Forging Truck Axels

[old mart]

The steel that anchor chain is made from is definitely not mild steel. Those cut sections are exactly the right weight to make the forgings with the minimum of waste. There are plenty of ships being run on to beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to provide a constant supply of chain.

[Bob Engelhardt]

... Tough way to make a living. ...

Indeed! I had a "Yikes" moment at 2:50 when a worker is looking at the camera while the worker in front of him pulls an orange-hot axle off the hammer. He swings it around and the guy behind notices just in time to move his foot back & avoid the axle hitting him on the calf. That would probably hurt!

[Dan_the_Chemist]

It takes an awful lot of either age or abuse to warrant scraping a chain like that. You would think there is used market for it that pays better than scrap price.

JL..............

I did a search for "anchor chain inspection" and a few other similar searches and found a few things.

Anchor chains are subject to corrosion, stress, age, and manufacturing defects. Different countries have different regulations, but some require periodic inspections that include taking the dimensions of links along the entire chain, and also 10 link sections. If any link or section is found to be more than 12% out of original spec for length, width, diameter of the link metal, etc., it is to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement. Some countries require non destructive testing including magnetic fluorescent dye testing, etc. every few years.

One of the websites stated that offshore drilling platforms often have as many as 10 anchors, with as much as 10 km of anchor chain on some of the anchors. Those chains are hauled up every few years and replaced, and the old chain inspected on shore and either reused or scrapped. That makes sense when the chain is holding a $650 Million investment in place.