Roller coasters are thrilling. Riders soar and dive and flip upside down. They get blasted out of tunnels and splashed down through ponds. It’s an experience that causes people to grip their handrails, white-knuckled, to scream in terror, to pant for breath, and, when it’s over, to laugh. The intended effect is to expose riders to sensations of bodily terror they can’t otherwise be exposed to without the risk of severe injury or death.
Of course, in order for it to work, roller coasters and other thrilling theme park rides have to be genuinely safe. Riders come to parks for the illusion of danger—not for actual danger. Crafting this illusion requires precision engineering and careful manufacturing. There’s no room for error when manufacturing roller coasters and other thrill rides because even a single poorly fastened bolt can be enough to send a wheel off a cart and the cart off the rails. As such, torque wrenches are indispensable for safe roller coaster and thrill ride assembly.
Why Torque Tools Matter in Roller Coaster Assembly
Roller coasters and other thrill rides depend on nuts and bolts to hold them together. These threaded fasteners are used because they can handle large amounts of tension and stress without failing. It’s also easy to remove and replace them without damaging the underlying material, unlike rivets.
Since thrill rides depend on moving large, heavy objects at high levels of acceleration and changing velocities, the fasteners that hold them together must be strong. Rides—which require a large capital investment to build—are intended to last decades, so fasteners must also be easy to remove and replace over time.
No matter how strong a given bolt may be, it won’t hold properly if it wasn’t tightened properly. If it’s too loose, it will work itself free under stress and fall out. If it’s too tight, then it can damage both itself and the materials it’s holding together, rendering them more likely to fail. Each fastener, in each different substrate material, will have an ideal torque range, meaning it holds best when a certain amount of torque is applied during installation.
Theme park engineers are aware of this and will designate the correct torque values for each critical fastener in their production specifications. However, applying the right amount of torque isn’t something a person can do by “feel” or by eyeballing it. In order to ensure that the proper torque load is applied to a fastener, that fastener must be tightened with a tool capable of limiting the amount of torque applied—a torque tool.
Choosing Torque Tools for Roller Coaster Assembly
Roller coasters and other thrill rides are held together with large, heavy bolts. As such, the tools used to put them together must be capable of delivering high amounts of torque. At the same time, the extreme stresses the ride’s operation places on these fasteners demand a high level of precision during assembly, with narrow torque ranges and minuscule margins for error.
There are three types of torque tools which can meet these criteria: cam-over wrenches, pulse tools, and torque multipliers. Cam-over wrenches are hand wrenches, while pulse tools rely on air compressors for motive power. Torque multipliers are used for large bolting applications.
Cam-over wrenches can deliver significant amounts of torque—up to 90 lbf.ft—with absolute repeatability. These tools are built with an internal clutch mechanism which releases when the appropriate amount of torque has been reached, preventing operators from accidentally delivering too much force. It also prevents them from delivering too little force by requiring them to turn the wrench until it slips.
Pulse tools can deliver more torque than cam-over wrenches—up to 332 lbf.ft—but they are less exact. These tools use compressed air, translated through an internal hydraulic clutch, to tighten fasteners with a series of short, sharp impacts on the fastener’s head. When the right amount of torque has been delivered, resistance in the hydraulic fluid causes the clutch to slip, preventing the tool from delivering any extra torque. Since pulse tools deliver torque in intervals of force in each pulse, they are slightly less precise than the continuous application of torque provided by cam-over wrenches.
Torque multipliers are ideal for large bolting applications. These tools provide precision torque control, making it easier and often safer to tighten and service large bolts while reducing torque problems and maintenance costs. Torque multipliers can cover up to 35,845 foot-pounds
All of these tools are safe, effective, and efficient means for assembling roller coasters and other thrill rides. The combination of power and accuracy allows them to tighten large fasteners with low tolerances for failure. As such, these torque tools are required equipment for any company that manufactures roller coasters.
