How high tensile chain is made - GIF

**Altair** · Jan 2, 2019, 10:24 PM

How high tensile chain is made.

Previously:

Chain making GIFs
Making heavy duty chain - GIF

**wizard69** · Jan 4, 2019, 05:13 PM

Making chain has always fascinated me. I find the welding process especially intriguing.

This machine makes for an interesting question because it looks like it can make a chain of any length. The question being how long does the chain need to be before it can’t support its own weight?

**12bolts** · Jan 4, 2019, 08:49 PM

I'm guessing pretty long

Originally Posted by wizard69

The question being how long does the chain need to be before it can’t support its own weight?

10 mm grade 100 lifting chain is rated at 4.0T W.L.L. and by itself weighs 1.0T per 400 m, so a single link could suspend 1.6 km of chain below it at its rated limit, which would be well below its breaking capacity.

cheers Phil

**ranald** · Jan 5, 2019, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by wizard69

Making chain has always fascinated me. I find the welding process especially intriguing.

This machine makes for an interesting question because it looks like it can make a chain of any length. The question being how long does the chain need to be before it can’t support its own weight?

Phil has made an excellent point but not sure if that answers your question fully. chain is not like flat bar ,obviously, which quickly bends due to its own weight as does pipe & even rhs.

lifting chain is often used incorrectly for other purposes & can suffer from forces other than those for lifting. Used for towing for example can stretch the links. dragging through a fire can change the properties without noticable external damage. Nicks, like a knot, also affect it safe working load. when it comes down to the point the very old addage "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" is correct. I believe that w.l.l & s.w.l takr into consideration various angles from vertical to almost level & the pressures therein & on. A good rule of thumb if damage like nicks, & stretches are evident then they must not be more than 10% of the link involved or the chain is not safe to use. This is also true of chain used for other purposes (beside lifting) eg: securing a piece of plant using "dog(s)".