Front View	Rear View	Side View

Front View: Open for Rigging	Rear View: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Fiolent (Фиолент) from Denis Pivot in 2021.

My Fiolent (Фиолент) is 244 mm. tall, 69 mm. wide, 29 mm. thick, and weighs 278 g.

The two side plates are made of 2.5 mm. aluminum. One side plate pivots to allow threading the rope. The lower ends of the side plates are bent to converge at the attachment point, which consists of a 13.4 mm. wide, 32.5 mm. high hole on the fixed plate and a hook on the other. Neither of the attachment points are beveled. The hook opening is closed by a stamped safety gate. The gate pivots on a steel rivet, and a spring set in a deep slot closes the gate.

The upper bollard is turned aluminum with a milled slot to keep it from rotating on the fixed side plate. The bollard is bolted to the fixed side plate with an 7 mm. bolt and a shoulder nut. The pivoting side plate pivots on the lower shoulder nut and has a slot to allow clearing the upper nut. The upper bollard has a 13.5 mm. wide, 5.5 mm. deep V-shaped rope groove. The upper bollard is cut away on its lower side to provide a flat surface to act as an anvil for the cam action of the autostop feature. A rounded 9.5 mm. steel cylinder is pressed into a hole in the lower surface of this bollard, and acts as a wear resisting bar.

The lower bollard has an 8.5 mm. wide, 2.6 mm. deep U-shaped rope groove. The upper surface of the bollard is milled flat and a J-shaped piece of 2.5  mm. stainless steel is inset and screwed to the bollard. This protrudes at the 10 o’clock position and acts as a cam.

The lower bollard is part of an autostop assembly. A aluminum handle is riveted to the fixed side plate side of the lower bollard. The handle portion is bent into a U to increase thickness for comfort. The lower bollard and handle assembly rotate on a shoulder nut on the lower bolt. A concealed spring tries to keep the handle in the disengaged position, but is weak enough to function only during storage. Friction from the main rope’s passage tends to turn the lower bollard and force the toothed cylinder towards the upper bollard, thus locking the rope and ideally arresting the descent. The rappeller uses the handle to keep the autostop feature disengaged. Alternately, a hole in the handle plate opposite the handle itself allows one to clip a carabiner in, thus disabling the autostop feature by preventing rotation of the lower bollard assembly. A small cutout in the fixed side plate provides clearance for this carabiner.

The pivoting side plate is stamped with a "Фиолент" logo and "2кН/200кгс/."

Comments

This bobbin is clearly based on the early Petzl Stop. Unlike many autostop bobbins, the design works well, perhaps due to the flat cutout on the bottom of the upper bollard. Although I have no information on the frame metallurgy, I feel that this device is very well made. I presume the 2кН/200кгс stampings refer to safe working loads, as they are far too low to be realistic ultimate breaking strengths.

When asked about this bobbin, Denis Pivot sent the following reply:

“I have absolutely no information and no knowledge about this bobbin. I found it in the Simond archives. I guess it’s a sample sent by East countries, maybe Russia as the brand seems to be written in Cyrillic alphabet (but I don't know this brand). European manufacturers received lot of samples from East countries in order to become a subcontractor.

Артём Бабин provided some additional information:

The device has the inscription "Фиолент" ("Fiolent"), which is the name of a picturesque cape on the Crimean Peninsula. This is also the name of a machine-building plant in the city of Simferopol. Perhaps they were produced there, since the font is similar to the one used on their products for other purposes.