When it comes to choosing fasteners, assessing the application of your bolts, nuts, and screws is crucial. What you are going to be using your fasteners for will determine what you need, and yet so many people still manage to incorrectly correlate their products.
Whether it’s choosing the wrong through bolt or the incorrect nut for your threaded screw, mistakes are easily made when you don’t take the necessary time to consider the application of the fasteners you intend to buy. Once you have nailed down their purpose, it becomes much easier to decipher which fasteners to use or receive expert advice from leading fastener suppliers.
With that in mind, we thought we should run you through some of the most common choices for nuts (where mistakes are often made) to ensure that you are choosing the correct fastener for the job.
So without further ado, let’s run through some of the most popular nut choices.
Weld Nut
One of the few nuts to be considered permanent, these fasteners are characterised by the flat sheet protruding from the surface. In almost all use cases, once in place, they are subsequently welded, hence the permanent status.
You’ll find that most weld nuts are manufactured out of low carbon steel or stainless steel, with a range of designs available. Round base and slab base weld nuts are very popular choices for a range of applications, and you can even find them in the more traditional hex and square nut configurations, with the addition of a locating boss and welding projections.
Wing Nuts
As their name suggests, wing nuts come complete with wing-like structures protruding from the surface of the body. The reason being that it makes them easier to fasten or undo by hand.
Concerning applications, they are used for fastening temporary joints that are often assembled and subsequently taken apart. Due to their nature, they aren’t suitable for long-term fastening or heavy-duty load-bearing.
Hex and Square Nuts
These nuts are perhaps the most popular design in the fastener industry. Once again, as their name suggests, they are square-shaped or hexagonal-shaped nut fasteners used in conjunction with bolts (and, in some instances, washers).
These particular nut types are so prevalent because they are used in many “day-to-day” fastening activities, such as furniture construction or electrical installation. They are also available in smaller sizes, which makes them ideal for use in tight spaces. 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).
Acorn Nuts
Going by many names such as cap nuts, crown hex nuts, or dome nuts, acorn nuts are differentiated by their domed top. One end of the nut is covered by a dome that keeps the end of a screw covered.
A typical application for these nuts is on car wheels, with many of our acorn nuts going out to customers looking to restore classic cars. It’s essential to ascertain the length of the screw that will protrude above the nut when ordering these fasteners since if it’s much higher than the total height of the dome, it will be challenging to put the nut in place.
Call Leyton Fasteners Today to Source Your Trade and Obsolete Nuts
Here at Leyton Fasteners, we’ve been supplying an almost infinite range of industrial fasteners, including all types of nuts, for more than forty years. We are market leaders in the industrial fasteners industry and provide a range of products to firms right across the UK.
Our specialisms include obsolete fasteners in various sizes and materials, and we can quickly source and deliver any fastener specification you require. So if your fastening requirements are unusual, then we are the outfit for you. Lastly, we offer next working day delivery across mainland UK, ensuring you get the fasteners you need quickly.
Call us on 0151 355 8045 or send us an email at sales@leytonfasteners.co.uk with your requirements, and a member of our team will return a quote within 24 hours. Or, if you already know what you need, you can browse through our brand new online shop.
