The manufacture of metallic components involves alloy design, raw material preparation, melting, ingot/slab casting, hot forging or rolling, heat treatment, and precision cold processing etc. Consequently, research on the entire life cycle of metal production and application is imperative. Only by integrating the complete life cycle of the technological chain can the properties of metals be fully and appropriately utilized. Previous research has primarily focused on breakthroughs at individual “points”, often neglecting the “chain”. This has led to a “chain break” phenomenon in the processing of metal materials and components, resulting in high-end components that are unqualified, unstable, unreliable, or heavily dependent on imports. To address these issues, this study takes the research on the 8-meter-diameter main bearing of a shield tunneling machine as an example. It adopts novel V, B, and rare earth co-alloying in bearing steel for bearing rings, leveraging high-purity and high-homogeneity bearing steel production, as well as precision machining of high-performance bearing components. The study elucidates key technologies and their correlations throughout the bearing manufacturing process, with a particular focus on heat treatment technology that linking bearing materials to components and precision machining technology for large rollers. Through the development of whole-chain technologies, the main bearing for the shield tunneling machine was successfully manufactured. Building upon this research, a new concept of metal chain creation is proposed. This concept begins with alloy design and connects the entire chain of raw material preparation, melting, ingot/slab casting, hot forging or rolling, heat treatment, and precision cold processing, assembly manufacturing, evaluation, and application test. By identifying and manipulating critical data at each stage of the process, iterative optimization is achieved. This approach integrates the technological chain, fosters an innovation chain, connects the industrial chain, and realizes controllable manufacturing of metal materials and high-end components.