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Carabiners for climbers: safe thanks to simulation

EDELRID GmbH & Co. KG

As a specialist supplier for mountain sports, EDELRID also develops carabiners. Simulations are used to achieve the essential requirements: safety and low weight.

Daniel Gebel
Team Leader Innovation at EDELRID, EDELRID GmbH & Co. KG

When it comes to developing new products, we are tinkerers and forward thinkers

About Edelrid

SAFELY UP

EDELRID, the specialist supplier for mountain sports equipment based at Isny in the Allgäu, develops sophisticated products for climbers and mountaineers with innovative creative ideas. The range includes carabiners, which are a central element of every safety chain. In order to reconcile the requirements for design and weight with strict standards and regulations for safety, structural-mechanical simulations with Ansys have been used repeatedly for several years.

Ansys MADE TO MEASURE

The development cycles at EDELRID are designed so that simulations are not required on a daily basis. A yearly license of Ansys can therefore not be fully utilized. For this reason, those responsible at EDELRID use the Ansys software as required via the eCADFEM platform. The license is then called up from a pre-booked contingent when simulation tasks are pending. This flexibility makes Ansys use for EDELRID particularly economical.

Edelrid & CADFEM

RETHINK THINGS

"When it comes to developing new products, we are tinkerers and forward thinkers" says Daniel Gebel, head of the innovation department at EDELRID, "Our inventive spirit drives us and never lets us rest, so we always think out of the box. Our focus is on making practical use easier and above all safer".

TRIAL AND ERROR HAS SERVED ITS TIME

Carabiners in climbing are subject to strict regulations with the PPE regulation (personal protective equipment) and EN12275. The challenge is to make the carabiners as light as possible without falling short of specified breaking strength. Shaping and profile design contribute significantly to achieving this compromise. "We used to work according to the trial and error principle", recalls developer Georg Öttl. But this method was time-consuming and costly due to the multiple creation of tools.

DIGITAL MAKES AGILE

Today, simulation is used to digitally determine the optimum combination of low weight and high strength. Standard tests are also simulated and, thanks to multilinear material properties, are accurately reproduced. The simulations are based on the fact that two bolts with "External Displacement" provide the load input. Using the "force reaction" (Fig. 1) in combination with "comparative plastic elongation" (Fig. 2), the transition to plastic flow can be derived from the data. Only when the design, strength and weight are optimally matched to each other does the tool making process begin.

FLEXIBLE THROUGH ECADFEM

"Since we are a small team with annually recurring development cycles, we have no permanent need for FEM simulations," reports Georg Öttl. "As a result, we could not utilize an annual license to capacity, so we decided to use eCADFEM. With this on-demand solution from CADFEM, we can use all the advantages of Ansys in a targeted and cost-effective manner".


Area Manager IT Services