UKC

Scary stuff!!

A user has reported online that his 3 yr old harness "snapped" while just body weighted as he rested on the rope.

Below is a link to the original posting and as we understand it he has informed Dan Middleton at the BMC so it will be very interesting to hear what the cause of such a potentially catastrophic failure.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RockClimbingUK/permalink/2727037127348865/

I inspect industrial ppe everyday, participated/watched testing to destruction etc etc. In standard practice normal webbing takes a load of around 26kn before it begins to fail(more often than not much higher than stated rating), the mode of failure tends being away from the stitching (its stronger) or at a deflection point (choking or laying over something) The impact force from sport climbing is pretty low, the system is fairly robust and there is a lot of dynamic elements slowing stuff down in a good way. I would be interested to see what the history of the harness was before this incident.

Ive seen a harness loop go before, however this was 30+ years ago and the harness was nackered by constant dogging and wore through due to the rope wearing it on the inside of the loop and was unseen by the wearer. (it was a new generation 'sport climbing' model and very skinny)

That defo looks like it's been cut!

Totally agree!

Trashed harnesses just dont fail in that manner. The grey lining would be battered and the break would have loads of stringy excess thread coming out of it. Not to mention its in a really prominent position which is unlikely to go unnoticed. Most importantly, dyneema cut with a nice sharp knife looks identical to that. 

This link got a lot of attention and after the majority said it looked like a cut, send it away to be tested, etc etc the OP suddenly went very quiet. Maybe the OP was after a payout from the manufacturer, or worked for the competition, who knows, but that is a cut!

Or if it was a cut, maybe it's a criminal matter now - i.e. attempted murder?

It's interesting that the break is in the waist-band attachment loop.  If you're resting on a rope (as the poster asserts he was), isn't most of the weight usually on the leg-loops attachment loop? 

I find it very hard to believe that all the fibers broke at the exact same place at the exact same time and didn't stretch at all. 

  vimeo.com/27293337

The above video at 10:00 shows what I'd expect to see from nylon failure.

With that being said it looks as though it 'failed' at the bar tack. Is it possible the bar-tacking, done improperly, could weaken the sling? This really is clutching at the proverbial straw though. 

It may be worth mentioning that he bought the harness in Malaysia.  

It is possible that it may not be genuine.  

The slings in that video had quite high-energy failures, being broken in one go, by a big impact. The elastic energy which goes into the sling will get released again as it fails and will tend to spread out the fibres.  The dynamics of a big impact are also very different from a progressive failure, with internal friction playing a very different role. Finally, the broken harness has some grey wear-reinforcement on one side of the failure and a bar tack on the other, which will tend to keep the fibres from spreading out and concentrate the failures in that place.

It looks like a very odd failure, looks like a cut, but I'm not convinced it was cut just from those photos.  If someone can get the broken fibres under a good microscope, they'll learn a lot more.

Some slow pulls here:  youtube.com/watch?v=xuqaw-rmAcY& 

Lots of different failure methods, nothing looking anywhere near as clean as the cut on this harness except the videos testing the cut slings?

In reply marsbar:

Several people have said this or even suggested Singing Rock are not a legitimate brand. The power of marketing I suppose.  

I have bought gear from Verticale, the shop in question, and it’s completely legitimate. I’d no more question gear from Needlesport.

As for Singing Rock, check (!) where your DMM harnesses and slings are made. As it is a less known brand, I think counterfeiters are unlikely to bother.

Not to contradict the other points you're making, but DMM harnesses/slings are manufactured by Ocun as far as I'm aware.

Thanks. I didn't know the OEM for DMM, but meant Czech-made in general.  Given we all drive Skodas...

That's been cut. Can only guess why, when etc.

jk

I've never seen a harness failing like that. However, I have cut (on purpose for disposal) numerous old slings and harnesses and I would agree that the harness in the photo looks as though it has been cut.

The fibres are too clean and the same length compared to anything in any testing scenarios I've ever seen.

TJB.