Wear & Tear Of Bp/w

[BDSC]

Only problem is I'm enlightened, born again, saved, and/or on the righteous path!

Say Amen somebody!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The top edge of the plate shouldn't really be a wear point. In use the webbing doesn't really bear on the top edge, it passes Up from the upper slot, to forward over the edge. The typical plate is worn well below the top of the diver's shoulders. That makes the harness go Up.

We spend considerable time and effort finishing the edges on DSS plates, as no doubt you do on your Freedom plates, but we do this primarily so the plate is not sharp to the touch. I hate sharp edges when my hands are wet and my skin is softened.

Sharp edges are not the best thing to have next to your wing either.

The grommets we over mold (The plate is actually in the injection molding machine) onto DSS plates do a couple things; They provide a somewhat compliant (softer) material for the webbing to contact, they provide a very consistent radius, but most importantly they increase the thickness of the edge the webbing bears on. Most plates are 11 gauge / 3mm or about .118" thick. Radius that a bit on either side and you make it even more narrow. The DSS overmolded grommets make the plates effectively ~.300" thick at the point where the webbing contacts. That wider area reduces the load concentration on the webbing, and that is what leads to fraying harnesses.

I'll also point out that many plates have the harness slots undersized. When you fold 2 inch webbing on a 45 the resulting width is 2" x the square root of 2 or 2 x 1.414 = ~2.83" It is common for the "cross over" slots, the ones at a 45 degree angle at the top of most conventional plates to be 2 inch, and not 2.83" inch. This forces the webbing to be "bunched" and leads to wear on the edges of the webbing, not to mention the webbing doesn't lie flat on the plate. Your Freedom plate avoids this issue altogether, clever design.

Tobin

Not to mention that unfinished edges can cause expensive damage to drysuits also.
Relieving edges is time consuming and expensive. There is no way to effectively round over edges without some sort of manual process whether done by hand or by a CNC machine, either way it takes time and requires an operator plus consumables. This adds up to higher costs and since most divers are cheap all they look at is the bargain not realizing that details add cost. Then when they decide to do their own rounding over they understand the torturous labor involved and what a pain in the ass it is. It's even a pain for us and we do this for a living.
On my plates that one thing that I spend a lot of time on is the rounding over. It's not something that can be done quickly. I've tried everything including trying to melt over the edges with a TIG, but it doesn't really work. Metal needs to be physically removed. Rounding over slots is torture. I have to use a burr on a die grinder and I spend considerable time going over each plate. The outer edge is easy, that's just a flap disc grinder and a conditioning wheel. I use a lot of conditioning wheels and they're not cheap. All this adds up.

So next time you see a plate sell for over $200, and then a competitor plate for $99 (or less) there's a reason. Not all plates are created equal.

 

[Derelict]

You'd think by now somebody would have come up with a better design besides running shoulder webbing out the back of a slot and over the outside of a sharp edge to go over the shoulder????
Kind of bizaar in my mind.
I've seen webbing commonly cut through almost half way in that area especially on steep bend plates like Halcyon, OMS, when the straps are run straight and not crossed.
It would make more sense to me to run the strap from the back out through the front of the plate and forget about bringing it over the back edge. Something like Tobins plastic inserts and run the webbing correctly seems like a solution for those doubles style plates.

My Hollis ss backplate is pretty damn smooth. But with that said, the shoulders shouldn't have any force applied to them at all. The webbing will round around your shoulders and should be pulling up and away from the edge of the backplate.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I must have some monster shoulder blades then because whenever I don a conventional plate all they do is pivot on my shoulder blades (high center) and there is a gap between the top of the plate and where the straps finally touch my traps. There is a gap between the top of the plate and my back. The straps don't go up they go forward and the webbing sits right on the metal edge.