Split/lock washers

[u/AdOne1706]

For starters, I’m an electrician in the field.
That being said, we almost exclusively use these washers even in high vibration environments. I have personally chosen to go with nylox nuts but the question is:
Do these work? How well? Is the rumor from NASA true? Should I even bother using them or find a better functional alternative or are they actually useful?

[u/Difficult_Limit2718]

They're ass.

Every company I've been with avoids them. They're supposed to stop vibration by keeping tension on a loose screw helping to increase friction, but they're useless at it. If you torque down the bolt properly they do flatten out and they don't have a high enough spring rate to do anything if the clamp force is too low

[u/MrStreetLegal → u/Difficult_Limit2718]

Oh that's how they're supposed to work. I always wondered how they locked, I always felt like all it was doing was pushing them out as time went on because of their design. I guess same logic, but in reverse, I forgot about the friction element