Anchor chain Thailand

[Billyo]

Hi all
Bit of a long shot but has anyone bought any chain from East Marine Asia based in phuket?

I'm having a mare getting hold of some bbb chain and east marine asia stock their own in house brand manufactured in China (they say manufactured by a company that produces chain for America...). They have bench tested it but would like to know if it's going to turn to dust the first time it looks at salt water.....

 

[Neeves]

Titan chain, part of CMP, the same company that makes the Rocna anchor makes their chain in China. Most chain in Europe now comes from China. I was unaware but it is no surprise that someone in America is buying Chinese chain. Complaints about chain quality have virtually disappeared now on forum, say over the last 10 years. Vyv Cox did a survey of anchor chain and found Chinese quality to be good - I suspect his website will give you chapter and verse. Vyv also has a lovely and simple test for galvanising - take note.

This anecdotal - I have no confirmation. PWB is one of 2 Australian chain makers. They were bought by Kito about 3-5 years ago, who had previously bought Peerless (the biggest chain maker in America). When Kito took over PWB some of the Peerless staff were seconded to PWB. Now the anecdotal bit - I did hear that PWB had stopped making anchor chain and were buying from China.

Galvanising is a bit of a lottery but no-one has complained over the last 10 years about the galvanising quality of Chinese chain.

BBB, which is a G30 quality in terms of steel, is an American standard chain and comes in Imperial sizes. I'd take your gypsy to the supplier and ensure you know what you are buying.

If the supplier has bench tested it - ask for the test results. But do not get excited - the standard test is for a 'batch' which might be 3,000 metres long and they test, I forget the number 9, or thereabouts, links.


As a slight aside - I galvanised a HT chain, special process, so that I could down size and save weight. Since then I have had processed about 1,000m of chain, for others, the same way. All the chain comes from China, but its a G100 quality. I have each length tested, usually 100m, before and after the processing and the as received chains always been in specification. My chain is now about 8 years old - no issues.

Jonathan

 

[vyv_cox]

Not much I can add to Jonathan's comprehensive reply. When I tested a good number of Chinese chains all except for one were well over strength specification, some exceeded grade 40. The only failure is shown on my website. The weld looked very different from all the others, like two cones pushed together rather than the usual increased diameter over a length equal to or greater than the wire diameter. https://i1.wp.com/coxeng.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/E-bend-test4.jpg

If the chain comes with a test certificate that is a bonus. Difficult to imagine the manufacturing machinery going off spec in 1000 metres of production

Worth checking the galvanising adhesion with my test. Some of my samples were not great.
Chain

 

[Billyo]

Thanks for the replies. I actually found a post about your chain test on Facebook vyv!
The owner of the shop is a little cagey about which factory the chain comes from which is what worried me, but I've now spoken to an ex pat who has used the chain for years as it's so good and he found out that it's made in the same factory that produces chain for cmp (titan chain) so all good!