How Black Diamond Creates Carabiners

Black Diamond on creating carabiners

I always find articles and videos on how climbing gear is constructed quite fascinating. A couple months ago I posted a video on how DMM makes carabiners and now Backcountry.com has written an article on Black Diamond’s process of making carabiners from start to finish.

“Whenever you design something, it starts with a need,” says Bill Belcourt, BD’s Climbing Hardgoods Category Director. The BD carabiner that eventually ends up on a climber’s rack begins as a brainstorming session or a simply sketched idea in the design department. Product designers determine what they want the carabiner to do and look like, and from there, they design computer models. Before they physically make anything, the design team uses FEA (Finite Element Analysis), which helps determine the shapes, angles, and features needed to fulfill the company’s strength requirements.