Hydraulic Wrenches – Adding Perfection to the Process

A hydraulic wrench is purposely used to apply specified preset torque on the fasteners. As the name suggests, hydraulic power is used to apply the torque on the fasteners. Employing wrong torque on the fasteners can result in improper fit or sometimes damages the fastener. By nature, it is designed to be quite and light weight device. The amount of torque applied has to be determined accurately by the device.

Operating Instructions:

• The hydraulic wrench has to be positioned over the nut tightly.
• Reaction structure has to be inspected carefully before operation. It must be rigid enough to accommodate the torque forces.
• To prevent the non-tightening nut from turning employ backing wrenches.
• The required type of hydraulic wrench has to be selected only after estimating the amount of torque to be applied.
• Loosening bolts is not always successful. Especially, in case of a frozen or corroded nut.
• A bad nut requires large amounts of torque inputs to unfasten it. Hence, the material of the nut has to be inspected for a considerable amount of strength to accept the input torque.

Maintenance:

The torque wrench has to be inspected regularly for damages and satisfactory operation.

• The hydraulic couplings must be cleaned off from the dust materials.
• Moving parts should be lubricated with the specified lubricant by the manufacturer.
• Go over the entire length of hoses carefully. In case of cuts, abrasion or damage, it is advisable to replace the hoses with newer ones.
• Quick connect couplings should be coated with water repellent sprays.
• Calibration of the wrenches has to be done regularly.

Specifications:

The specifications of the wrench can bring out a complete picture of the device and helps one choose the perfect one for the application. The following are a few specifications:

• Torque range
• Bolt width
• Power head weight
• Work head weight
• Physical dimensions
• Specifications of the pump which involves voltage, pressure, main consumption, temperatures.

Components and Accessories:

• Body made from high strength material.
• Cylinder and link must have a flat design.
• Swivels can allow the complete rotation of the duplex hoses.
• Quick connect couplers.
• A link pin is used to connect the cassette link to the cylinder.
• Multi tooth ratchet assembly.
• A torsion free reaction while operation can be ensured by the inline reaction pad.
• Sliders are employed to reduce friction on the piston surface.

Safety Precautions:

• The maximum working pressure shouldn’t be exceeded.
• Before the operation, ensure that all connections are tightly fit.
• Any equipment shouldn’t be tightened under pressure
• While handling backing wrenches make sure that, you keep your limbs as far as possible.
• Bend hoses can lead to accidents in the work area or even lead to damage of equipment.
• Often, the operator might need a support in handling the torque wrench.

Author’s Bio: The author is an experienced service engineer who is currently working for http://www.powermaster.in/. The author takes an active part in trouble shooting, service and repairing of the products. The author also aims at developing service technical documentation.

Various types of bolting tools used in different industries

When you are working in an industry, you must know that use of proper tools for a particular task is necessary for better and enhanced functioning of an industry. Proper use of right type of tools not only ensures better quality of work, but also increases the efficiency and productivity of the workers due to less time taken for a task. One such task is bolting, which is performed in almost every industry on daily basis. If the bolting is not done properly or efficiently, it will not only decrease the quality of the products, but will also decrease the level of safety at work place. In order to maintain the best levels of safety at workplace, you must keep in mind that bolting is a basic operation that must be performed in an efficient manner using proper tools and equipment. Here are some of the industrial tools that are used in industries for efficient bolting operations.

Open end wrenches

Open end wrenches are simple wrenches with a U shaped opening at both ends. These U shaped openings are of different sizes; hence a single wrench can be used on two different sizes of nut heads. The openings are inclined at an angle of 37⁰ with the shaft, which allows easy working of the wrench.

Impact wrenches

Impact wrenches are high speed and high power wrenches used by most of industries for bolting operations in which you need very high power. The impact wrenches use a very high power impact on the studs and fasteners to loosen or tighten the bolts. The impact wrenches are used along with specially designed impact sockets, as normal sockets cannot bear the heavy impacts on them. The normal sockets are made from malleable steel, which can easily deform or shatter after some time. This can also be a safety threat as the debris from the shattered sockets can cause serious injuries. Due to this reason, specially designed high speed steel impact sockets are used in impact wrenches to avoid any type of deformation and to ensure long time use.

Torque wrenches

Torque wrenches are the most used types of wrenches in the industries as they provide you the best efficiency and a very quite operation. The torque wrenches are provided with a digital or analogue metre, which gives you exact reading of the force that you have applied on a fastener. This will allow you to decide when you must stop applying the force to avoid over tightening. Hydraulic torque wrenches are the most efficient and most preferred wrenches for the operation that need very high accuracy.

Nut splitters

Nut splitters are the tools that are used for moving jammed nuts. Moving a jammed nut by hammering is not safe as it can damage the assembly also. Additionally, hammering produces sparks and can cause accidents. For that reason, nut splitter is the safest way to move a jammed nut, which is used in most of the industry.

Different types of wrenches used in industries

In any industry, one task is done on very frequent basis and that is bolting. Bolting is done to fasten two different parts of a machine or a product using nuts, bolts, fasteners, and studs. It is important that the bolting is done in a better and efficient way for quality and safety purpose. Bad quality of bolting operations leads to bad quality of products and also possesses great dangers in industries. In order to perform bolting in a better way, proper tools must be used. The most appropriate tools used for bolting purposes are the wrenches. There are different types of wrenches used for different types of studs and fasteners. Here are some of them, which are widely used in industries.

Open end wrenches

These wrenches have a u shaped opening at both the ends, which are used to hold the bolt head or the nut. They usually have a three point contact. At the both the ends, the openings are of different size and are at an angle with the shaft, which provides easy hold and better grip on the wrench. Although due to three point contact, there are great chances of slipping the wrench and damaging the bolt head.

Variable wrench

This type of wrench is a variable type of wrench and is used on fasteners of different sizes. In this way, you need only one wrench to work on different nuts and bolts with varying size, which makes it a multipurpose tool. Although, if the size of the wrench is not adjusted properly, it can cause the wrench to slip and can damage the bolt head.

Impact wrench

Impact wrench is a special wrench, which is extensively used in industries for the operations where you need very high power. These wrenches use a very high impact force to tighten or loosen the fasteners. The impact wrenches are used along with specially designed impact sockets as they can withstand much greater forces as compared to ordinary sockets and are safe to use with impact wrenches.

Torque wrenches

Torque wrench is another special industrial wrench, which uses a radial force to turn the fasteners in order to tighten or loosen them. Torque wrenches are the most powerful and most accurate wrenches of all. They provide you exact measurement of force that is being applied on a fastener. In this way, you can stop applying torque when the desired amount is reached. Hydraulic torque wrenches are the most extensively used in the industries for their silent and accurate operation.

Pipe wrenches

These wrenches are used for fastening or loosening the pipe fitting and pipelines. These are used mostly in water industry, oil and gas industry and almost every industry where fluids are involved. The size of pipe wrenches is also variable and can be adjusted for a wide range of sizes of pipes and pipe fittings.

Different types of wrenches used in various industries

Wrenches are the basic tools used in most of the industries on a regular basis. For efficient bolting, wrenches are important tool as better bolting is necessary for better quality and better safety assurance in industries hence wrenches are significant tools for any industry. There are many different types of wrenches used in industries that can be used for different type of bolts, nuts, studs and fastener. Here are some of the most used wrenches in industries and also in household.

 

Open end wrenches

The open end wrenches are the wrenches that have holders at both ends. The holders are inclined at a certain angle to the middle crank to facilitate better grip while using the wrench. The both ends have different sizes of holders; hence nuts with two different head size can be fastened or tightened with the help of an open end wrench.

Impact wrench

Impact wrenches are the wrenches mostly used in the areas where you need high power, but not very high degree of accuracy. The impact wrenches utilise a very high impact forces for giving rotation to the fasteners, thus are very noisy. There is no means of determining the amount of force applied on the wrench, therefore they are not very accurate. The impact wrenches are used along with special sockets as normal sockets cannot survive the high impact force applied on them. For this reason, sockets made from high speed steel are used as they cannot deform and shatter under the influence of very high impact forces, which make them ideal for use with impact wrenches. The impact wrenches are available in three different variants that are electric impact wrenches, pneumatic impact wrenches and hydraulic impact wrenches.

Torque wrenches

When you want a very precise and silent bolting operation, you can use torque wrench as they provide a means of measuring and determining the amount of force that you have applied on a fastener during the operation. This helps you in deciding when you should stop the application of force. The torque wrenches are provided with digital or analogue displays that provide you accurate information about the amount of force applied on the fastener. This avoids any damage to the fastener head as you would never over-tighten the fastener.

The torque wrenches can also be per-programmed for a certain value of torque to be applied so that they can automatically stop when the desired amount is reached. The torque wrenches are also available in several variants namely simple torque wrench, pneumatic torque wrench and hydraulic torque wrench. Out of all, the hydraulic torque wrenches are the most accurate ones as they provide you exact reading of the force that you have applied on the studs or fasteners.

Out of these wrenches available in the market, you can choose the best wrench that suits you budget and type of operation for better accuracy and efficiency.

Torque wrenches- Making your operations faster and precise

Having loose nuts or fasteners in your machine can be very dangerous, but if you tighten them with excess amount of force, you might damage its head or you have to struggle a lot when you try to loosen it next time. Hence for a perfectly tightened nut or fastener, open end wrenches or an impact wrench will not be appropriate. For that, you need a torque wrench.

A torque wrench is a device that is used widely in many industries such as automobiles, manufacturing plants, assembly lines, etc. Torque wrenches are preferred over other types of wrenches due to the fact that they are very efficient and give you a very precise operation. Other types of wrenches do not provide such accuracy in operation. Most of the wrenches are not provided with a means of reading the amount of force that is applied to fastener, but the torque wrenches are provided with an analogue or digital meter display, which tells you about the amount of force that you have applied on a particular fastener. This tells you when to stop applying the force and thus saves the nuts head from breaking.

There are, basically, three types of torque wrenches that are available in the market that are simple torque wrench, pneumatic wrench and hydraulic torque wrench.

Simple torque wrench

Simple torque wrenches are simple wrenches provided with an analogue meter where you can determine the amount of force you are applying on the nut. The analogue meter needs to be calibrated regularly as with the long usage, it might start giving wrong readings. There are also simple torque wrenches available, which can be programmed for a predetermined amount of force. Once that level of force is achieved, it produces a click sound, which tells you to stop the application if force.

Pneumatic torque wrench

Pneumatic torque wrench uses compressed air as a source of power for application of torque. It is provided with a digital display, which keeps telling about the amount of torque applied. The pneumatic torque wrenches are very noisy and are not suitable for places where you need silent operations. They are also not very accurate as compared to hydraulic wrenches.

Hydraulic torque wrenches

Hydraulic torque wrenches, the most accurate versions of torque wrenches, are provided with an electronic panel and a digital display. These digital display screens provide you the most accurate readings of the force you are applying on the fastener. Additionally, these wrenches are programmable so that you could feed the wrench with a predetermined value of torque to be applied so that when that value of torque is achieved, it automatically stops applying the torque and avoids over-tightening of the fastener. The best feature of hydraulic toque wrench is that they are very silent in operation and are best for places where you want the highest degree of accuracy and least amount of noise.

Importance of bolting tools in industries

Bolting is a primary operation carried out in most of the industries regularly. Proper bolting is necessary for fastening bolts and nuts on various fixtures and machine parts. It is important that bolting is done in a proper way to ensure better strength and quality of the products. In order to do perform proper bolting, essential bolting tools are necessary. Major bolting tools that are used in industries include wrenches, sockets, nut splitters, etc.

Let us discuss these tools in details.

Wrenches

Wrenches are the basic tools that are used in industries for tightening and loosening of bolts, studs and fasteners. Wrenches are, basically, classified into two types, one is impact wrench and other is torque wrench. Both are use for different operations and have their own pros and cons.

Impact wrenches

Impact wrenches are those wrenches, which use a very high striking force to give the fasteners and nuts a rotational motion. This rotational motion causes the fasteners to tighten or loosen. The impact wrenches exert a heavy force on the nut, and then, stops it suddenly causing a heavy impact on the fasteners. Due to this, they are termed as impact wrenches.

Impact wrenches are used with special sockets that are made from high speed heavy duty carbon steel. Normal sockets cannot be used with an impact wrench as they cannot bear the heavy impact exerted on them during operation. They can easily deform and even shatter in pieces in very less time. The carbon steel sockets are designed to withstand the high impact and can be used for a long time without any deformation.

Impact wrenches are available in the market in three different variants, which are electric impact wrenches, hydraulic impact wrenches, and pneumatic impact wrenches.

Torque Wrenches

Impact wrenches are good for bolting operations, but they cannot be used for operations where we need high precision and accuracy. For those operations, torque wrenches are used. The torque wrenches are available with a meter with the help of which you can easily determine the amount of force applied on the fastener and can stop the application of force when not needed. The torque wrenches apply a radial force on the fasteners to give it a rotational motion.

The torque wrenches are also available in three different variants namely simple, pneumatic and hydraulic torque wrenches. Among all of them, the hydraulic torque wrenches are the most accurate and have a very quite operation and are mostly used for the operations where you need very high degree of accuracy and a quite working.

Nut splitters

Removing jammed nuts is a big problem during bolting operations. When a jammed nut is not loosened using wrenches, hammering is used to remove it but it can damage the assembly too. Also, hammering produces sparks that could be dangerous in some environments such as gas pipelines. For this, nut splitters are used. A nut splitter can easily remove a jammed nut without causing any damage to the assembly and is safe to use in any environment.

Buy best torque wrench for perfect bolting operations

A wrench is a must have tool for anybody who wishes to do small repairs regularly in his car. If you are also an owner of a car, then you must know importance of a wrench when you have to make some small repairs for which you cannot afford to go to a professional. Most of the people prefer to use torque wrenches as their first choice. It is due to the reason that torque wrenches are more efficient and accurate than any other type of wrench. If you don’t have a set of torque wrench, you must buy one as you regularly need to do small tasks for your car such as tightening or loosening of nuts and bolts.

It is essential to buy carefully in case of torque wrenches as buying a wrong wrench can do more harm than good. Before you decide to buy the most expensive or the cheapest available torque wrench in the market, you must consider the following tips so that you could buy the best one for you.

Find an accurate Wrench

Accuracy is the first desired attribute of any torque wrench. Most of the people use it only for its high degree of accuracy. If you compromise with accuracy, you will never perform a bolting operation on your car perfectly. You should buy a torque wrench that has an accuracy rating of more than ±5%. You can even find a set to wrench, which has a better rating of up to ±2% but they are bit expensive.

Choose quality over fancy designs

You can find yourself attracted towards the gadgets and fancy designs like LED Indicator or digital readout. Well, they are good to have on a torque wrench, but if you have to compromise with the quality and accuracy for these fancy features, you should go for a simple wrench with a better quality rather than buying a less competent wrench with better features and designs.

How much you use it?

The frequency of use of the wrench is also an important point to consider while buying a torque wrench. Although a good quality torque wrench would be able to serve you for enough length of time, but still knowing how often you use the wrench will help you to determine the quality of the product you want to buy. If you use your wrench frequently, it is advisable to go for professional models, but if the use of torque is limited to some domestic tasks, then you should go for less expensive and basic models.

Buy Branded

Buying branded tools and equipments assures that the product is of the best quality and accuracy and it will serve you for a long time. If you choose to buy a torque wrench from a local manufacturer, you will suffer in the future due to inaccurate operations and bad quality of the products.

Wrenches- An Essential Tool for Industrial Bolting Operations

Operations in industries are very complicated and need a high degree of accuracy and precision to do it well. For performing various tasks and operations, workers in various industries use different types of tools and equipments. There are basically two types of tools used in industries, one is fixed tools and the other one is portable type tools. The fixed tools are fixed in one section of the industry and cannot be moved easily due to their heavy weight and big size. On the other hand, the portable tools are easy to move and can be taken to any part of the industry.

One of the most widely used portable tools in the industries is wrench. Wrenches are the tools that are used to perform bolting operations in any industry such as tightening and loosening of bolts, studs and fasteners.

Wrenches are basically classified into two types- impact wrenches and torque wrenches. Both have their own functions and features.

 

Impact wrenches

As the name suggests, the impact wrenches use a high impact force to give motion to the fastener resulting in a circular motion, which further leads to tightening or loosening of bolts. The impact wrenches are used along with specially designed impact sockets, which are made up of materials like carbon steel with high durability and high tensile strength. Without special impact sockets, it is very difficult to work with impact wrenches because the normal sockets do not last very long under such high impacts and forces applied in them.

The impact wrenches are available in three different types- electrical impact wrenches, pneumatic impact wrenches and hydraulic impact wrenches. The electrical impact wrenches have an electric motor connected to them, which delivers power to the wrench. The pneumatic uses pressurise air for generating power whereas the hydraulic wrenches use pressurised fluid for power generation during the operation of the wrench.

Torque wrenches

The torque wrenches are used for operations those need very high degree of accuracy and precision. The basic difference between impact wrenches and torque wrenches is that you can measure the amount of force applied through the torque wrenches, which make it easier to determine when to stop applying forces. The torque wrenches have a meter attached to the wrench, which provides information about the force applied through the wrench.

The simple torque wrenches have a simple analogue meter attached to them, which gives you reading of the force applied. The analogue meter needs regular calibration, as with prolonged use, the meter might start giving false readings.

The hydraulic torque wrenches and pneumatic torque wrenches have digital meters attached to them and give you the most accurate information. The pneumatic wrenches are a bit noisy, and hence, they are not suitable for silent operations, but the hydraulic torque wrenches are very silent and can work without making much noise, and hence, they are very useful for the places where you do not want any noise during operation.

An overview of industrial tools used by workers in industries

Every industry relies on tools for their daily works and operations. Most of the operations that are performed by the workers are done with the help of some tools. These tools are the best friends of any worker working in an industry. They make his work easier, faster and accurate.

The industrial tools include a vast range of tools ranging from fixed tools to portable or handheld tools. The fixed tools are the one that are placed in a section of industry and cannot be moved to other areas of the industry for further works. They are meant to do the heavy works such as punching metal, cutting metals, lifting heavy metal goods, etc. On the other hand, the handheld tools are meant to do the lighter operations requiring much less amount of force such as drilling, welding, fastening and loosening, filing, grinding, etc. The handheld tools can easily be transported or carried in hand by the workers from one part of industry to another.

Here is a list of handheld tools that are widely used in most of the industries all around the world.
Surface grinders

A surface grinder is used for creating a very smooth and textured surface so that a good look could be given to the finished product. A good mirror finish indicates the high quality of the product. The surface grinder files the topmost layer of the metal out of it so that there is a mirror finish obtained. Another version of surface grinder is an angle grinder. An angle grinder is used for cutting iron rods, t-iron bars and steel angles. They are very useful for the industries where it is not possible to take the iron bars and angles to the heavy cutting machine.

Drilling machines

You can find both fixed drills and portable drilling machines in the industries. The portable drilling machines are used to make holes in the areas where the fixed drill cannot reach such as walls or particular machine in another area of company. You can make holes of varying diameters using a portable drilling machine with a great precision. The drill bits of the drill machines are especially designed for bearing the high impacts of the forces that are exerted on them during the process of drilling.

Wrenches

Wrenches are important tools that are used in industrial plants for loosening or tightening of fasteners. Wrenches are available in two variants basically. One is impact wrench and the other one is torque wrench. The impact wrench is less accurate than the torque wrench, as, in torque wrench, you can easily measure the amount of force applied, and you can also control the force applied. The torque wrenches come in several types such as simple torque wrench, hydraulic torque wrench and pneumatic torque wrench. Out of all, the hydraulic torque wrenches give you most accurate operations, and they are very silent in operations, hence do not create a noisy environment while operating.

Wrenches-making the bolting tasks easier in industries

Industries have been depending on handheld tools for many tasks and operations. Without these handheld tools, it would be impossible to do work in such a fast pace and with such a great accuracy. The industrial tools make the work of a worker in an industry easier, faster, and more precise.

One category of these tools is wrenches. Wrenches are used for performing the task of tightening and loosening of bolts, nuts, and fasteners. These wrenches make it very easy and fast to do this for a worker.

The wrenches are basically classified in to two categories. One is torque wrenches and other is impact wrenches.

Impact wrenches

As the name suggests, impact wrenches use a sudden impact of force to be applied on the fastener to be tightened or loosened. The impact wrench applies a wave of force on the fastener, and then suddenly stops the force. This sudden stoppage of force results in a jerk or impact on the fastener, and it is tightened or loosened according to the operation desired. The sockets that are used in impact wrenches are specially designed to work with them. They are manufactured with heavy duty material with high tensile strength so that they could withstand such great amount of pressure for a long time. An ordinary socket cannot last very long with the impact wrenches.

Torque wrenches

The torque wrenches use a torque that is basically a radial force that is applied around the axis of a fastener, which results in circular motion of the fastener, and hence leads to tightening and loosening of the fastener. The basic difference between the torque wrenches and impact wrenches is that, in torque wrenches, you can measure and control the torque applied whereas, in impact wrenches, you do not have any control on the force applied. This sometimes results in over-tightening of the bolts and fasteners. In case of torque wrenches, you have a meter mounted on the wrench, which tells you about the amount of the force applied through the wrench. This helps you in controlling the force, and hence you can avoid over-tightening and cracking of the fastener.

Torque wrenches come in three types basically named simple torque wrench, hydraulic torque wrench, and pneumatic torque wrench. The simple torque wrench has a simple analogue meter mounted on it, which gives you the reading of the force applied. With continuous use, the meter of a simple torque wrench may give you false readings; hence you need to calibrate it from time to time. The hydraulic torque wrenches use hydraulic force of the fluids to produce large amounts of torques. These wrenches are used for very quite operations and are very precise. They often come with a digital meter mounted on them, which is very easy to read. The third type of torque wrench is pneumatic torque wrench. They are also very precise, but they produce heavy noise, and hence are not suitable for quite operations.