core 12 in many cases the sling manufacturer will only have to replace the ring 26 in order to refurbish the sling and return it service in the above example the ring 26 failed around 24 000 pounds and the sling 10 did not approach its maximum tensile strength of 30 000 pounds under certain conditions even though the ring 26 may have been designed to fail first the sling 10 may have degraded to a point where it must be discarded entirely for example if the sling 10 was exposed to an acidic environment for an extended period of time especially after the ring 26 failed the sling 10 and specifically the strands 17 that make up the load bearing core may have been damaged to such an extent that it can no longer meet its rated capacity the selection of the material for the core is the primary factor in determining whether the subject sling is impervious to sea water oil acids and other chemicals also the cover 25 plays an important factor in protecting the core especially from abrasion or from sharp edges it should be noted that a person skilled in the art after reading the present disclosure could produce equivalent embodiments for example even though virtually all synthetic slings have a load bearing core protected by an outer cover a sling manufacturer can eliminate the outer cover or shorten the outer cover so that the ring 26 is visible in this embodiment a dedicated strand is not required and an operator can determine that a sling overload.