Lifting anchors are widely used in the precast concrete industry. If anchors are failing, lives are endangered and considerable material damage can occur. Therefore anchors for lifting and handling should be chosen carefully and the anchor design should be done by engineers. Technically, three major questions have to be answered: a) How to determine the type and magnitude of loads and how to distribute it on the anchors? The most important loads like self weight, adhesion, form friction and dynamic actions will be described and discussed b) What are the possible failure mechanisms and which one is governing? The most important failure mechanisms depending on the shape, size and reinforcement of the precast element, on the lifting situation and equipment, and on the type and size of the anchor will be described and discussed. Failure can occur by fracture of the anchor, fracture of the reinforcement, breakout of a concrete cone, pullout of the anchor, pullout of the reinforcement, splitting of the concrete or local lateral breakout of the concrete. c) How to get characteristic resistance values for the different failure modes? Design models which allow design by calculation are only available for very few situations and failure modes. In all other cases values are taken from tests performed by anchor manufacturers or by precast concrete manufacturers. A common basis how to perform tests and how to evaluate the results is not established up to now. Different test methods will be shown. Their significance on real applications and the effect of the test method on the results will be discussed.
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