Thank you Tom for your quality of service, its hard to find good help these days!

Appreciate your feedback, thank you Paul.

Thank you both for the prompt and professional service, I will be recommending your services to all our project managers.

Adam

SEM Group of Companies

Torque Wrench for the New Toyota Camry Towbar Application

Recently TWCS was contacted by a Toyota dealer asking for a 3/8" drive torque wrench with a maximum setting of 150Nm.  A 3/8" drive torque wrench is not available for that setting.

The reason this torque wrench was required is for the new model Camry towbar mounting bolts which no longer have washers and instead have a 17mm high torque bolt that has to be torqued up to 150Nm.  Due to very limited access between the chassis rail and the spare wheel well a 1/2" drive torque wrench and socket would not fit.

After visiting the dealer concerned and inspecting their requirement, we recommended that a Norbar 200TH (torque handle with 16mm spigot end refer photo) with a 17mm ring spanner end fitting would be suitable.

This torque wrench can also be used with an interchangeable ratchet head that is available, as well as a full range of other interchangeable end fittings including open end spanner ends.

If you have any questions or would like to place an order torque to Tom 0417 826 344.

The biggest killer of calibration on torque wrenches with an internal spring is operators who do not back the torque wrench setting off after use.

The best practice is to always return the setting to just under the minimum setting. This allows the spring to return to its natural free length and will help to maintain the calibration of the wrench.

Torque wrenches that are left wound up on high torque settings will generally fail calibration tests compared to ones that have been backed off. This is simply because the free length of the spring on torque wrenches that are left wound up become shorter, therefore causing calibration drop.

Want accuracy for longer? Don't be lazy, don't say you don't have enough time, just back it off, it's up to you.

A lot of people who purchase a digital torque wrench believe that they are self-calibrating and that the calibration of the wrench doesn't need to be checked.

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

When you turn on your digital torque wrench, it does a "self-check" (much like a late model motor vehicle when you start it up) to make sure the transducer and internal circuitry are ok, but it doesn't calibrate itself.

So digital torque wrenches need to have their calibration checked just like you would do with any other style of torque wrench (i.e. click type torque wrenches). This is the only way to tell if your digital torque wrench is compliant and to ensure that the torque value shown on the LCD display of the torque wrench is what the torque wrench is actually "pulling".

Digital torque wrenches do go out of calibration and are extremely sensitive to knocks and drops.

Don't be fooled by salesperson tech talk mumbo jumbo and remember that it doesn't matter if it is digital, the wrench still needs to be checked.