In rock climbing, a nut is a metal wedge threaded on a wire and is used for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock. Quickdraws are clipped to the nut wire by the ascending climber and the rope threads through the quickdraw. Nuts come in a variety of sizes and styles, and several different brands are made by competing manufacturers. Most nuts are made of aluminum. Larger nuts may be threaded on Dyneema cord instead of wire, but this has become unusual.
A fastener or fastening is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Welding is an example of creating permanent joints. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel.
Bolted joints are one of the most common elements in construction and machine design. They consist of fasteners that capture and join other parts, and are secured with the mating of screw threads.
A set screw, also known as a blind screw or a grub screw, is a type of screw generally used as a detent to secure an object within or against another object, usually without using a nut. The most common examples are securing a pulley or gear to a shaft. Set screws are usually headless, meaning that the screw is fully threaded and has no head projecting past the thread's major diameter. If a set screw does have a head, the thread will extend all the way to the head. A set screw is almost always driven with an internal-wrenching drive, such as a hex socket (Allen), star (Torx), square socket (Robertson), or a slot. The set screw passes through a threaded hole in the outer object and is tightened against the inner object to prevent it from moving relative to the outer object. It exerts compressional or clamping force through the bottom tip that projects through the hole.
A lug nut or wheel nut is a fastener, specifically a nut, used to secure a wheel on a vehicle. Typically, lug nuts are found on automobiles, trucks (lorries), and other large vehicles using rubber tires.
A ball screw is a mechanical linear actuator that translates rotational motion to linear motion with little friction. A threaded shaft provides a helical raceway for ball bearings which act as a precision screw. As well as being able to apply or withstand high thrust loads, they can do so with minimum internal friction. They are made to close tolerances and are therefore suitable for use in situations in which high precision is necessary. The ball assembly acts as the nut while the threaded shaft is the screw. In contrast to conventional leadscrews, ballscrews tend to be rather bulky, due to the need to have a mechanism to re-circulate the balls.
A sex bolt,, is a type of fastener (nut) that has a barrel-shaped flange and protruding boss that is internally threaded. The bolts sits within the components being fastened, the flange provides the bearing surface. The sex bolt and accompanying machine screw sit flush on either side of the surfaces being fastened. It is normally chosen because of its low profile compared to other nuts. The sex bolt often has a built-in feature, such as a slot, to aid in tightening the fastener. Some sex bolts, more commonly known as "architectural bolts", have knurled barrels to allow one-sided assembly. "Binding posts" are similar to architectural bolts in that they are designed to be assembled from one side, but they have teeth on the flanged surface to keep them fixed.
The ISO metric screw thread is the most commonly used type of general-purpose screw thread worldwide. They were one of the first international standards agreed when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up in 1947.
A fitting or adapter is used in pipe systems to connect straight sections of pipe or tube, adapt to different sizes or shapes, and for other purposes such as regulating fluid flow. These fittings are used in plumbing to manipulate the conveyance of water, gas, or liquid waste in domestic or commercial environments, within a system of pipes or tubes.
A split beam nut, also known as a split hex nut or slotted beam nut, is a locknut with slots cut in the top that separate the outside end into two or more sections that are bent slightly inward, making the thread diameter undersized in the slotted portion. As the nut is threaded on, these sections are forced back out to their original position and increase the friction between the nut and the fastener, creating the locking action.
A distorted thread locknut, is a type of locknut that uses a deformed section of thread to keep the nut from loosening from vibrations or rotation of the clamped item. They are broken down into four types: elliptical offset nuts, centerlock nuts, toplock nuts and partially depitched (Philidas) nuts.
A coupling nut, also known as extension nut, is a threaded fastener for joining two male threads, most commonly a threaded rod, but also pipes. The outside of the fastener is usually a hex so a wrench can hold it. Variations include reducing coupling nuts, for joining two different size threads; sight hole coupling nuts, which have a sight hole for observing the amount of engagement; and coupling nuts with left-handed threads. These are used to make up long rod assemblies from shorter lengths of rods. The rods are threaded into the coupling nut for a certain distance. Coupling nut dimensions are described by the Industrial Fasteners Institute in standard IFI-128. It is given a plain finish. It is either cold drawn or hot rolled depending on the bar stock used. Coupling nuts threaded with two different thread sizes and profiles are called reducing coupling nuts.
An insert nut provides a threaded socket for a wooden workpiece, similar to a wall anchor. Insert nuts are inserted into a pre-drilled hole by one of two means: screw in and hammer in. In both cases, the external protrusions bite into the wood, preventing the nut from either turning or pulling out.
A T-slot nut is used with a threaded clamp to position and secure pieces being worked on in a workshop. The T-slot nut slides along a T-slot track, which is set in workbench or table for a router, drill press, or bandsaw. T-slot nuts are also used with T-slot structural framing to build a variety of industrial structures and machines.
A weld nut is a special type of nut specifically designed to be welded to another object. There are various types for different applications.
A screw and a bolt are similar types of fastener typically made of metal, and characterized by a helical ridge, known as a male thread. Screws and bolts are used to fasten materials by the engagement of the screw thread with a similar female thread in the matching part.
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, a slight stretching of the bolt, and compression of the parts to be held together.
A bolt is a form of threaded fastener with an external male thread requiring a matching pre-formed female thread such as a nut. Bolts are very closely related to screws.
A square nut is a 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. They are also much less likely to become rounded-off after repeated loosening/tightening cycles. Square nuts are typically mated with square-headed bolts. Square nuts are used along with flat washers in order to avoid damage from its sharp edges and increase the strength of the fastener. Square nuts can have standard, fine or coarse threading with platings of zinc yellow, plain, zinc clear, tin and cadmium, among others. Most can meet either the ASTM A194, ASTM A563, or ASTM F594 standard.
A centerlock wheel is a type of automobile wheel in which the wheel is fastened to the axle using a single, central nut, instead of the more common ring of 4 or 5 lug nuts or bolts.
