The 2019 Outdoor Fest of San Vito lo Capo marks a key turning point in the chronicles of the Sicilian climbing: the exhaustion of the stocks of 316L stainless steel anchors (and the phasing out of their use to set new routes, and, even more, to revamp the existing ones) and the beginning of a new phase, where all the new routes of San Vito lo Capo will be equipped with Duplex Stainless Steel (PLX HCR, that is High Corrosion Resistance) anchors.
Daniele Arena headlong into the just got HCR anchors, without ever striking a pose for souvenir pic
Gabriela Sofia Flores
Gabriela Sofia Flores
October 2019 will be a month to remember on the chronicles of San Vito lo Capo: the 2nd day of the month was commissioned the first supply of climbing anchors of duplex stainless steel (PLX HCR, that is High Corrosion Resistance) in Sicily, where more than the 80% was purchased with the proceeds of the book guide of San Vito lo Capo, written by Daniele Arena for ClimbAdvisor (that is of the Climbing Spot Factory community). The remaining part was purchased with funds collected by Sicilian climbers.
The amount of anchors that will be shipped to San Vito lo Capo is
- more than 400 expansion bolts+related hangers
- mare than 30 chains
all in Duplex Stainless Steel PLX HCR made by Fixe. 300 bolts+hangers and all the belays have been bought with the proceeds of our San Vito lo Capo book guide.
The gear has been supplied by Oliunid, which we thank for the customer's care and support, and also for the great discount.
The delivery will be shipped in two steps. The first (small) part was delivered on the morning of October 15 and will be symbolically used to set a new route for the San Vito lo Capo Outdoor Fest. The rest shall arrive next week.
Thus the Festival marks a key turning point in the chronicles of the San Vito lo Capo climbing: the exhaustion of the stocks of 316L stainless steel anchors (and the phasing out of their use to set new routes, and, even more, to revamp the existing ones) and the beginning of a new phase, where all the new routes of San Vito lo Capo will be equipped with Duplex Stainless Steel (PLX HCR, that is High Corrosion Resistance) anchors.
The Duplex SAF 2205 is a typical engineering solution for offshore
dal web
dal web
As an administrator of Climbing Spot Factory, I would like to thank a lot our users, that, choosing to buy our book guides helped to equip and re-equip many climbing routes.
However, even though our book guides are a commercial success, in particular for San Vito lo Capo, that sold almost 1000 copies, er cannot finance all the needed by the San Vito lo Capo maintenance, as well as the other crag in the catalog.
Thus, we are planning two initiatives to finance the maintenance of the crag in our catalog.
First, we will look for some sponsors that want to get attention to their contribution to climbing security. We will place a banner on the free part of our app (in particular on the views with the info about the crag and with the map of the parking spot, that are the most visited of the app), and also in the analogous pages of our website.
Then, for a few climbing spots, in particular for the ones of San Vito lo Capo, we shall be launching a crowd-funding initiative, hoping that also this time our users support us.
The Millennium Bridge, bult between 1999 and 2000 using suppler stainless steel SAF 2205
from web
from web
Duplex Stainless Steel and 316L Stainless Steel
Finally, since the duplex Stainless steel is scarcely unknown in Italy, I shall try to write two lines to say what it is, and how it differs from the traditional (always good) 316L stainless steel.
Speaking with extreme simplification and quite a vagueness, whether the not duplex stainless steel is or austenitic or ferritic alloy, (for example the 316L steel is an austenitic alloy), the duplex stainless steel consists of two phases, austenite and ferrite, in roughly equal proportions.
There are many variants of duplex stainless steel, and all are characterized by an excellent corrosion resistance and strength, both in a strongly acid and in a basic environment. Thus the Duplex stainless steel is used in many challenging fields of application, like platforms offshore.
The Duplex used the Fixe anchors bought for San Vito lo Capo is a variant specifically developed to help withstand Stress Corrosion Cracking and minimize Galvanic Corrosion [cit. from the Fixe website], referred to as PLX HCR and described in the technical paper available at http://www.fixehardware.com/images/DOC-PLXTECH.PDF).
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