Metal fasteners include lock nuts, washers, screws, eye bolts, and countless other types of fasteners, and these essential items can come in metric or imperial sizes. If you work in a U.S. facility, you may be accustomed to using imperial measurements, but for some equipment, you may need metric fasteners.
Not used to working with metric? Looking for help? To ensure you choose the right fasteners for your needs, keep these tips in mind.
1. Look at the Owner's Manual
In a lot of cases, the owner's manual for your equipment may have details on the types and sizes of fasteners you need. If you don't have a paper copy of your owner's manual, consider checking on the manufacturer's website. Many companies post pdf copies of manuals online.
2. Find the Original Metric Hardware
In lieu of the owner's manual, you may want to see if you can find the original metric hardware. For instance, if you are missing a fastener on one side of your equipment, it may have the same size fastener in another area.
3. Talk With a Service Technician
Sometimes the people who service your equipment may be able to help you narrow in on the right size of metric fasteners that you need. They may have this knowledge from servicing your machinery, or they may simply be familiar with the fasteners needed by similar types of machines.
4. Convert Imperial to Metric
In some situations, you may have imperial fasteners in your equipment. They may have been put in during a factory install, placed there by a repair person, or used for another reason. In this situation, you may want to convert the imperial measurements to metric.
Keep in mind that the measurements may not match up exactly. For instance, if you convert an imperial measurement to metric, but then, you realize that there are no metric fasteners with that exact measurement. In that situation, you may want to order the two metric fasteners that are closest to the size you need.
Typically, this means ordering one fastener that is slightly smaller than the imperial one and another that is slightly larger. If your equipment requires metric fasteners and the imperial one doesn't fit tightly, one of the new fasteners should be able to do the job.
5. Consider Compatibility With Your Tools
Do you know which tools you are going to use to install the hardware? Then, you may want to choose a fastener that is compatible with that tool. Metric fasteners should correspond to the sizes of your metric tools.
Contact a company like Jackson Bolt & Screw, Inc. to learn more.
Share30 April 2020
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