On Thu, 26 May 1994 rhamilto@fox.nstn.ns.ca wrote:
and was very gentle in response to my smart alecky comment. Originally,
he said:
> >
> >> About fifteen years ago while employed in building railway freight
> >> cars, we had a salesman demonstrate the reason to use new bolts instead of
> >> the ones removed especially where there is concern about the compression
> >
I began to think about this. Torquing a bolt presumably elongates it, and
the axial force clamps the pieces together. Details aside, I wonder if
one is really concerned about the clamping force in most automotive
applications. In other words, in automobile uses (con rods, for example),
does one torque the bolt to specs in order to generate sufficient clamping
force, or to keep the bolt from spontaneously coming loose? I would
suspect the latter.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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