Nut (hardware)

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An M4 nut threaded onto an Allen key socket head screw

A nut is a type of fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used in conjunction with a mating bolt to fasten multiple parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction (with slight elastic deformation), a slight stretching of the bolt, and compression of the parts to be held together.

In applications where vibration or rotation may work a nut loose, various locking mechanisms may be employed: lock washers, jam nuts, specialist adhesive thread-locking fluid such as Loctite, safety pins (split pins) or lockwire in conjunction with castellated nuts, nylon inserts (nyloc nut), or slightly oval-shaped threads.

Square nuts, as well as bolt heads, were the first shape made and used to be the most common largely because they were much easier to manufacture, especially by hand. While rare today[when?] due to the reasons stated below for the preference of hexagonal nuts, they are occasionally used in some situations when a maximum amount of torque and grip is needed for a given size: the greater length of each side allows a spanner to be applied with a larger surface area and more leverage at the nut.

The most common shape today is hexagonal, for similar reasons as the bolt head: six sides give a good granularity of angles for a tool to approach from (good in tight spots), but more (and smaller) corners would be vulnerable to being rounded off. It takes only one sixth of a rotation to obtain the next side of the hexagon and grip is optimal. However, polygons with more than six sides do not give the requisite grip and polygons with fewer than six sides take more time to be given a complete rotation. Other specialized shapes exist for certain needs, such as wingnuts for finger adjustment and captive nuts (e.g. cage nuts) for inaccessible areas.

A wide variety of nuts exists, from household hardware versions to specialized industry-specific designs that are engineered to meet various technical standards. Fasteners used in automotive, engineering, and industrial applications usually need to be tightened to a specific torque setting, using a torque wrench. Nuts are graded with strength ratings compatible with their respective bolts; for example, an ISO property class 10 nut will be able to support the bolt proof strength load of an ISO property class 10.9 bolt without stripping. Likewise, an SAE class 5 nut can support the proof load of an SAE class 5 bolt, and so on.

Nuts come in many sizes. This one is part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Types[]

Name Also known as Image Description
Acorn nut (cap nut) Crown hex nut, blind nut, cap nut, domed cap nut, or dome nut Domed cap nut.jpg A nut that has a domed end on one side
Barrel nut Steel cross dowel or dowel nut, cross dowel (woodworking) Quergewindebolzen QD-M6-7,5-13x16,2.jpg A round slug or formed sheet metal part with threads perpendicular to the length of the nut
Cage nut Caged nut, captive nut, clip nut Kafigmutter.jpg A (usually square) nut in a spring steel cage which wraps around the nut. The cage has two wings that when compressed allow the cage to be inserted into the square holes
Clip-on nut J-nut or U-nut, sheet metal nut, speed nut (ambiguously) Two spire clips.jpg Designed to be clipped to sheet metal
Coupling nut Extension nut Coupling Nut.svg A threaded fastener for joining two male threads, most commonly a threaded rod,[1][2] but also pipes
Flange nut Collar nut Serrated hex flange nut.jpg Has a wide flange at one end that acts as an integrated washer
Insert nut Rampamuffe (klein).jpg A threaded socket for a wooden workpiece, similar to a wall anchor.
Knurled nut Thumb nut Knurled nuts, Lexington MA.jpg Has a knurled outside surface which facilitates tightening by hand (thumb nut) or secures the nut into a handle or cover (insertion nut)
Sex bolt Barrel nut, barrel bolt, binding barrel, Chicago screw, post and screw or connector bolt Sleeve nuts.jpg Has a barrel-shaped flange and protruding boss that is internally threaded
Split nut Split lengthwise into two pieces (opposed halves) so that its female thread may be opened and closed over the male thread of a bolt or leadscrew
Spring nut Spring Nut.jpg Used with strut to join things to the open face thereof. The grooves in its face engage the lips of the open side of the strut channel, while the spring pushes against the opposite side, to hold the nut in place.
Square nut Square nuts from Ace Hardware, Concord MA.jpg Four-sided nut. Compared to standard hex nuts, square nuts have a greater surface in contact with the part being fastened, and therefore provide greater resistance to loosening (though also greater resistance to tightening)[citation needed]
Staked/ (for plastic)
Swage nut Self-clinching nut 17-SwageNuts.JPG Used on sheet metal. It permanently anchors itself to the sheet metal by swaging the surrounding material.
T-nut tee nut, blind nut (ambiguously) Inslagmoer.JPG Used to fasten a wood, particle or composite materials workpiece, leaving a flush surface.
T-slot nut T-groove nut CAD model of a T-Nut 1.png Used with a threaded clamp to position and secure pieces being worked on in a workshop
Wedge nut.png
Weld nut Slab base weld nut.png Designed to be welded to another object
Well nut Rawlnut or Rawl nut (proprietary) Well nut.jpg Used to blindly fasten a piece and to seal the bolt hole
Wing nut Butterfly nut Wingnut-hardware.jpg Has two large metal "wings", one on each side, so it can be easily tightened and loosened by hand without tools

Locknuts[]

Gallery[]

Standard nut sizes[]

Metric hex nuts[]

Nut quotation

Note that flat (wrench) sizes differ between industry standards. For example, wrench sizes of fastener used in Japanese built cars comply with JIS automotive standard.

Nominal hole
diameter, D (mm)
Pitch,
P (mm)
Across flats,
A/F (mm)
External
diameter;
across
corners
,
A/C (mm)
Height,
H (mm)
1st
choice
2nd
choice
Coarse Fine ISO DIN JIS Hex
nut
Jam
nut
Nylon
nut
1 0.25 2.5
1.2 0.25
1.4 0.3
1.6 0.35 3.2
1.8 0.35
2 0.4 4 1.6 1.2 -
2.5 0.45 5 2 1.6 -
3 0.5 5.5 6.4 2.4 1.8 4
3.5 0.6 6
4 0.7 7 7 7 8.1 3.2 2.2 5
5 0.8 8 8 8 9.2 4 2.7 5
6 1 0.75 10 10 10 11.5 5 3.2 6
7 1 11 5.5 3.5 -
8 1.25 1 13 13 12 15 6.5 4 8
10 1.5 1.25 or 1 16 17 14 19.6 8 5 10
12 1.75 1.5 or 1.25 18 19 17 22.1 10 6 12
14 2 1.5 21 22 19 11 7 14
16 2 1.5 24 24 22 27.7 13 8 16
18 2.5 2 or 1.5 27 27 15 9 18.5
20 2.5 2 or 1.5 30 30 30 34.6 16 10 20
22 2.5 2 or 1.5 32
24 3 2 36 41.6 19
27 3 2 41 41
30 3.5 2 46 53.1 24
33 3.5 2
36 4 3 55 63.5 29
39 4 3
42 4.5 3
45 4.5 3
48 5 3
52 5 4
56 5.5 4
60 5.5 4
64 6 4

SAE hex nuts[]

UTS
size
Nominal hole
diameter, D
Pitch, P Across flats,
A/F
Across corners,
A/C
Height, H
Coarse (UNC) Fine (UNF) Extra fine (UNEF) Hex nut Jam nut Nylon nut
(in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm) (in) (mm)
#0 532 0.1563 3.969
#1 532 0.1563 3.969
#2 0.086 2.1844 316 0.1875 4.763 5.18 1.65
#3 316 0.1875 4.763 5.10 1.85
#4 0.1120 2.8448 14 0.2500 6.35 7.05 2.25
#6 0.1380 3.5052 516 0.3125 7.938 8.95 2.85
#8 0.1640 4.1656 1132 0.3440 8.731 0.386 9.80 3.05
#10 0.1900 4.8260 38 0.3750 9.525 0.461 11.70 3.10
#12 0.2160 5.4864 716 0.4375 11.113
14 14 0.250 6.350 716 0.4375 11.113
516 516 0.3125 7.9375 12 0.5000 12.700 0.577
38 38 0.375 9.525 916 0.5620 14.288 0.650
716 716 1116 0.6750 17.463
12 12 0.500 12.70 34 0.7500 19.050 0.866
916 916 78 0.8750 22.225
58 58 1516 0.9375 23.813 1.083
34 34 0.750 1+18 1.1250 28.575 1.299
78 78 1+516 1.3125 33.338
1 1 1 25.40 1+12 1.5000 38.100 1.653

Classifications[]

Mechanical specifications of Metric/English sized nuts[2]
Material Proof strength Min. tensile yield strength Min. tensile ultimate strength Nut marking Nut class
ISO 898 (Metric)
Low or medium carbon steel 380 MPa (55 ksi) 420 MPa (61 ksi) 520 MPa (75 ksi) Nut marking Metric Class 5 8.png 5
Medium carbon steel Q&T 580 MPa (84 ksi) 640 MPa (93 ksi) 800 MPa (116 ksi) Nut marking Metric Class 8 8.png 8
Alloy steel Q&T 830 MPa (120 ksi) 940 MPa (136 ksi) 1040 MPa (151 ksi) Nut marking Metric Class 10 9.png 10
SAE J995 (English)
Low or medium carbon steel 55 ksi (379 MPa) 57 ksi (393 MPa) 74 ksi (510 MPa) Nut marking SAE Grade 2.png 2
Medium carbon steel Q&T 85 ksi (586 MPa) 92 ksi (634 MPa) 120 ksi (827 MPa) Nut marking SAE Grade 5.png 5
Alloy steel Q&T 120 ksi (827 MPa) 130 ksi (896 MPa) 150 ksi (1034 MPa) Nut marking SAE Grade 8.png 8

Manufacture[]

Use of two nuts to prevent self-loosening[]

In normal use, a nut-and-bolt joint holds together because the bolt is under a constant tensile stress called the preload. The preload pulls the nut threads against the bolt threads, and the nut face against the bearing surface, with a constant force, so that the nut cannot rotate without overcoming the friction between these surfaces. If the joint is subjected to vibration, however, the preload increases and decreases with each cycle of movement. If the minimum preload during the vibration cycle is not enough to hold the nut firmly in contact with the bolt and the bearing surface, then the nut is likely to become loose.

Specialized locking nuts exist to prevent this problem, but sometimes it is sufficient to add a second nut. For this technique to be reliable, each nut must be tightened to the correct torque. The inner nut is tightened to about a quarter to a half of the torque of the outer nut. It is then held in place by a wrench while the outer nut is tightened on top using the full torque. This arrangement causes the two nuts to push against each other, creating a tensile stress in the short section of the bolt that lies between them. Even when the main joint is vibrated, the stress between the two nuts remains constant, thus holding the nut threads in constant contact with the bolt threads and preventing self-loosening. When the joint is assembled correctly, the outer nut bears the full tension of the joint. The inner nut functions merely to add a small additional force to the outer nut and does not need to be as strong, so a thin nut (also called a jam nut) can be used.[3]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ fastenerdata.co.uk, retrieved 2019-03-08.
  2. ^ Bickford & Nassar 1998, p. 153.
  3. ^ The Use of Two Nuts to Prevent Self Loosening, Bill Eccles, Bolt Science Limited, accessed 2011-07-17

Bibliography[]

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