What do all the different nuts do, and which type or types do you need to purchase? Let’s take a glimpse at the world of nuts.
The essential purpose of any nut is to mate with a bolt to discourage the bolt from loosening its grip against a surface. When you thread a nut onto a bolt until it sits tight against the opposite side of the surface from the bolt head, you create a kind of stress on the threads called preload, which holds both parts in position.
What is “preload”?
The tension created in a fastener when it is first tightened. The preload must be greater than the external forces applied to the assembly to prevent joint failure.
Nuts come in a wide range of sizes and shapes, though the trusty six-sided hex nut is probably most well known. Some nuts have shapes that allow for protruding bolt heads, such as the acorn nut with its hollow cap-shaped head. Wing nuts have wing-shaped handles for easy tightening by hand. Sometimes the shape of the bolt determines the shape of a nut. If you’re using a square bolt, for instance, you’d want a square nut.
Vibration can eventually loosen a bolt even if that bolt is secured by a nut. How can you forestall this problem if your structure will face constant vibration during its working life? Well, you can always place a second nut innermost to the surface. This nut receives about 50 percent of the torque of the outermost nut, which receives full torque. Another solution involves the use of a locking nut. Locking nuts have internal or external teeth that bite into the surface for extra grip.
Check out the online selection by Mr. Metric, and if you’re still going nuts finding the right item, contact Mr. Metric for help.
