The innovative use of transmission and reflection photoelastic techniques to solve complex industrial problems was investigated. Photoelastic sheet PS 1A of thickness 2.97 mm and K of 0.15 was selected as the coating material. The photoelastic coating was made of the same profile as the chain plate using a routing machine and holes of required sizes are made in steps using different size drills. A fixture was made for aligning both the chain plate and the photoelastic coating properly and positioning pins were also made to maintain the hole concentricity between chain plate and the photoelastic coating. The tangential stress due to the interference fit needs to be added with the direct stresses due to the application load. Fatigue test of actual chain assembly by varying the bush slit orientation of the formed bush showed that the chain plate with the bush oriented perpendicular to the applied load direction had lower fatigue life. The fatigue life had improved substantially when an extruded bush was used.