Finsterwalder Snaplock Karabiner

Sold individually. The price is for one karabiner. Order two if you want a pair.

Finsterwalder Snaplock karabiner

• Designed for webbing strap widths of 25-30 mm
• Can accommodate narrower webbing strap widths
• Can accommodate older 44 mm webbing if folded (see 'Universal fit')

Snaplock: paragliding & hang gliding karabiner

With the innovative Snaplock, Finsterwalder is now also offering a paragliding and hang gliding karabiner with the popular twist-lock mechanism.

Features

• Breaking load: 3,000 DaN*
• Breaking load gate open: 2,000 DaN*
• Load without permanent deformation gate open: 1,600 DaN*
• Maximum allowable load for air sports: 110 daN* per carabiner
• Construction: Drop-forged from Titanal*
• Inner height: 60 mm
• Weight 76 g

* 1 daN (Dekanewton) = 10 N (newton) ≈ approx. 1 kg

Replacement interval

• Solo paragliding use: 5 years
• Tandem paragliding use: 2 years
• Hang gliding use: 2 years

The Snaplock's design, in combination with the high strength of the Titanal* material, now enables a guarantee of 5 years for solo paragliding use, and 2 years for hang gliding and tandem paragliding use, with unlimited flight hours within those periods.

In a dynamic fatigue test with open gate, the Snaplock withstood 5,000,000 load cycles at 115 daN as well as 2,000 load cycles at 240 daN.

Lightweight and safe

Snaplock carabiners are drop-forged instead of bent which results in increased material strength. The material of bent carabiners, in contrast, is weakened by inner tensions in the bent areas.

With an open gate breaking load of 1,600 daN, the Snaplock can bear approx. four times more load than conventional paragliding carabiners. Snaplock carabiners weigh a mere 76 g and thus save approx. 150 g of weight compared with steel carabiners.

Convenient

The snaplock's conventional twist lock is easy to operate as the locking sleeve does not need to be pushed down to open the gate. The carabiner is self-locking after releasing the sleeve. As the counterpart of the snapper is closed, the risers cannot get caught whilst hooking in and out.

Universal fit

The Snaplock is suitable for webbing band widths of 25-30 mm and narrower, but also accommodates the previously common 44 mm webbing straps if they are tucked in (see the Downloads section for a link to the mounting instructions for 44mm webbing).

Anti-twist

Thanks to its distinctive "nose", the Snaplock can be attached to the harness in such a way that a sidewise turning is reliably prevented. Moreover, harness manufacturers have the possibility to use the nose for backstrap attachment. Back support can thus be significantly improved.

More info on air sports carabiners fatigue endurance

Paragliding carabiners are subject to permanent load changes during flight. Measurements by the DHV show that they can amount to between 10 and 110 kg and more, depending on pilot weight, pilot flight behavior and thermals, and that they can occur up to 26 times per second. Given the carabiners' high breaking load (at least 1.500 kg), such load changes should generally be unproblematic. However, conventional carabiners exhibit a construction-related peculiarity: their play in the gate. This play is necessary for the snap hook to open and close frictionless. However, the snap hook is force-locked only at weights of 30-120 kg (depending on the amount of play in the gate). As a result the pilot flies as if the carabiner lock was open within the range of the play in the gate. Since the carabiner construction - as practice and dynamic fatigue tests show - is not designed for such load cases, already the relatively low operating load during normal flight operations can lead to breakages due to material fatigue. As the play in the gate cannot be reliably limited and as it is difficult to control, we have constructed the Snaplock in such a way that it is fatigue endurable also within the range of the play in the gate. Please note: Not all carabiners are tested for fatigue endurance. Special caution is required when the carabiner manufacturer does not give information about the replacement interval.

Steel is good?

The fatigue endurance of carabiners is not a question of material but a question of design! In dynamic fatigue tests, some aluminium carabiners exhibited substantially higher fatigue endurance levels than steel carabiners. Although stainless steel is generally more fatigue endurable, harder and more resistant to corrosion, the difference in strength can easily be outweighed by a larger width of the aluminium component. Due to the better strength-to-weight ratio, high-quality aluminium alloys are the standard in aircraft construction.

One steel carabiner cracked after 1.739.700 load changes between 5 and 50 daN. Another steel carabiner broke after 287.000 load changes between 7 and 70 daN. For comparison: Titanal* Pin Lock carabiners withstood 5.000.000 load changes between 40 and 400 daN without failure.

Downloads

• Finsterwalder Snaplock mounting instructions for 44mm webbing (PDF)
  

*Titanal is a metal alloy composed of about 85% aluminium and the rest is zinc, magnesium, copper and zirconium. It's produced by Austria Metall AG or AMAG, the biggest company in the Austrian aluminium industry sector. Commonly used in high performance sports products, particularly snowboards and skis.