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At the heart of it, bolts and nuts are basic machines. Marry them together, tighten them, and you now have a bolted joint—a simple yet key aspect of refineries, manufacturing plants, mining, power generation, and general industry. Materials and manufacturing techniques have evolved over the years, but unfortunately one holdover from the old way of doing things still survives: measuring torque to determine accurate bolt tension.
Catastrophic joint failure is costly and dangerous, underscoring the need for accurate, consistent, and repeatable controlled bolting. Yet measuring torque to determine tension is inaccurate, indirect, and inadequate.
Instead, why not measure the actual tension generated in the bolted joint? That is the essence of load indicating fasteners; they have the built-in ability to sense and display the actual tension coming from within the fastener. The result is joints that stay within appropriate tension for longer periods without retightening, dramatic reduction in bolt failure, improved safety, and greater compatibility with scheduled maintenance programs.
Critical joints require a feature to easily check their tension throughout service life to maintain performance, enhance safety, save time, and improve uptime. Valley Forge & Bolt’s family of load indicating fasteners makes it possible to monitor bolted joints during installation, after installation, and to always know fastener tension regardless of the service interval.
ValleyForge Maxbolt
Load Indicating Fasteners
This load indicating fastener technology is available in Valley Forge products Maxbolt® and the SPC4® Load Indicating System. Each fastener measures its percentage of minimum yield on a zero to 100 scale using either a built-in meter (Maxbolt®) or quick-connect SPC4® meters and sensors (SPC4®).
Offering a variety of tension-based solutions allows facility managers and engineers to choose what works best within their plants and projects. SPC4® lends itself to use with local or remote condition monitoring and SCADA systems. Maxbolt® is perfect for applications where it is convenient to have tension displayed right on the bolt. With the new High-Temp Maxbolt®, this capability can be employed in temperatures up to 650° F for a wider range of applications and proven performance in extended high temperature run times and thermal cycling.
Valley Forge & Bolt makes it possible to measure the tension directly in the bolt. No more relying on inaccurate torque-based measurements. Accurate to within a staggering +/-5% of minimum yield of fastener (measuring only torque can be off by +/-20%), and ASTM F-2482 compliant, bolted joints with load indicating fasteners can tell you their exact percentage of load, anytime.
Why Controlled Bolting Matters
With controlled bolting, you can tighten your fasteners to the appropriate tension or clamp load for the application. For many years, the only way of measuring the elongation, or tension, in the bolt was by controlling torque. But Valley Forge & Bolt has changed the paradigm with their load indicating fasteners.
Although controlled bolting is widely associated with installation, it is just as important throughout the life cycle of the bolted joint. Once tension has been achieved at install, there is an inevitable tension loss that follows start up and continued operation. If not caught in time, refineries can experience wildly expensive machine failure and, worse, potential safety issues.
Load indicating fasteners help take the cost and complexity out of condition monitoring of critical bolted joints. The bolts are now controlled for life. Any technician at any experience level can achieve accurate, consistent, and repeatable bolting not only at installation, but throughout service life. At maintenance intervals, they will know the accurate tension in seconds, and only tighten those fasteners that need it.
The result is an unbeatable joint fastening solution that assures accurate tensioning for the service life of a fastener, increases speed of installation and maintenance, and saves labor costs—all while increasing safety and improving performance.
Valley Forge & Bolt Mfg. Co. manufactures patented bolting products for critical applications. Products are widely trusted for their unrivaled quality, extraordinary performance, and enduring reliability. Call: 1 (602) 269-5748. On the web: www.vfbolts.com.
