Petzl engineers have undertaken additional testing overnight to try and replicate the deformation visible in the photographs Treetools published Wednesday on FaceBook and again in the Treetools Blog yesterday - here are the results of those tests (ad verbatim) - make of it what you will:
"Based on our understanding of the causes of the crack, and the analysis of each returned ZIGZAG, we know that cracks on the bottom link (worst case scenario) may appear only on one side of the chain.
In fact, due to the assembling process, the the bottom link on the side of the body with the Petzl marking can not have a crack (there is no riveting process on this side of the bottom link).
In order to get value on the resistance in such a case, we have pushed further our tests on a broken bottom link up to a complete breakage of the chain, and we have obtained the following results:
As visible on Treetools website, a ZIGZAG with a completely broken bottom link on one side and on the other side a bottom link free of crack, can support a load greater than 15KN.
At forces around 17KN, we observe a complete separation of the chain from the body."
Please keep a close eye on your Petzl ZigZag if you are climbing on one.
