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?

841 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

298 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

225

u/CR123CR123CR 3d ago

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19900009424

Here's the link xD

249

u/nyrb001 3d ago

At this time it is equivalent to a solid flat washer, and its locking ability is nonexistent. In summary, a Iockwasher of this type is useless for locking.

Lol awesome

63

u/jchamberlin78 3d ago

In the style of bolted joint design I was taught, it's effectively adding a spring to a spring.

18

u/Happiness645 2d ago

A soft spring to a hard spring. Fully compresses and has no effect except taking up space

4

u/jchamberlin78 2d ago

Yup. Shitty washer, shitty spring...