Camalot
Encyclopedia
Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd.
Black Diamond, Inc. is a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of climbing, mountaineering and backcountry ski equipment. The company was formed out of Chouinard Equipment Ltd., and is currently based in Holladay, Utah, near Salt Lake City.- History :...
The device is used to secure ropes while rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
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There are two types of Camalots, 4-lobed C4s (the original Camalot) and 3-lobed C3s. C4s utilize a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed dual-axle cam system, resulting in a slightly higher expansion range than for a similarly sized single axle unit, and also resulting in increased strength, allowing placement as a passive stopper
Stopper
stopper may refer to:*Stopper , a type of a knot at the end of the rope*Stopper , also known as a cork, a plug or a bung used to temporarily seal a bottle opening...
. C4s range from the small #0.3, to the rarely seen massive #6.
C3s, a more recently released line, are single axle units designed for smaller, narrower placements, and range from a tiny #000 to #2. There is some overlap between the C4 #0.3 and the C3 1 and 2. As with most microcams, the C3 #000 is rated for aid climbing
Aid climbing
Aid climbing is a style of climbing in which standing on or pulling oneself up via devices attached to fixed or placed protection is used to make upward progress....
only.
Camalot lobes were designed to have a logarithmic spiral shape, resulting in a constant angle between the cam and the rock at each contact point; this constant angle is designed to always provide the necessary friction to hold a cam in equilibrium.