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The gantry crane chain snapped on a 50-ton boiler lift last Thursday in Baton Rouge
When the chain gave way I was 20 feet up on the scaffold and it dropped the whole load, so now I'm checking every link before any lift and wondering how often you guys replace your chains.
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the_elizabeth9d ago
In my experience, equipment failures don't just happen out of nowhere, they're usually the result of little wear and tear that gets ignored over time. I started keeping a log of every chain's age and usage hours after seeing a similar failure on a smaller lift years back. Regular inspections are one thing, but knowing when to retire a chain based on actual work patterns seems to make the biggest difference. A lot of guys swap them out way too late because they're thinking about the cost of replacement instead of the cost of a dropped load.
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gray_schmidt88d ago
@the_elizabeth logs it like a coach tracks pitches. My last chain probably died of old age alone.
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