How to Tighten Lock Washers and Various Types of Lock Washers

Maybe you've never given much thought to the importance of lock washers, but that doesn't mean they're not important, sometimes very important. Lock washers and correct usage of them can be very important, in that, they keep whatever they're supposed to keep locked together, locked together. Things that are supposed to stay locked together with the aid of lock washers can come apart if lock washers are not used or not used correctly, quite possibly causing material damage and bodily harm or even death.

So, if you're supposed to use a lock washer to help secure a particular attachment, use it. And use the correct one or a lock washer perfectly suitable to however and whatever you're attaching or securing together. But what are some of the various types of lock washers, and is there a particular way how to tighten lock washers?

Various Types of Lock Washers

Lock washers are made many different ways. Some lock washers are made with tabs that are meant to bend over other surfaces, usually lock nuts, or meant to bend into a groove or a hole that's in whatever to which something is being held, also known as the contact surface.

Common lock washers include spring, wave, internal tooth and external tooth-both of which are also known as star or star-shaped-and then there's ribbed, split-lock, and Belleville washers, among many other lock washers.

A couple of lesser known lock washers include taper pin, ball seat & socket lock washers. New lock washers are invented all of the time, depending on the specificity and need of a secure attachment, and patents are applied for them all of the time, too.

How to Tighten Lock Washers

While this is going to sound broad and simple, as simple and broad as it sounds is as important as it is: Tighten lock washers that work on the principle of compression so that they're actually using compression; and tighten lock washers that are designed to work on the principle of interlocking, or biting into a contact surface, so that they're actually biting or interlocking with or into a contact surface.

For instance, split lock washers use both compression and interlocking as its working principles. Some circles of persons would say the two principles involved are pre-load (compression) and anti-rotation (interlocking). Either way, if a nut tries to back off, the edge on one side of the split bites into the nut; the edge on the other side of the split bites into whatever material it rests atop. This biting takes place while it puts force on the nut or bolt, holding it in place.

Some persons disagree with the use of a split lock washer for anything, such as what I found in a Physics forum . The argument is split lock washers flatten out when tightened and therefore act just like a flat washer, not a locking washer. While this is certainly possible, split lock washers are supposed to be used in applications where they won't flatten out when tightened, and where the torque involved in fastening isn't so great where the spring force or compression and bite preventing rotation of a joint stays in play. In other words, the split in the split lock washer stays split while compressing and interlocking.

Sometimes using a flat washer before you place a split lock washer and aft nut in line for attachment, one behind the other, is advisable. Sometimes it's not necessary, such as when the applied force doesn't need to be more evenly distributed by way of a flat washer, or the material isn't so soft so as to prove fit for a split lock washer. Either way, if you're supposed to use a split lock washer, tighten it so that the flat part compresses to whatever contact surface its supposed to, and the split stays split so that it also has its bite.

In short, there you have how to tighten lock washers, particularly split lock, and various types of lock washers.