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Version A
Version A
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I acquired my Alptech A. B. S., Version A from Eiselin Sport in 1997.
The Alptech A. B. S., Version A is 94 mm. tall, 47 mm. wide, 30 mm. thick, and weighs 84 g. The A. B. S. is forged from aluminum alloy and then anodized. From the end, the A. B. S. has a V-shape, with a rope braking surface at the bottom and two side plates. The rope braking surface has 11 rounded ribs, with alternating rounded "teeth" on each side (10 on 1, 11 on the other). The side plates have a wide inverted V-shaped notch that admits an HMS carabiner. In operation, the carabiner traps the belay rope against the braking surface.
Both sides of Version A have "ALPTECH" and "ABS" in forged raised letters.
The Alptech A. B. S. works on a different principle than most belay devices. The A. B. S. is used with an HMS carabiner. When the climber falls, the carabiner pulls the rope into a v-groove, providing friction to stop the climber.
The
instructions that came with my A. B. S. state "The A. B. S. blocks
the rope without the belayers intervention. If the climber falls,
let go of everything, the A. B. S. will automatically lock. Important!
During a fall do not hold the rope for risk of burning your hands
and causing a longer fall."
Let go of everything? Let go? Actually, I believe it will work, but I haven't been able to test it, since my friends don't want me to just let go.
The Alptech A. B. S. is protected by French Patent 9405331 and U.S. Patent 5,850,890.
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I acquired my Alptech A. B. S., Version B from Expé-Spelemat in 2009.
The Alptech A. B. S., Version B is 104 mm. tall, 48 mm. wide, 31 mm. thick, and weighs 102 g. Version B is larger than Version A; otherwise, the two are similar. Alptech changed the color from red to blue to simplify identifying the two versions.
Both sides of Version B have "ALPTECH" and "ABS" in forged raised letters.
Olivier Peron-Caillet sent me the following information in 2009:
The first ABS (red) was created about 12 years ago, at that time climbing ropes were between 11 and 10.2 mm.
The new ABS, blue, was created about 7 years ago (five years after the first one), and rope’s technology has improved a lot, now ropes are between 9.1 to 10 mm. so it was necessary to have a device adapted to these thinner ropes.
This clarifies the history and gives reasonable explanation of the change, but I noticed that the two versions came with the same instructions, and both claim that the A. B. S. works for ropes from 9 to 11 mm. diameter. I haven't been able to test the two together to form my own opinion.
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