller size.

My personal response to this will be:

1. Check the cables more regularly.

2. Try to use a double stem cam for critical horizontal crack placement.

3. Check all my cams immediately. As I've never fallen on any of them and they are all in good condition I can't see the reason to retire them. The fatigue failure was reported to be from repeated bending which none of my cams have experienced.

4. Use a nut if the placement will take either nut or cam - which I always do.

5. Look for bigger cable diameters when I buy new cams.

I remember when the old style stiff stem cams were the norm many climbers would thread a 6mm cord parallel to the stem as a back up in case the stem snap. I suppose camming devices are still evolving there's no such thing as a failure proof device. However until an incidence like this happens it's easy to forget the importance of regular gear inspection.

In reply to jamestheyip:

WC Tech Friends don't have the same sleeve design. The plastic bit is open on two sides, allowing for much more bending of the whole cable when placed in a horizontal break. It also means that you can see the cable at the join.

In reply to jamestheyip:
I found a broken wire on a WC cam I've never fallen on.

In reply to jamestheyip:
It is not obvious I grant you the route one takes is:

Technical reports from the left hand menu, then

Drop down menu 1 "Mechanically adjustable chocks", Drop down menu 2 "Wear misuse" and then select "Wild Country Flexible Friend, broken stem"

This gives you an option to download this:

http://www.thebmc.co.uk/bmcNews/media/u_content/File/equipment_advice/Techn...

The link could also have been provided in the current report.

In reply to Horse:

From that report:

"3. DISCUSSION
It seems likely that the age of this device contributed largely to this failure. The friend was over 13
years old when it broke. Repeated bending of any metal can result in fracture, and it appears likely
that for a considerable period prior to failure some of the wire strands were broken. The repeated
flexing of the stem then resulted in fatigue failure of the stem. This is more likely to occur near one of
the terminations of the wire as the radius of bending is reduced.
The instructions now given with friends state that the device should be discarded if there is any signs
of broken wire strands. They also advise that the devices are checked every 3 months for any
defects.
The sling probably started life with a strength of around 25kN, so a reductiuon of around 50% over
14 years is to be expected (thanks to AP for this)

4. CONCLUSIONS
Climbers need to remember to check ALL their equipment on a regular basis, after all their life may
depend on it. Climbers should also note that if they notice faults with any of their kit they should
check it as soon as possible, not wait for it to break. Attention should be drawn to page 21 of the
BMC Care and Maintenance booklet.

The manufacturer has asked that we point out they recommend
“that climbing equipment with metal components is concidered obsolete after 10 years
and textile components after 5 years”

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


I teach equipment inspection to industrial users. The rule above used to be the standard advice, but has been considered over-conservative in recent years. Petzl, for instance, suggest a ten year lifespan on all their equipment, including all-textile items. Metal items such as karabiners can be safely used for even longer.

All this depends of course on how well the gear is cared for. Its quite possible to knacker a piece of gear on the first use without anything catastrophic happening - nylon webbing is particularly vulnerable to abrasion for example. Look after your gear well, inspect it frequently, and be very careful of the gradual build up of wear - not so easy to spot as sudden damage.