Charts, a calculator and field guides for the people who tighten, loosen and sign off on industrial bolted joints. Written from eighteen years of refinery, pipeline, shipyard and plant work on the Gulf Coast, with the math shown and the assumptions stated.
Calculated torque values for ASTM A193 B7 studs, SAE Grade 5 and 8, and metric 8.8 and 10.9, with every assumption shown.
Read →Pick a bolt, a material and a lubricant. Get preload and torque in ft-lb and N·m, or work backward from a torque to the load it makes.
Read →Why 90% of your torque goes to friction, what K really is, typical values by lubricant, and how to measure it on your own bolts.
Read →Every way to put load in a bolt, ranked by what it controls and how much preload scatter to expect, with a framework for picking one.
Read →How hydraulic tensioning works, where it beats a torque wrench, where it doesn't, and what the stud needs for it to work at all.
Read →Cross-pattern numbering for 4 to 16 bolt flanges, the multi-pass approach in ASME PCC-1, and the prep that makes the pattern work.
Read →Square drive vs. low-profile cassette tools, how pump pressure becomes torque, sizing for break-out, reaction safety and calibration.
Read →Why banana wedges keep hurting people, how hydraulic and mechanical spreaders and aligners work, and when lineup pins are enough.
Read →An escalation ladder for frozen nuts and broken studs: penetrant and break-out torque, nut splitters, induction heat and portable EDM.
Read →Bolts that report their own clamp load: how they work, where they pay off, and how four of them can audit a whole tightening procedure.
Read →Most of this library started as a question a customer asked over the phone. If yours isn't answered here, send it. If it's worth answering once, it's worth a page.
