As the UK lead delegate for the ISO TC29 SC10 technical committee, I have the honour to represent the UK in drafting standards for tightening tools. The meetings are hosted by different national delegates each time and last week the meeting was in New York, with delegates from seven countries.
 

One of our key standards is ISO 6789. This torque wrench standard is now 12 years old and the new standard being developed will continue to specify requirements for design, manufacture and calibration. Overall, the main purpose of our work is to improve the performance of torque wrenches and to ensure consistent calibration results from different laboratories.

There are two significant changes this time. One is to separate the calibration requirements into Part 2, leaving the design and manufacturing requirements in Part 1. The second is to provide a method for calibrating the measurement device used to calibrate the torque wrench. In the UK we have a perfectly good standard in BS7882, but other countries are not so fortunate. We are getting close to the final draft and hope that the standard will be published mid-2016. Now that we are starting to get closer, I will be providing a commentary from time to time so that you are already well informed when the new standard comes into force.

Neill Brodey

Managing Director