Before use, an alloy steel chain sling should be checked for ___.

• A. Excessive link wear
• B. Stretch
• C. Gouges
• D. All of these

Answer: (D)

Before using an alloy steel chain sling, you perform a thorough pre-use inspection for damage that could weaken it. Each issue listed is a red flag: excessive wear reduces the effective cross-sectional area of the links, lowering strength; stretch means the chain has undergone plastic elongation and can no longer carry its rated load; gouges are surface defects that create stress risers and can lead to crack initiation under load. Any one of these problems compromises safety, so the sling should be taken out of service and repaired or replaced by a qualified person. In practice, you look for all of these conditions and treat any of them as a reason not to use the sling.