Anchor Shackles

Lifting Shackles Buying Guide

Anchor shackle or chain shackle: the bow decides the job. The shackles here are overwhelmingly anchor shackles, also called bow shackles, with a rounded body wider than the pin. That extra room is the whole point of the shape. A bow collects two or three sling legs, or takes a single leg pulling at an angle, without crushing the sling against the sides. The one narrow D-profile piece on the page, the CM galvanized round pin carbon chain shackle, is a chain shackle, built for a straight in-line pull between two components and not made for side loading, which can twist the bow permanently. When legs come in at angles, or hardware moves between jobs, reach for the anchor pattern. Save the chain shackle for a fixed two-part connection where the pull runs straight through. If a shackle ever loads across its body instead of in line, ASME B30.26 gives a reduction chart, and you rate down by it rather than guess.

Screw pin, round pin, or bolt-type. The pin is the second choice, and it follows how long the shackle stays rigged and whether the load can move. A screw pin threads into the body and goes on and off in seconds, which makes it the pick for pick-and-place lifts, tie-down, and towing where the shackle is set and stripped the same day. Its weakness is that vibration or a rotating load can back the pin out, so tighten it before every lift and keep it out of any spot where the pin can turn under load. A round pin is held by a cotter pin and has no threads to unscrew, which suits tie-down and lashing, but round pin shackles are not meant for collecting multiple sling legs or for side loading, and many lifting programs keep them out of overhead work. A bolt-type shackle closes with a bolt, nut, and cotter pin so nothing works loose, making it the answer for long-term or semi-permanent rigging, loads that can spin the pin, and anything that cycles. CM builds anchor shackles in all three across this collection.

Carbon, Super Strong, or alloy. CM offers the same anchor shackle in three strength tiers, and stepping up buys more capacity in the same footprint. Standard carbon anchor shackles are the industrial and government-rated baseline, designed to a 6:1 factor with working load limits from about a third of a ton up. CM Super Strong shackles are still carbon but rated 17 to 50% stronger than a comparable carbon shackle, running from 1/2 up to 55 tons, so you gain a higher WLL without moving to a bigger, heavier body. CM Alloy anchor shackles sit at the top, roughly 50% stronger than a comparable carbon shackle and about 25% stronger than Super Strong, with a 5:1 design factor and ratings that climb to 120 tons in sizes from 3/8 up to 2 inches. Finish is a separate call: galvanized resists corrosion for outdoor and marine work, and the orange powder coat makes a shackle easy to spot and account for on a busy deck.

Working load limit and the factor behind it. Every rated shackle here carries a working load limit, the most it may hold in normal service, and behind that number sits a design factor. Under ASME B30.26, shackles up to and including 150 tons carry a minimum 5:1 design factor, so a shackle does not reach its breaking strength until well past five times the WLL, and CM's carbon and Super Strong lines run a 6:1 factor. That margin absorbs shock loading, wear, and the abuse hardware collects in real service, and it is not spare capacity for you to spend. Rate to the WLL, count everything hanging from the shackle including the rigging, and remember the number assumes an in-line pull. B30.26 also sets the marking and inspection rules: a legible WLL and manufacturer's mark on the body, and removal from service for any shackle that is worn past its limits, bent, or missing its pin.

The specialty shackles on this shelf. A few pieces here answer narrower jobs. The CM carbon web sling shackle has a wide, rounded crown that spreads the load across a flat bearing surface, which protects synthetic round and web slings from the pinching a standard pin bow would cause. CM theatrical shackles come painted flat black for overhead rigging where hardware needs to disappear against a grid, rated to 20,000 lb. The HHIppo Link is a soft shackle, a synthetic loop spliced from high-strength rope that weighs a fraction of a steel bow and will not mar what it wraps, useful in recovery and light rigging. And the Straightpoint wireless loadshackle is a load cell built into a shackle body: it rigs like ordinary hardware and reads the tension on the pick wirelessly, in capacities up to 400 tons, for when you need to know the load rather than estimate it.

Turnbuckles for tension and leveling. The CM turnbuckles on this page are the take-up hardware you rig alongside shackles to tension a line or level a load. A jaw-and-jaw body pins to a fitting at both ends, while the jaw-and-eye pattern takes a hook or pin on one end and a wire rope thimble or connector on the other. Turning the body draws the ends together and pulls the slack out, which is how you square an uneven pick or tension a guy or stay. Turnbuckles fall under the same ASME B30.26 rigging hardware standard as the shackles, so they carry a marked working load limit and their own inspection rules. One habit worth keeping: once tensioned, lock the body against rotation so vibration cannot let it back off under load.