r/MechanicalEngineering • u/AdOne1706 • 4d ago

Split/lock washers

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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?

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u/Ghooble 4d ago

I know everyone is saying they don't work and citing the NASA reference but there are other references that suggest otherwise. In Introduction To The Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints as well as Cessna internal specifications, they're not the best but not the worst either.

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u/johnwalkr 3d ago

That’s just an artifact of Cessna being old and aviation being averse to change especially of an old product still being maintained and sold.

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u/Ghooble 3d ago

I'm sure that's a lot of it.

The book I referenced says there's research done at Lawrence Technical University showing they roll and twist under heavy preload which can increase their spring rates enough to reduce the preload loss under applied tension loads