Black Diamond Infinity Cord

Black Diamond just dropped a new product. It’s a 4.5mm fully rated cord sling that appears to be spliced instead of sewn to achieve a full 22kn rating. To good to be true?

Not much information is available as it’s not even on the BD website, and the only listing I can find is from REI where the description simply says:

“The next evolution of cordelette engineering, this Black Diamond cord is compact, light and easy to untie. Its looped Dynex construction is abrasion-resistant and durable without using bar tacks.”

Anyone have experience with this stuff? Seems to untie easily. How does it do as a friction hitch for a rappel? How’s the abrasion and cut resistance? Am I gOnNa DiE? Any other info out there about it?

Photo is with 7mm cord for reference.

Looks cool, but I'll stick with my dyneema slings.  I use the 8mm edelrid ones and they pack super light and work great! 

I have been using them the past 2+ seasons with field testing development and they are amazing! My favorite attribute aside form being super lightweight and compact is that when loaded, the master-point knot never becomes welded. The material is stiff and slippery so weighted knots are SUPER easy to untie. It's pretty amazing. I have never thought to use one as a 3rd hand/friction hitch. It's very slippery material. I use a hollow-block or an aramid/nylon blend product like the Beal Jammy Prusik for that application. 

I too was part of the field testing team for these. They are my favorite slings I've ever used. The sizes I was given to test were 180cm and 240cm so I used them primarily as anchor slings, but I'd replace all my slings with these if they make them down to 60cm. 

They are light, compact when racked and super versatile. 

NateCwrote:

I too was part of the field testing team for these. They are my favorite slings I've ever used. The sizes I was given to test were 180cm and 240cm so I used them primarily as anchor slings, but I'd replace all my slings with these if they make them down to 60cm. 

They are light, compact when racked and super versatile. 

Seems like the same tech as the internals of the Blue Ice Alpine Runners. A 60cm sling with no bar tacks sounds absolutely amazing. Surprised either company hasn't released one yet.

@Nate and @Nat, how's the memory on these? I much prefer supple over wiry for this application.

For folks looking for a link: https://www.bergfreunde.eu/black-diamond-infinity-cord-sewn-sling/ 

60cm for slings would be boss

I love the "infinity" belay loop on my new BD harness. No bar tack is so nice.

4.5mm is really small though! I wonder if these are very durable or cut resistant?

Yukon Corneliuswrote:

I love the "infinity" belay loop on my new BD harness. No bar tack is so nice.

4.5mm is really small though! I wonder if these are very durable or cut resistant?

I imagine the high strength from a continuous strand of Dynex allow for a relatively high sheath percentage. Maybe paring with aramid is something BD has considered or implemented. Still, I'd love HowNot2 to cut one of these open to measure the sheath width and see how sheath damage affects the strength.

The infinity belay loop is becoming pretty commonplace now! I remember first seeing it on a Blue Ice harness, but now my Edelrid harness has one, plus the BD ones that you mention. It's a clear advantage to user experience as well as longevity of the product. With multiple companies doing it I wonder if it was protected by a patent at some point but not anymore. Maybe we'll see the same with these no-sew slings/cords in the future.

Adam Flemingwrote:

I imagine the high strength from a continuous strand of Dynex allow for a relatively high sheath percentage. Maybe paring with aramid is something BD has considered or implemented. Still, I'd love HowNot2 to cut one of these open to measure the sheath width and see how sheath damage affects the strength.

The infinity belay loop is becoming pretty commonplace now! I remember first seeing it on a Blue Ice harness, but now my Edelrid harness has one, plus the BD ones that you mention. It's a clear advantage to user experience as well as longevity of the product. With multiple companies doing it I wonder if it was protected by a patent at some point but not anymore. Maybe we'll see the same with these no-sew slings/cords in the future.

It's no longer patent-protected since the boating industry has been using this technology since they developed it in the early 00s, and materials and methods have moved on since Yale Ropes first developed covered Spectra slings as a commercial product.  There may have been a patent at first, but that was when they were pre-stretching every sling in a stream-bath to anneal the SK75 fibers.

With SK78 and SK99 fibers now, heat-annealing is no longer necessary.  I pre-load all the SK99 Seamless Runners I make to ensure build quality and set the splices, but it doesn't add to the strength like with SK75.

Did someone say 60mm?  They're available from my webstore, UIAA-rated to 24kN: https://zartmancruising.com/rigging-shop/product/seamless-runners/

Elijah Hwrote:

Black Diamond just dropped a new product. 

Where did they drop it? I’m not seeing it on their website. 

Can you feel the splice/is it less supple there?

Looks really cool..

Gene Bordsonwrote:

Can you feel the splice/is it less supple there?

Yes you can, a small tag/cover is sewn over it which does add some stiffness. Much less bulk than a bar tack, not quite at seamless and Ben's slings. Neptune in Boulder has 120's if anyone around that area is interested. 

Ben Zartmanwrote:

Did someone say 60mm?  They're available from my webstore, UIAA-rated to 24kN: https://zartmancruising.com/rigging-shop/product/seamless-runners/

$60 for a single sling?? Am I missing something here?

Andy Wwrote:

$60 for a single sling?? Am I missing something here?

Its for a pack of ten ;)

Dave Schultzwrote:

Its for a pack of ten ;)

That's a good deal! Thx for the info. Didn't seem to say that on the website (mobile version). I'll try these out next time I'm buying slings.

Andy Wwrote:

That's a good deal! Thx for the info. Didn't seem to say that on the website (mobile version). I'll try these out next time I'm buying slings.

Sry, its a joke (hence:  ";").  They're just ridiculously expensive, and BZ takes every chance to push his overly-expensive, over-engineered stuff.  Don't get me wrong, it's cool, but has ANYONE ever bought one and been happy with their purchase ...

I like guchi, expensive stuff as much as the next person, and I've never been even close to buying a $60 sling ...

Dave Schultzwrote:

Sry, its a joke (hence:  ";").  They're just ridiculously expensive, and BZ takes every chance to push his overly-expensive, over-engineered stuff.  Don't get me wrong, it's cool, but has ANYONE ever bought one and been happy with their purchase ...

I like guchi, expensive stuff as much as the next person, and I've never been even close to buying a $60 sling ...

So far, everyone who's bought one and returned a comment has been very pleased.  Some have come back to buy more.  Only those who have neither seen nor used them have anything snide to say.

Parhaps now that BD and Blue Ice are scrambling to catch up to the leading edge of seamless technology, the commentary will become less dubious.  As for price, I regret how much I have to charge--but things individually hand made in the US by non-opressed labor, with top-shelf materials, UIAA certification, and individual proof-loading, are just costly to make.  I'm not willing to cut corners to offer a cheaper product.  My stuff is expensive because it costs a lot to make, but it's the best there is out there, and will last a long time with proper use.  Not everyone sees the value there, but there are those who do.

Damn it Ben. They aren't scrambling to catch up FFS. They could have done it whenever they wanted.....but they know their base is not gonna pay $60 for a sling not matter how nice. lets be honest, a seam doesn't really cause that huge of a problem to deal with.
They are not going to pay humans to hand splice slings....they need machines to handle most of the work load.
Making $60 slings is not a good way to make money for companies like BD. Economy of scale.
The juice is not worth the squeeze until the process is made efficient for both COG and creation. Who knows how long it took to re tool their existing machines, or to have new machines made.
Your seamless technology made slings are excellent, but the value is absolutely lost on me every way you've tried to spin it.
For those with butt loads of disposable income, Zartmann Rigging has got your items, and you'll probably be happy with them for sure. Nice kit and fine work by Ben. The Moncler of the sling world.
In the end you're gonna have to retire them in the same amount of time as any other sling more or less, but at 4-7x the price each time for something that does the exact same thing as the cheaper one...I just can't.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware (and I have looked), there doesn't seem to be any way to automate or effectively scale the splicing of 12-strand past just adding more people to splice. I seem to remember BD assembling their spliced goods (UL cam stem) in Mexico. The extent of the R&D behind this would be finding the fastest and easiest way to splice 12-strand Dyneema while still achieving a very consistent, strong enough product. I bet with the right Jig and no taper, you could get a single well-trained operator to assemble a closed loop in under 10 seconds. You might not get the most out of the material you're working with, but you don't need to; it just needs to be good enough.

if youre talking about this product, its not spliced, but made just like a span-set (industrial round sling) thats just a continuous loop of material. The only binding it has is where they need to secure the cover. Thats where the tag goes and required information.
But the way I have seen scaled splicing done is they bury and then stitch. Which still takes a decent amount of human engagement with the tooling. Larger diameters are easy peasy, but difficulty goes up with reduction in size of cordage. Kite surfers have tiny dyneema lines, and most of the time they are stitched. Sometimes without a bury, and sometimes with. Definitely don't know of a fully automated way this is done...maybe it's out there though.