{"id":76,"date":"2013-08-22T21:35:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T21:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aerialdancing.com\/blog\/?p=76"},"modified":"2013-09-06T21:53:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T21:53:20","slug":"76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/76\/","title":{"rendered":"Steel Vs Aluminum"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hear aerialists say all the time not to connect an aluminum carabiner to a steel carabiner, or vice versa, but no-one can explain why that is.\u00a0 Can you shed light on the subject?<\/em><\/p>\n

-Philadelphia, PA<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is a hot button topic, so I’m not going to try to cover the whole thing from top to bottom. \u00a0This seems to be\u00a0prominent\u00a0amongst “Circus” folk, and comes from a very small thing made into a big thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So here is some info:<\/p>\n

The “reason” not to use Aluminum touching Steel in various applications is that there is a chemical reaction between the two that will cause the chemically weaker Aluminum to degrade faster than the Steel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That being said:<\/p>\n

— When I heard of this, I asked an\u00a0Engineer\u00a0and a man who’s expertise is\u00a0Metallurgy\u00a0(who was brought in special by NASA to evaluate why the Space Shuttle blew up) and both told me there is “no risk unless your equipment has been sitting together at the bottom of the ocean for 1000 years or so”.<\/p>\n

–Steel and Aluminum are used together in building Airplanes and Submarines… two of the highest Safety Regulated things on the planet.<\/p>\n

–I work for a “Big Company” and we have from 300-600 pages of\u00a0inspections\u00a0we perform each week on our Rigging equipment due to Liability and a High Safety Practices Standard. \u00a0We don\u2019t have one page of documentation that says not to use Steel and Aluminum together, nor has it ever been raised as a concern.<\/p>\n

–I have not been able to find any documentation from the\u00a0Manufacturers\u00a0(Petzel, Black Diamond, Rock Exotica…etc) that states any sort of warning\u00a0indicating\u00a0any risk in\u00a0using\u00a0Steel and Aluminum in\u00a0conjunction. \u00a0These companies have to make equipment to ANSI standards, and are overwhelmingly documented on every aspect of their equipment. \u00a0If it was a\u00a0credible\u00a0concern,\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0there be a red flag on the equipment that states so? \u00a0Feel free to\u00a0contact\u00a0any manufacturer, they are required to provide you specs on their equipment and any\u00a0hazards\u00a0related to their use.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—\u00a0ENTIRE ROCK CLIMBING AND RESCUE, Military, Firemen, and Rope Access Industry… World wide… For decades… Uses aluminum and steel equipment…millions of times a year… To safeguard and rescue people. There are 100x more rock climbers and ropes rescue people than there are circus people. An entire industry… That is regulated by ANSI standards (acrobatic rigging is not). \u00a0Are to believe that they have simply missed the memo on this issue?<\/p>\n

As long as you are\u00a0using\u00a0it within its limits, any\u00a0piece\u00a0of equipment (steel or aluminum) should be expected to work as intended.<\/p>\n

As a side note:<\/p>\n

-Your Swivels that you hang from… those are Steel shafts and\u00a0ball-bearings\u00a0in an Aluminum\u00a0Casing.<\/p>\n

-Your Aluminum Auto Lock carabiners… the springs that cause them to lock are made of Steel.<\/p>\n

– your Rescue Pulleys you hang from, those are Aluminum bodies with a Steel shaft the\u00a0Pulley\u00a0rolls on.<\/p>\n

Take a look at your own equipment, I bet you can find more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for just using steel equipment:<\/p>\n

Steel is stronger, but more\u00a0expensive. \u00a0Aluminum equipment is more\u00a0prevalent\u00a0and widely used successfully in millions of applications each year. \u00a0It’s lighter, doesn’t rust, and made to be strong. \u00a0 You may encounter a facility or employer that requires you to use nothing but steel. \u00a0That being the case, you\u00a0have to do what they say. \u00a0I\u00a0believe\u00a0that the Aerial Rigging inspector I spoke with in New York required that our theatre show use Steel Auto locking carabiners, but upon looking at the written standards, it was not indicated as such the\u00a0document\u00a0provided.<\/p>\n

~Fred Ropes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Comments (carried over from previous website)<\/p>\n

I use aluminum biners on steel eyelets quite often in my performances and here is what happens. The harder steel will dent the aluminum on the first hang and over many performances the friction between the harder steel and the softer aluminum will cause the dent to worsen and cause metal burs on the edges of that wear point. after many performances and practices I still haven’t needed to take them out of service but I am more mindful of which biners I run ropes through and which biners I use for steel contact. ~Trevor Gash,\u00a0Edmonton, Alberta<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Any roofer will tell you not to put two different metals together because you will have problems, after several decades. But the notion that you can’t combine steel and aluminum carabiners in a circus rigging is an example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. ~Dave Gillies,\u00a0Founder, Director, Performer<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0The Give and Take Jugglers<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hear aerialists say all the time not to connect an aluminum carabiner to a steel carabiner, or vice versa, but no-one can explain why that is.\u00a0 Can you shed light on the subject? -Philadelphia, PA   This is a hot button topic, so I’m not going to try to cover the whole thing from … Continue reading “Steel Vs Aluminum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rigging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}