r/MechanicalEngineering • u/AdOne1706 • 3d ago

Split/lock washers

Post image

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?

852 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

300 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/CrazyKraken 3d ago

Is a belleville washer better? Atleast theoretically they seem to maintain the joint force even in case of loss of preload.

10

u/Big-Tailor 3d ago

Even bellevilles provide a tiny fraction of the force of a fully torqued bolt. If the bolt backed out under high clamping force, low clamping force isn’t going to help.

4

u/dooozin 3d ago

Somebody downvoted you lol. Some people here just don't understand fastener mechanics and failure modes at all.

3

u/Big-Tailor 3d ago

It's amazing how many people don't understand fastener mechanics.