How do bolt grips work?
How do bolt grips work? |
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Bolt grips work using a special “lobular design” which consists of several internal curves arranged in a slight helical pattern. This allows them to grip bolts and other fasteners in a different way to drivers such as spanners or wrenches. | |||
Lobular design |
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Spanners and wrenches have the same shape as the hexagonal fasteners they remove, which means that when turning a fastener, they end up applying pressure at the corners.
If the driver is the wrong size for the fastener, or if it slips, you can end up damaging those corners, and ruining the fastener’s hexagonal shape. |
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Bolt grips, on the other hand, apply pressure to all sides of the fastener, rather than just the corners. This allows them to turn fasteners more easily and securely, with less risk of damaging them. | |||
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The lobular design gives bolt grips three advantages over regular drivers:
1. Unlike a spanner or wrench – which can only be used with hexagonal fasteners – bolt grips can be used on a wide variety of bolts, nuts and screws. |
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2. Because they do not need to fit a fastener precisely in order to loosen it, bolt grips are able to tackle bolts or screws which have become rounded, rusted, or even covered in paint. | |||
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3. By gripping the sides rather than the corners of bolts, and by doing so via more contact points, bolt grips apply their pressure evenly, helping to prevent damage such as rounding of the bolt’s corners. | |||
Drivers |
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Once you have selected the right size bolt grips for the fastener at hand, you simply need to select a driver to turn them. Bolt grips have hexagonal flats as well as a square drive, so can be used with a range of hand and power tools.
For more information, see: How to remove bolts using bolt grips |
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