A Look at Safety in Manufacturing

Your products are only as good as their parts, and the parts are only as good as the manufacturers that make them. The devil's in the details, as they say. So when choosing where to buy your industrial washers, it's helpful to know all the details about those little details. You might think, "It's just a little piece of flat metal with a hole in it. It can't be that hard to choose, right?" You'd be wrong.

Flat vs. Lock

The first bit of information you need to know is the difference between a flat washer and a lock washer. A flat washer is designed to increase the surface area to provide a more even distribution of the load forces when the fastener is tightened. Flat washers can be used on any side of the fastener: the bolt side, the nut side, or both. A lock washer is designed to create tension so that the nut won't work itself loose later on, which makes them ideal in applications with a lot of vibration. Lock washers are used on the nut side only.

USS vs. SAE

Another important detail to consider is whether you need USS washers or SAE washers. That's where the distinctions and differences really begin. USS stands for United States Standard and these were some of the first washers manufactured in the U.S. These washers were designed for engineering purposes in specific industrial applications like manufacturing, maintenance, and repair. They are typically designed for use with materials that compress, like wood and thin sheets of metal. The purpose behind the design was to create a standard that met the broadest specifications of thickness, outer diameter, and inner diameter. SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers, and as the name would suggest, were developed for the automotive industry, but also for incompressible materials like steel. These washers typically have a smaller outer diameter and thinner gauges than USS washers.

Hardened Washers

Another feature you're going to need to familiarize yourself with is a hardened washer. A hardened washer is one that's typically been treated with a black heat treat oil finish and hasn't been plated. You can identify a hardened washer by some kind of marking or identifying number or letters. Many manufacturers use the letters "MC" to indicate a mill carb washer. Other private manufactures may use their own identifying marks. A hardened washer is designed to eliminate compression of the bolt head or nut into the washer when they experience load forces.