Posted By Jane Blunt Dear Alper EN1291 is a welding standard, and unfortunately I no longer have access to it, so can only make general comments. If I found a crack of any sort in lifting equipment I would reject it, pending further investigation at the very least. Cracks do not necessarily mean that something will break next time it is used, but without knowing the depth of the crack, the load to be carried and the fracture toughness of the material you cannot say how near it is to the moment where it will break suddenly under load. In repeated use the crack will grow by the process of fatigue and one day it will reach the critical size and the thing will break. Therefore I would be unhappy about allowing the use of anything which was shown to have a crack in it without someone doing a whole lot of work on it to demonstrate to me that it will safely perform its function until the next inspection date. This kind of work is done routinely on the integrity of structures, but I doubt whether it is cost effective on a piece of easily replaced lifting gear. However, it might be cost effective on the fixed structures such as crane rails, but you need to seek the advice of a person whose business is structural integrity. Regards Jane