Usage of the Locknut: Making Your Locknut Tighter

We all know that locknuts are better at preventing loosening under various factors, so we don't have to check each nut from time to time. The following introduces the use of the locknut, and don't think that locknuts can be tightened and it's enough, that's not the case. The correct way to use locknuts is to give full play to the advantages of locknuts, so that the nuts that are originally anti-loose will no longer be afraid of loosening due to excessive vibration, etc., making you feel safe, secure, saving time and effort.

Friction anti-loosening generates a positive pressure that does not change with external forces between the thread pairs in order to create frictional force that can prevent relative rotation of the threaded pair. The positive pressure can be achieved by pressing the threaded pair axially or in two directions at the same time. Common friction anti-loosening methods include: using washers, self-locking nuts, and locknuts.

The spring washer is made of spring steel. After assembly, the washer is flattened and its resilience can keep the thread pair under compression and frictional force, thereby achieving anti-loose effect. The anti-loosening of the nut is achieved by using the counteracting effect of the nut to apply additional tensile and frictional forces between the bolt and the nut. Due to the use of an additional nut and the unreliability, it is now rarely used. The anti-loosening of the self-locking nut is that one end of the nut is made of non-circular taper or radial groove. After the nut is tightened, the taper or groove expands by using elastic force to press the threaded pair. This anti-loose structure is simple, reliable and can be disassembled and installed many times without reducing the anti-loose performance.

Elastic ring locknut

The elastic ring nut with anti-loosening embeds fibers or nylon at the threaded inlet to increase frictional force. This elastic ring also prevents liquid leakage. This anti-loose method is relatively easy to disassemble the nut, but in cases of shock, vibration, and changing loads, the bolt will be loosened due to relaxation, and as the number of vibrations increases, the lost pre-tension will slowly increase, eventually causing the locknut to loosen and the threaded connection to fail.

Mechanical anti-loose of locknut

This method directly restricts the relative rotation of the threaded pair with a locking device. Common mechanical anti-loosening methods include: using split pins, locking washers, and steel wire ropes in series. The anti-loose of the slotted nut and split pin is that after the slotted nut is tightened, the split pin is inserted through the small hole at the tail of the bolt and the slot of the nut, or a standard nut can be used with a drilled hole. The circular nut and locking washer make one tongue of the washer fit into the slot of the bolt (shaft) and the other tongue folded into a slot of the nut after the nut is tightened.

Series steel wire anti-loose of locknut

Low-carbon steel wire is threaded into the hole at the head of each screw, and the screws are connected in series to interact with each other. This structure needs to pay attention to the direction in which the steel wire is threaded, which makes disassembly inconvenient.

Anti-loose of locknut by edge-breaking

After the nut is tightened, the thread end is destroyed by edge-breaking; adhesive anti-loosening usually uses anaerobic adhesive to be coated on the threaded joint surface, and the adhesive can self-cure after the locknut is tightened well, achieving a good anti-loose effect. The disadvantage of this method is that the bolt can only be used once, and it is difficult to disassemble because the bolt joint must be broken.

After learning about the usage of the locknut, do you feel that the locknut around you are not tight enough? Then quickly use the methods introduced by the manufacturer of locknuts to tighten your locknut. Locknut is not perfect, but its design is perfect. However, your usage is not perfect. By understanding its characteristics, you will find that the methods introduced by the manufacturers of the locknut are actually easy to discover, scientific and reasonable. Go ahead and tighten them up.