Bolting company celebrates 25 years of tension…and torquing

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Excerpt: Heading into 2012, Aztec celebrates its 25thanniversary of providing quality tooling.  The company is investing full force into the future through the expansion and addition to their headquarters and ISO 17025 accreditation. After completing a recent expansion to the headquarters in League C …

Bolting 101

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Excerpt: Most bolts in a wind turbine are manufactured to OEM specs. OEMs also provide a torque value which the construction crew must apply to each bolt for a required level of tension. But because torque does not always correlate to tension, bolt manufacturers have devised a range of devices to more accura …

Bolting 101

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Most bolts in a wind turbine are manufactured to OEM specs. The OEM also provides a torque value which the construction crew must apply to each bolt for a required level of tension. But because torque does not always correlate to bolt tension, bolt manufacturers have devised a range of devices for i …

Prestressed ground anchors allow smaller foundations

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Excerpt: All successful wind projects begin with strong foundations. Larger wind turbines naturally call for taller towers and larger foundations that consume enormous amounts of concrete and rebar. To handle variations in wind turbines, the current state of practice includes spread-footing foundations, …

These fasteners cut costs and more

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Excerpt: A recent brochure from Spirol Corp. covers many uses for coiled spring pins and the company’s many other specialty fasteners. The pins use a 2¼ coil cross-section to make them self-retaining pins that compress when installed into a host component. The manufacturer says they are the only pins with …

Tough tubing tasks made much easier

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Excerpt: The light, portable TurnPro tool can automatically assemble two ferrules and a high-purity-tube fitting to manufacturer recommendations. The tool is easy to handle because controls in the power house (motor body) accurately measure 1.25 turns from “finger tight” and then shut the motor off. The …

Pinned joints assemble tubular transmission poles faster

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Excerpt: The arms on tubular steel transmission poles typically attach using as many as 16 bolts. It takes a small crew about a half an hour to get an arm in place, attach all of those bolts and nuts, and then tighten to specifications. Engineers at Thomas & Betts developed a connection using a pinned jo …

Clever bolt tells when it’s tensioned

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Excerpt: The wind industry recognizes the importance of proper bolt tension. The acknowledgement will challenge some of the industry’s torque-tightening practices as it matures and adopts more sophisticated technology to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. To start, let’s review curr …

User-friendly fittings

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Excerpt: A supplier of hydraulic fittings and adapters offer a line of double ferrule instrumentation-grade tube fittings that are interchangeable, intermixable, an traceably stamped. Brennan Industries Inc. says its double-ferrule, instrumentation-grade fittings feature interchangeable nut and ferrul …

May I see the Calibration Certificate for your Torque Wrench?

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Excerpt: Many companies make the same mistake every year assuming their torque tools are accurate and in working order. They also assume factory torque charts are correct and a certified gauge ensures tool accuracy. It’s a hazardous assumption because calibrated power tools frequently are not performin …