Torque Wrenches - Up To 400 N•m

Every workshop, garage or tyre shop has torque wrenches. Norbar’s research has highlighted several issues that are of concern to owners and operators of torque wrenches. These concerns have been addressed in the design of our wrenches. For example, in the latest model range, TTi, Norbar have put a great deal of thought and effort into achieving a wrench that is both fast and light to adjust with the clearest possible scale.

The weak point of a torque wrench is often the ratchet, particularly in high volume environments like tyre workshops.  Many manufacturers get around this by simply not fitting a ratchet, but this makes the wrench difficult to use.  All Norbar ratchets are carefully engineered to have narrow engagement angles, which are essential in confined spaces, and yet are robust and long lasting.

Torque Wrenches - Over 400 N•m

The classic Norbar torque wrench for higher torque applications in road and rail is the Industrial break back torque wrench.  Wrenches in this family range from the 500 N•m ‘3AR’ to the 2000 N•m ‘6R’.

When an operator uses a high capacity torque wrench, they will use their body weight to actuate the wrench. After the wrench has reached the set torque the operator’s momentum will inevitably apply further torque. The unique feature of the industrial wrench is that it has a 20 degree break angle.  This gives the operator time to check their momentum and eliminate over torque.  Furthermore, the design is simple and robust and with minimal maintenance is capable of many hundreds of thousands of tightening operations. Split versions are available for situations where space is limited, such as vehicle tool kits.

These features make the industrial wrench ideally suited to truck and bus tyre shops and it is one of the most popular wrenches worldwide in this application.

Another version of the industrial wrench has found great success in the rail track maintenance industry.  The 1¹¹/₁₆” bi-square wrench was produced at the request of the rail industry for torque tightening rail fishplate bolts. It eliminates the possibility of sockets or square drives being left on the railway track by integrating the 1¹¹/₁₆” socket permanently onto the end of the wrench.

Electronic Torque Wrenches – NorTronic^®

In some applications it is essential to gather data from the tightening process.  For example, on highly safety critical rail and point bolts a typical mechanical torque wrench cannot provide any data for traceability and quality control purposes.  Norbar’s NorTronic® can provide this data either wirelessly or via wired connection.  Indeed, Norbar are currently working with a track maintenance company to provide a Bluetooth version of the NorTronic® that will download tightening information to a smartphone application.

Manual Torque Multipliers - HandTorque^™

A torque multiplier is a precision-engineered gearbox that will precisely multiply the input torque by a fixed ratio, most commonly 5:1 or 25:1.  This means that a small torque wrench can be used with a multiplier to safely and accurately achieve very high torques.  As an example, the HT-52/22 multiplier will achieve 1000 N•m with a 45.5 N•m input.  A good choice of input tool would be the Professional Model 100 which, packaged with the multiplier, gives a total weight of 3 kg, less than half the weight of a typical 1,000 N•m torque wrench.

Torque multipliers can easily be carried as part of truck or rail tool kits because they eliminate the need for very large torque wrenches.  The best seller in these industries, the HT3, is even nicknamed the ‘Highwayman’, reflecting the fact that it is the perfect tool to take out on the road.  For the operator’s ease and convenience, several HandTorque® models are now supplied, packaged with the most appropriate torque wrench in a robust carry case.

Pneumatic Torque Multipliers - PneuTorque^®

The most common method of tightening the road wheel nuts on trucks and buses is to run the nuts down with an impact wrench and follow up with a torque wrench.  It is widely recognised that this method is far from perfect due to the fact that, all too often, the nut has been over tightened by the impact wrench before the torque wrench is applied. The operator is also subjected to noise and vibration levels from the impact wrench with the associated risks to health and safety. Internationally, there is an increasing amount of legislation that now obliges employers to monitor both noise and vibration in the work place and to take appropriate action to protect employees or remove the risk.

The Norbar PneuTorque® is accurate, fast, light and has very low levels of noise and vibration. The PneuTorque® is a continuously rotating pneumatic torque wrench – there is no impacting or impulsing action and therefore almost no vibration.  A typical 1000 N•m  impact wrench will reach the first action level as defined by the United Kingdom’s ‘Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005’ within a few minutes.  A Pneutorque® would not reach the first action level even if used continuously all day.  The first action level means that employers are legally obliged to introduce a programme of controls to eliminate risk or reduce exposure to vibration. For independent verification of the low vibration from PneuTorque®, see the UK Health and Safety Executive website, www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr794.pdf

PneuTorques are not just wheel bolting tools.  They have been successfully used on many transport infrastructure projects including bridge and tunnel construction and, recently, bolting together the concrete sections of a guided bus-way.

Engineer To Order Product Service

The diverse needs of the transport industry mean that Norbar’s standard products are not always suitable.  This is particularly true with regard to difficult to reach bolts.  Very often, specially designed reaction arms, nose extensions or offset gearboxes are essential.  Norbar therefore offers an Engineer to Order service that spans a range from modified reaction arms and spanner attachments through to completely one off tools.

Torque Wrench Testing

The importance of keeping your torque tools in peak calibration condition is well established.  In the garage environment, tools will often be owned by the mechanic rather than the business, so it is imperative that there is a mechanism to assure the quality of these tools.

Many businesses achieve this by using a third party calibration service.  However, it is usually more convenient to perform calibration checks in-house. Torque wrenches do not need to leave the site unnecessarily, can be checked more frequently, and can have an immediate check if a problem is suspected.  Many businesses choose to check their torque wrenches daily or before each use making an in-house torque testing facility essential.

The main reasons that more companies do not perform calibration checks on their own wrenches are the cost of testers and fears over the complexity of the testing equipment.  Norbar’s TruCheck^TM torque wrench testers remove these concerns. They are very cost effective being significantly cheaper than most similar products on the market and simpler to use.

TruCheck^TM was designed specifically with the needs of automotive and transport workshops in mind.  This is the entry level into a range of torque measurement solutions from Norbar that is amongst the best regarded in the world.

Sales Literature

07514 Transportation Industry Sales Leaflet

ETO Project Information Sheets