A look at a few of the innovative Triclimb safety features.
Triclimb was birthed in 2017. Back then, there wasn’t really any Pikler Triangle available in the UK (or further afield) that was fully EN71 tested. The two or three that were available would not have met current safety standards and were of a traditional ‘Pikler’ triangle style appearance – single top rung, large bracing triangle top joint, tall and narrow, with no outrigger stability feet. After months of researching, designing and a lot of prototyping the Triclimb frame as you know it was birthed. It was new and innovative and was the first to combine a dual top rung system, a self-supporting top joint (removing the need for a bracing triangle) and an outrigger stability foot system.
It completely revolutionized the market and brought the ‘Pikler’ style frame up to date with modern safety standards. It has become the best-selling frame in the UK market and the go to ‘look’ that many frames since have sought to emulate. Despite this you will find the Triclimb continues to lead the way and remains unique in the market.
A main focus for Triclimb was to ensure a compact, strong and safe product range. Triclimb was designed from the beginning to surpass the current standard testing requirements with many added safety features such as:
1) Perfectly proportioned climbing – the rung is key here as little people do not have the same power grip as an adult or older child; it is significantly smaller. A larger adult rung diameter is not an appropriate size for a child to grip. The strength and security of a grip is determined by the power grip which is formed when the fingers flex towards the palm. The closer the finger tips are to the palm, the stronger the grip. We recommend bare feet as they have a natural grip, and like the hand power grip the rungs are perfectly proportioned to accommodate a beautiful secure toe curl for the little Triclimbers.
2) The perfect pitch – to give the best angle to climb ratio, not too shallow and not too steep. We did a lot of research here; there is actually a standard angle used in playground equipment, so we looked at that and combined this information with the famous Golden Ratio measurements which appear repeatedly in nature.
3) The top self supporting joint – unique, innovative and precise the self-supporting joint spreads all the load (100kg of static and splaying force) through the frame and isn’t reliant on the thumb screws to do that job. The top connection is bolted together, which ensures long term durability. It can be opened and closed without the wear and tear you get from a direct ‘screw to wood’ joint. This connection also uses safety caps to ensure the connection is snag free and secure from little hands. The interlocking joint has built in stop points – open and closed – which makes inserting the thumb screws super slick. It boasts a secondary safety locking off in the form of the thumb screws. Many emerging examples do not take advantage of a bracing triangle nor a self-supporting joint. They simply rely on the strength of the thumb screws to hold the whole frame up; that’s a lot of splay on two thumb screws.
4) Bottom support pole for incredible stability – a basic outrigger system perfectly designed and positioned so as not to get in the way. This feature ensures that the frame passes twice the recommended weight, but most importantly it has been officially tested not only for static load but stability. This is one to watch out for, just because a frame can carry an enormous weight does not mean that it will pass stability. To pass EN71 testing the frame needs to be able to do both load and stability, it’s not enough to say ‘this frame will take 100kg load’. It’s not about the amount of load the frame can take; it’s about how much weight the frame can take and remain stable on the ground when tested on a 10 degree slope. If it fails, it fails testing.
…and that’s just the Triclimb frame…