There has been an electronic torque wrench in service for a long time. I had
one on loan from my friends in the Ford fastener lab back in 94/95 when I was
taking some big steps in power and was worried about cylinder head sealing.
SPS makes the wrench that was very costly. (4 or 5 K) but very accurate, and
had visual and audio, as well as computer links to enable data gathering
relative. I used it a lot and found both at home and on the salt and found it
to be quite helpful, but not really $4,000 worth for me and returned it when
asked. The audio signal was great and if some new tool can do that I'll jump
on it.
So, the technology has been around for a long time, just not affordable. It is
interesting the affordability of this new device and maybe we can see more
applications soon.
I can see this new device as a way to calibrate our other torque wrenches. I
have been using an old dial indicator wrench to do that and fear the accuracy
sucks but I guess it beats doing nothing.
Rick
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