Nuts and bolts are often seen as trivial hardware. A joint with a design flaw – or worse, one that fails – can cause serious consequences, both in terms of worker safety and also in costly down-time.
Spontaneous bolt loosening (rotation of the fastener) caused by vibration and dynamic loads, and slackening of the joint (no rotation of the fastener) caused by settlements and relaxation are the two main reasons why bolts fail. Solutions that are currently available on the market tend to address only one of the two challenges, offering either a locking system or an elastic system to secure the bolted connection.
Critical joint design has involved trying to figure out which – spontaneous bolt loosening or slackening – will have the biggest effect on the joint, and choose a solution to handle that single problem. It is a difficult compromise to make, especially as both scenarios have the potential to result in application failure.
Nord-Lock’s goal became to design a system that eliminates customer’s insecurity when choosing a solution for loose joints, one that would be effective against dynamic loads, vibration, settlement and relaxation all together. For those situations when you cannot say with certainty whether spontaneous bolt loosening or slackening is the bigger issue, there simply can be no compromise. Always choose maximum security.
The new product, which will soon join the Nord-Lock family, offers one solution for multiple challenges of the joint design.
This evolution in bolt security is going to be unveiled during InnoTrans 2012.
The global launch will be combined with a press conference taking place on 20th September at 13:30 CET. There will also be a live global unveiling online at www.nord-lock.com
