Fold 4 Folding Test

[Denisha Simcoe]

PhenotypeThe Scottish Fold breed produces cats with both straight and folded ear phenotypes. A single copy of the fold mutation produces the breed's characteristic folded ears, and these cats may also have cartilage- and bone-related health problems including misshapen toes, thickened and inflexible tails, and accelerated progressive osteoarthritis. Age of onset and progression of such secondary effects are highly variable. Cats with two copies of the fold mutation are prone to more extreme health problems affecting cartilage and bone.

The cat DNA submission form with instructions, pricing, and a place to tape the cotton swabs can be printed from your home computer after signing up for a MyVGL account and placing an order. Test kits are not mailed.

The Scottish Fold breed produces cats with both straight and folded ear phenotypes. The fold type results from a mutation in a single gene. The mutation is dominant and a single copy of the mutation affects cartilage development resulting in the Scottish fold osteochondrodysplasia (SFOCD) phenotype, which includes malformation of the distal forelimbs and hindlimbs, malformation of the tail and fold ears.

All fold kittens are born with straight ears. Ear folding starts as early as 3 weeks of age. Other impacts of the mutation are variable but most consistently present as smaller feet resulting from misshapen toes, thickened and inflexible tails, and accelerated progressive osteoarthritis. Age of onset and progression of secondary effects are highly variable but ear folding is a consistent feature. Kittens with two copies are prone to more extreme health problems affecting cartilage and bone.

Testing for Scottish Fold assists owners and breeders to confirm presence and number of copies of the Fold mutation in young kittens. Knowledge of the genotype status will inform potential risk for future health problems.

Last September, Samsung Display's foldable OLED tested folding and is verified by the global safety science company Bureau Veritas that there were no issues with display quality even when folded 200,000 times at room temperature.

What would happen if the test was conducted in extreme cold rather than room temperature? According to the weather information site Accuweather.com, the lowest temperature in the major cities worldwide last year showed that New York recorded -10C for one day, Moscow and Sapporo had one day with -15C, and Toronto had three days with -15C or less. Of course, it's not typical weather we encounter every day, but this type of cold weather could be part of the environment where we use our smartphones.

Following the 200,000 normal temperature tests conducted last year, Bureau Veritas once again verified Samsung Display's foldable OLED by folding it 30,000 times. A more user-friendly mobile life is expected from Samsung Display's foldable OLED, which continues to innovate with folding durability, UPC, and eco-square technologies.

The goal was to stream the test until the wee hours of Friday morning when we planned to hit 100,000 folds. As soon as the test started, however, we noticed the FoldBot was having some trouble closing the phone all the way each time. During our 4 p.m. check-in, I noticed the hinge was very stiff and resistant to being closed all the way, almost as if something had come loose and was blocking it. After flexing the hinge a few times by hand, however, it started to loosen up some. It was definitely not functioning as intended, but still usable.

I tried putting the Razr back into the FoldBot one more time, but the machine was unable to overcome the stiffness of the hinge, and wouldn't fold the phone any more. So, with around 27,000 folds on the counter, we stopped the test and called it a day.

As of Friday morning, the Razr's hinge is still a little stiff, but it still opens and closes. One new thing I noticed upon closer inspection was that there are two new visible "creases" in the plastic screen. To my eye, they seem to correspond with the steel plates behind the screen that are part of the folding mechanism. They're subtle, but they're there.

Just like when we tested the Samsung Galaxy Fold, we borrowed the FoldBot machine from SquareTrade, a San Francisco-based company that offers warranties for consumer electronics and appliances. The FoldBot was originally created to open and close the Galaxy Fold repeatedly, thousands of times over.

SquareTrade modified the FoldBot to accommodate the new Razr, and it's been gracious enough to let us borrow it again, even before the company gets to test the Razr itself. As it turns out, the company may need to tweak its design a bit, but hopefully our test will provide good data for it.

So, do the results of our test indicate that the $1,499 Razr won't last a full year of regular wear and tear? No. Besides our concerns about the FoldBot's design modifications to test the Razr (not to mention that the rapid open-and-close mechanism doesn't truly mimic real-world use), the stats on average daily phone checks were all thus far collected from nonfolding phones. Who's to say if foldable phone users might actually check their phones more frequently because of that satisfying click? (We certainly found that with the Huawei Mate X.) Or perhaps many foldable users' daily phone checks will not even involve an unfold-fold maneuver at all, as the Razr's 2.7-inch outer screen already displays the time, notifications and basics such as signal and battery life, as CNET's Jessica Dolcourt found in her hands-on preview of the Motorola Razr. You'll be able to use the outer screen to respond to texts through canned messages or your voice, without ever unfolding it, she found.

[The] razr is a unique smartphone, featuring a dynamic clamshell folding system unlike any device on the market. SquareTrade's FoldBot is simply not designed to test our device. Therefore, any tests run utilizing this machine will put undue stress on the hinge and not allow the phone to open and close as intended, making the test inaccurate. The important thing to remember is that razr underwent extensive cycle endurance testing during product development, and CNET's test is not indicative of what consumers will experience when using razr in the real-world. We have every confidence in the durability of razr.

And honestly, I have confidence in the Razr too. Being a former owner of the original Razr (mine was hot pink), I was definitely looking forward to trying out the new one in person. And now that I have, I'm pretty impressed with the design and the functionality. Did it survive 100,000 folds? No. Does it feel like a durable, resilient phone that will stand up to extended real-world use? To me it does.

A buddy of mine, who climbs pretty hard and logs a fair amount of air time on his ropes, told me that he uses a "folding test" to see how much life is left in his rope.

Basically he just folds the rope over between thumb and forefinger, trying to make a 180 degree bend with the rope sheath in contact all the way out to the apex of the bend. If he can't get the sheaths to touch each other (ie, there's a little "eye" formed by the bend in the rope), he feels there's some miles left in the rope. When he can get the eye to disappear, he thinks that the sheath is shot and the rope should be retired.

Thoughts?

How hard you climb is not indicative of knowledge, experience, understanding or level of safety.

On a side note, I do a similar bend test to see if my phone needs replacing. Strangely enough, it needs replacing every time.

Climbing in the gym a fair amount, on ropes that range from brand new to old as dirt, I have definitely noticed that pliability/squishiness/floppiness correlates very strongly to wear, at least in that environment. Is pliability caused by a failing rope? I don't know.

Some core shots also, in my examination, seem to offer no resistance at all to being folded in half.

hmmm, i have had ropes that wouldn't pass this test when they are brand new. too stiff. on the other hand, i have had ropes that were really beat to hell that would pass this test no problem. i don't think this would be a very indicative test.

The test is to see if the rope is still stiff (forms an eye) as if it were new. If the sheath has bunched up around a section of core, or the core has untwisted or broken, then that section will be floppy and can be bent 180* without forming an eye.

At least, that's the theory.

climbing friend,

the test is good reasonable, but not the be all end all. utilize your common sense and other informations.

is there a core shot where sheath it is tearing through total complete to core?

localized soft/flat spot or other core deformity, like deformity of your little nephew Tmas?

The test is not necessarily illustrative if you do it at only one spot. Part of inspecting your rope is inspecting your *entire* rope, so it's less "can I make an eye" and more "how does the eye (or the effort needed to bend the rope) changing over the course of the rope?"

If you are taking a lot of falls, then the dog spot will be very easy to find using this test. Once found, you still have to make a judgement call about whether or not it's still safe.

I am aware of this test, it's good for knowing when a ropes fucked, mainly useful for gym and sport though if you do trad your ropes sheaf is going to be shredded long before you take enough falls on it to wear out the rope like this. If you do the test before and after a long gym session you will notice a big difference in the test, but when left over night to recover you will get similar results to when the rope was fresh, i'm only guessing but it seems to be testing the elasticity of the fibers, and as tests by black diamond (or was it rock and ice?) have shown impact forces get higher and higher the more you fall on the rope also as the rope ages and the nylon gets repeatedly stretch the elasticity of the nylon gets less and less over time. That's my guess at least, talking out of my ass.

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