Rope friction via ferrata sets – PRODUCT RECALL
On February 6th 2013 during ISPO Munich, UIAA Safety Commission organized a meeting with all manufactures of via ferrata sets. Based on this meeting all manufactures of via ferrata sets were asked to prepare their statement about the safety of rope friction via ferrata sets which they have produced or are producing today.
UIAA Safety Commission recomends to all users of via ferrata sets to read following statement:
Following a comprehensive test programme conducted on used or aged rope friction based via ferrata sets, the climbing industry has found that some of these sets can fail in a fall situation.
The testing showed that the impact force in a fall may be increased and that the tensile strength of the lanyards may also be reduced in such a way that it could result in a full failure of the via ferrata set. Severe injury or death may be the consequence.
The level of the risk is dependent upon the specific model. Therefore each rope friction based via ferrata set owner should consult the information provided by the manufacturer of the set.
Please, have a look on SINGING ROCK VIA FERRATA STATEMENT to get the detailed information about your via ferrata set.
SINGING ROCK as a manufacturer of via ferrata sets, has made a lot of tests with different types of friction metal plates in combination with different types of ropes.
There are two types of metal plates on the market:
For type A the tests performed proved quite a big instability of the impact force measured at dynamic testing according to EN958.
Thus we have never used such solution at Singing Rock products.
Type B give better stability of impact force results for brand new sets as well as the used or aged ones and we produced these sets till July 2009.
In 2009 we have found the solution of tearing webbing, which shows much more stability of the results of impact force through its lifetime and we stopped production of rope friction via ferrata sets completely.
Currently we are working on collection of worn and heavy used rope friction type sets from the market to make appropriate tests. Although all the tests done up to now prove the safe use of the sets, we are collecting more samples to get statistically significant results. Since Singing Rock does not produce this model for almost 4 years, we need more time to collect old sets from the market, which are still in use. If you have any questions regarding the rope friction via ferrata sets, please, contact us on an email: info@singingrock.cz or on the phone +420 481 585 007.