Method of making one-way chain

A method of making one-way chain for use as a part of an aircraft tie-down having a screw-type binder mechanism including a link receiving receptacle for a one-way link, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing an unmodified chain having a plurality of welded links;
• providing an automated shaping machine constructed and arranged to shape welded links in separate shaping events;
• the automated shaping machine including a plurality of shaping dies constructed and arranged to individually shape a series of the welded links individually in the series of separate shaping events and the step of individually shaping includes shaping a first series of welded links to form a first series of shaped links with a first shaping die in a first series of shaping events and shaping a second series of welded links to form a second series of shaped links with a second shaping die in a second series of shaping events, wherein the first series of welded links and the second series of welded links alternate with one another within the unmodified chain;
• feeding the unmodified chain into the automated shaping machine;
• and
• shaping welded links to form shaped links in a series of separate shaping events that shape the respective welded links so that a first width of a greatest planar dimension of a forward end of the respective shaped link is narrower than a second width of the greatest planar dimension of a rearward end of the respective shaped link, such that the forward end is sized to fit into the link receiving receptacle of the screw-type binder mechanism and the rearward end will not fit into the link receiving receptacle.

A method of making one-way chain for use as a part of an aircraft tie-down having a screw-type binder mechanism including a link receiving receptacle for a one-way link, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing an unmodified chain having a plurality of welded links;
• feeding the unmodified chain into an automated shaping machine constructed and arranged to shape every other link of the plurality of welded links in separate shaping events;
• shaping every other link of the unmodified chain in an automated shaping machine to form a partially modified chain of shaped links and unshaped links in a first series of separate shaping events that shape every other of the respective welded links so that a first width of a greatest planar dimension of a forward end of the respective shaped link is narrower than a second width of the greatest planar dimension of a rearward end of the respective shaped link, such that the forward end is sized to fit into the link receiving receptacle of the screw-type binder mechanism and the rearward end will not fit into the link receiving receptacle;
• and
• shaping the partially modified chain in the automated shaping machine to form a completed one-way chain such that only the unshaped links are shaped in a second series of separate shaping events that shape the respective welded links so that a first width of a greatest planar dimension of a forward end of the respective shaped link is narrower than a second width of the greatest planar dimension of a rearward end of the respective shaped link, such that the forward end is sized to fit into the link receiving receptacle of the screw-type binder mechanism and the rearward end will not fit into the link receiving receptacle.