The Steel Chains and Their Applications
In the trucking business, the tie down chains and tire chains are what people use the most, while we will see there are more than just truck chains, such as machines chains, coil chains, passing link chains etc., simply put, these chains are mostly made from steel.
Tie down chains usually refers to grade 70 transport chains , aka binder chains it’s well known that we have 2 different standard orgs for steel chains, American Society for Testing and Materials, and NACM. ASTM standard indicates the chains are short link ones, NACM usually means regular link chains. Short link and regular link chains have same strength, the only difference is flexibility, for instance the short links can wrap around the corner easily, regular link chains probably will not fit. Tie down chains are mostly seen on the trailers, for the purpose of cargo securement, of course there are other interesting uses of these chains.
Tire chains and snow chains are the same thing under most circumstances, obviously tire chains don’t equal snow chains, for instance, you probably will put tire chains on when the road is icy. We always see tire chains sold in pairs, the reason is that people need to chain up tires in pairs. Due to the use condition, all tire chains are made from steel. You will have to buy the matching size of tire chains for your vehicle, say you drive a coupe, you definitely need car tire chains, You will need truck tire chains if you drive a pickup with big wheels.
Talking about hardware chains, it’s a big category, there are too many chains for all kinds of purposes. Let’s see some examples, twist link and straight link machine chains, sash chain , twisted and straight link coil chains, proof coil grade chains, hot dip or electro-galvanized, and those steel chains for decorations, this is a big family. Hardware chains have specific features and applications, grade 30 chain is the most popular general purpose chain, for the record, the grade 30 chains can even be used for the decoration purpose.