There have been a number of posts on this blog which touch upon the need for accurate torque measurement with a specific reference to the motor industry. However, it was after running a workshop for the IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) last month, when I realised that perhaps a little more detail surrounding the relationship between the professional torque wrench and the modern day automotive technician was required.

I don’t know if any of you read my colleagues recent blog about a torque wrench that has lasted 40 years and is still going? It can be found here if you haven’t had the chance yet, but in short, the story was about a customer who purchased a torque wrench 40 years ago and still has it in working order and excellent condition. Really, this sums up the first point I want to make – that a professional torque wrench is the automotive technician’s best friend at work and will be for a long period of time. If well looked after, the torque wrench will perform and measure torque accurately for a long working life!

Now, within the motor industry, manufacturers are continually expected to innovate to increase the quality and longevity of their products. More specifically for Norbar, high pressures and ever changing gasket design in engines demands more accuracy in bolt tightening.  This is why our range of wrenches and TrukTorque (air driven torque multipliers) target wheel nut accuracy, traceability and health and safety issues – so as to ensure that manufacturer’s specifications are met.

Further to this, we also support the IMI in training young apprentices to appreciate the need for accurate torque measurement. Ultimately, accurate bolt tightening is essential to all areas of mechanical engineering which is why a torque wrench really is an essential piece of kit for all automotive technicians.

Colin Sinclair, Norbar Torque Tools 

Based on a land area of just 712 sq.km and almost total lack of natural resources, the city-state of Singapore looks unlikely to be the world’s 40^th biggest economy by GDP, just ahead of countries like Greece, Peru and Vietnam (source CIA World Factbook).  However, recognising this lack of physical and natural resources, the Government of Singapore has adopted a pro-business, pro-foreign investment and export orientated economic policy framework.  Also, Singapore enjoys a strategic location on major sea lanes and air routes which has given it an economic importance in South East Asia disproportionate to its size.  The port of Singapore is the second busiest in the world for containerised traffic and 48% of sales to other countries are re-exports (source: US Department of State – Background Notes, Singapore).

In addition to the potential of Singapore as a hub for the movement of goods, there is significant industry within the city-state, much of which is of direct interest to Norbar.  Manufacturers of valves and other hardware for the petrochemical industry are well represented as well as aircraft repair and maintenance, machinery manufacture, defence contractors and chemicals.

We originally opened our own office and laboratory in Singapore in 2004.  At the time we had just two members of staff, a laboratory manager and an office administrator.  The laboratory soon achieved accreditation by the Government body, SAC-SINGLAS, becoming Norbar’s fourth accredited torque laboratory in the world following the UK, Australia and USA.

Our Singapore company has now grown to eight people including a Branch Manager and administration staff, sales, laboratory and service and repair staff.  We have had to grow our stock to service the needs of the 25 distributors and six countries (Malaysia,Indonesia,Thailand,Vietnam,Philippines andBrunei) that we service from theSingapore facility.  Unsurprisingly, this has put great pressure on space in our facility and for the last few months we have been seeking new premises.

We are now very pleased to report that we will be re-locating in June to a premises that has approximately four times the floor space.  This will allow us a larger laboratory, workshop, new training facility and more office space to accommodate the growing staff.  This is a big commitment from Norbar to Singapore and the region and indicates the level of confidence that we have in our business there.

Our expansion in Singapore follows the opening of Norbar in India and expansions taking place in the UK, USA and China. Norbar’s 70^th anniversary year is turning out to be a significant and exciting one!

By Leigh Packer, Managing Director, Norbar Torque Tools Pty Ltd (Australia)

The two key themes on the first 2 days of OTC Houston this year are relevant across all industry sectors, not just the offshore technology and deep sea field. Certainly, anyone working in manufacturing will tell you that safety and the environment are core concerns. But one thing I can say from my time at this exhibition is that innovation in the offshore technology sector is being driven by safety and the environment.

When it comes to torque (and this reflects many of the conversations we’ve had so far at the show) customers want accuracy, repeatability, reliability and back up. Norbar’s 70 years of experience in torque, coupled with a global presence, makes us the ideal partner for international companies. Furthermore, with accredited calibration labs and factory-trained service departments across the globe we offer great support.

If you’re attending OTC Houston and have a specific interest in how we can help you provide a safer environment visit us in booth 3969 and we’ll talk torque. If you aren’t attending but still want to get in touch then send us a tweet or make an Inqury.

By Sam Ortolani, Norbar Torque Tools Inc

Picking up were part one left off, another Dr. Merritt design was the ‘Slimline’ torque wrench mechanism. Prior to the ‘Slimline’, all Norbar torque wrenches used an external, break-back mechanism. The ‘Slimline’ was the first Norbar design to completely contain the mechanism within the body tube of the wrench, hence the ‘Slim’ reference. The ‘Slimline’ torque wrench was launched in 1963 and some models remain in production today. Variations in this mechanism underpin most of Norbar’s current torque wrenches.

Norbar has manufactured torque testers for almost as long as they have manufactured wrenches. The earliest types employed a simple spring balance attached to a pivoted bar. The next evolution was to utilise a hydraulic cell and hydraulically activated gauge. The ‘Static Torque Meter’ was much more compact than the earlier versions and were easier to use because this system avoided the needle fluctuations of the spring balance type. This product enjoyed a near 50 year life span before finally being rendered obsolete by electronic measurement methods. The first reference to a Norbar electronic torque analyser is dated 1967. The display unit, incorporating an analogue gauge similar to a Voltmeter, was attached by a cable to a separate, strain gauged torque transducer. Forty five years later, this essentially remains the method of measuring torque although the electronics are now based on single-board computer technology with such features as colour display and touch sensitive screen.

1969 was a landmark year and saw the company’s first address change bringing with it the official change in name from ‘The North Bar Tool Company’ to ‘Norbar’ (which had previously been used as a telegraphic address). The new premises on Swan Close, Banbury, were originally 9,000 sq.ft but were extended twice before being outgrown and Norbar moved again to Beaumont Road, Banbury in 1984. A major extension to this site in 1989 took the floor area to 45,000 sq.ft and further extensions and mezzanine work give a current day total of 52,000 sq.ft of production and office space.

In November 1989, Norbar became the first torque tool manufacturer in the United Kingdom to have a torque laboratory accredited by the governmental, third party body ‘NAMAS’ (National Measurement Accreditation Service). In 1995 the non-profit distributing private company UKAS or United Kingdom Accreditation Service was formed and took over this accreditation role. Norbar’s laboratory, number 0256, has an accredited calibration scope from 0.005 Nּm to 108,500 Nּm. We recently blogged on our calibration laboratory here.

Since 1996 Norbar has been establishing overseas offices for the purpose of product distribution and service. Norbar Torque Tools Pty. Ltd in Australia was the first and was then followed by the United States, New Zealand, Singapore and China. On 1 January 2012, Norbar’s wholly owned trading and service company opened for business in Mumbai, India. The companies in Australia, USA, Singapore and China each have a calibration laboratory with a similar scope of ability to the UKAS accredited laboratory in the United Kingdom. Each of these laboratories has accreditation by a local third party body; NATA in the case of Australia, NVLAP for USA, SAC-SINGLAS for Singapore and TAF for China.

And this concludes our potted history so far, the rest they say is history.

By Neil Brodey, Managing Director of Norbar Torque

For the many of you who probably don’t know, Norbar is a family owned and run business. Whilst in 2012 we have quite the global reach, we did have more humble beginnings. How does that phrase go again? “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been”? Well, here’s a potted history of our life so far…

In 1942, at the height of World War 2, Bill Brodey was engaged in selling various tools and machines including Joseph Sunnen honing machines used for honing cylinder bores of engines. Torque wrenches were already being imported and sold alongside the honing  so it was smart business sense (supply and demand) when Bill and his friend Ernest Thornitt applied to the UK Ministry of Supply requesting permission to manufacture torque wrenches in the UK.

Torque wrenches were very much in demand for the manufacture of Rolls Royce Merlin aero engines and the UK Government was keen to manufacture in the UK wherever possible to reduce pressure on the Atlantic supply convoys. Consequently, permission was granted to ‘The North Bar Tool Company’ to start manufacturing torque wrenches in ‘North Bar Place’, Banbury in the United Kingdom. The address ‘North Bar’ gave the company its name and this was later contracted to ‘Norbar’.

Minus a slight change of track when the market for Merlin aero engines dried up, the North Bar Tool Company continued its work in the aerospace industry, manufacturing a range of specialist fitting tools, along with torque wrenches.

In 1952, Bill Brodey’s eldest son Ian joined the company. Ian was a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Loughborough College of Technology and brought a new level of professionalism to the company’s engineering activity, producing drawings for all components for the first time and expanding the product range. In 1957, Bill’s younger son John joined the North Bar Tool company as the first full time salesman.

In 1953 a project for the engineering company and bolt manufacturer GKN took the North Bar Tool Company in a new product direction. GKN had designed a bolt called ‘Prolong’ that had a splined section above the nut. By griping the splined section of the bolt and counter rotating the nut, the fastener could be tightened without the need for any external reaction device. In a further development, a shear groove was placed below the spline, so designed that the bolt would fail at the groove when the pre-determined torque had been achieved. This bolting method was known as ‘Torshear’. GKN required an air driven tool capable of high torque output to sell with their ‘Prolong’ bolts. Probably Britain’s best known gearbox designer of the time was Dr. H.E Merritt and so Dr. Merritt was contracted to design a suitable range of air driven gearboxes for the Torshear application.

The Torshear bolting method was not a commercial success so ‘North Bar’ added reaction arms to their gearboxes and called them ‘Pneutorque®’ in the case of the air driven versions and the hand operated versions were named ‘Handtorque™’.

This was really a defining moment in Norbar’s history as the evolutions of the above products still form part of the company’s range today. In part two of our potted history, I’ll address the years since and how the company developed globally.

By Neill Brodey, Managing Director of Norbar Torque Tools Ltd.

In the last three weeks I have been fortunate enough to visit the USA, Japan and China. As the top three economies in the world their progress is of interest to Norbar and I have made a few personal observations from each trip.

First I attended the American hand tool association, The Hand Tools Institute (HTI) meeting in Florida. One of the key sessions was on the economy. I came away with a belief that the US economy is growing and is unlikely to fall back into problems in the foreseeable future. However growth will be slow, at under 4%, because there are still many drag factors such as housing debt left over from the recent problems.  There is however a determination to grow. Now that the candidates for the White House are set, we are promised a straight forward battle over the economy to determine the victor. Somehow I don’t think that any presidential race is straightforward, but it will be interesting to see who the US people choose.

I was then fortunate enough to accompany David Cameron alongside a number of senior ministers and industrialists on his recent trip to Tokyo. This was my first time in Japan and I was very impressed. The lack of space has created a strong attention to organisation. Everything is packed in neatly with little waste. Buildings nestle close to each other and company car parks are tightly organised. One striking feature was the newness of the buildings. Apparently the constantly improving building codes to improve earthquake resistance have resulted in many buildings being replaced in the last thirty years.

The economic situation in Japan has also been improving in recent years and there is huge potential for business there, but the big talking point is the lack of nuclear power stations and the impact that this will have on Japanese people as the hot summer weather approaches. Last year the air conditioning temperatures were set at 25- 28 degrees and office dress codes relaxed. Office blocks have had up to half their lights removed and other energy savings have been implemented. Two thoughts spring to my mind. One is that the need for electricity generation in Japan is a huge opportunity for many companies and the other is that American conference rooms could adopt some of these energy saving policies!

Finally to Chengdu, Western China, where I have been attending a conference on hardware and tool distribution. The sheer size of China continues to amaze me as do the plans for “hardware cities” where tens of thousands of shops will offer every type of pump, plastic pipe, fastener and tool that you can imagine. Despite the westerly location (Chengdu is 1200Km or 750 miles west of Shanghai) they intend to offer country-wide distribution using high speed rail. This development is away from the traditional Asian approach of local markets supporting local customers. It will mean that companies will need to advertise themselves across distance, which means the internet amongst other media. Brands will therefore be more important and many distributors competing for business will need to rely on the brands of those products that they sell.

So around the world there are plenty of opportunities.  I am still struggling to imagine a shopping centre with 10,000 hardware shops, but then China never ceases to amaze me.

Neill Brodey, Managing Director of Norbar Torque Tools Ltd

In 1972 Leeds United won the FA Cup, 4 star petrol was 8p a litre, and Terry Harrison bought a Norbar torque wrench through Lewis Leathers Tool Shop in London. Now jump forward 40 years to 2012. Leeds now languish in the English Championship, 4 star petrol costs £1.40 a litre and Mr Harrison’s torque wrench is still in regular use.

Being an enthusiast, Terry had originally bought the wrench to assist with the reconstruction of Ford V6 engines; however, at the end of 1976 all of his tools were mothballed.

In 1984, Terry made a management buyout of the company Sherpa, which manufactured small, mainly hand powered forklift trucks (Stacker Trucks) and set it up as an independent company (Sherpa Stackers Ltd.).

The company fared well and one of the first actions was to install good quality tooling for machine building. It was to this end that Terry rediscovered his Norbar torque wrench after more than a decade. When he had it tested for accuracy it was still spot on!

As the company progressed so did the tooling and the Norbar wrench kept going. With each year that passed, Terry sent the wrench for testing and it returned from tests with a new certificate of calibration.

When the company itself was closed down Terry kept hold of his faithful old Norbar wrench and wrote to let us know:

“Having been used in so many situations, particularly for the construction of machines for the MoD, specifically the RAF, I am amazed that it has remained within tolerance, when tested at the Quality Control Labs each year. I still have the wrench and it is now used by my son in his business.

“What more can I say, this wrench has served me for virtually my entire engineering life, and it now serves my son. Your company obviously makes tools to last!”

We’ve been making torque wrenches now since 1942 so it’s fantastic to hear stories like Terry’s. If anyone else has Norbar equipment that rivals Terry’s 40 year old torque wrench then we’d be delighted to hear from them, but for now, here’s to Terry’s wrench making a half century!

By Philip Brodey, Sales and Marketing Director, Norbar Torque

I remember reading a torque wrench comparative test in Car Mechanics a couple of years ago in which the reviewer concluded of the one electronic torque wrench on test “this is easily the nicest tool to use”.  I am going to challenge this view and suggest that, for most of us, electronic wrenches may be the easiest to set but they are far from the easiest to use.

This is not a dig at electronic torque wrenches – they definitely have their important place – but I don’t believe that the place is yet the automotive garage where most torque wrenches are sold.

With a traditional mechanical torque wrench, the ‘click’ is more than an indication that you have reached the desired torque.  When the wrench clicks or ‘breaks’, the applied torque momentarily drops.  During this time the nut stops rotating and the torque required to re-start it is actually more than the torque applied immediately prior to the click.  Because of this, provided that a mechanical torque wrench is used smoothly and with reasonable care, it is actually possible to achieve very accurate results and perform the bolting task at a brisk pace.

Most electronic torque wrenches will indicate that they have reached the desired torque through a combination of sounds, lights and sometimes vibration in the handle.  Stopping at the desired torque is difficult, despite all of these indications, and impossible if you are going quickly.  Added to this, the real downfall of virtually every electronic wrench on the market is that they are much too short to apply their maximum torque in a controlled fashion.  I challenge any of you of an average stature to use your electronic wrench horizontally to its maximum torque in a controlled way.

To be fair, the criticism over length is also levelled at mechanical torque wrenches.  However, the mechanical wrench scores over the electronic because you don’t have to approach the final torque with anything like the degree of care that you do with electronic wrenches.  Because of the click or ‘break action’ that I described earlier, you do have some leeway to overshoot the desired torque but apply no more movement to the fastener.

So, what are electronic wrenches for?  My belief is that they have two principle uses.  Firstly, where you want to quality check a bolted assembly by moving the nut after it has been tightened.  There are various techniques for this but for all of them a click wrench is virtually useless (although a mechanical dial wrench can be used).  Secondly, in a tightly controlled production situation in which you wish to gather torque data from the line for quality control purposes.  In this scenario, production managers will have to sacrifice speed of operation, particularly if there is a narrow tolerance band.  Related to this production line situation, electronic wrenches can be great when there is a series of bolts to be tightened, perhaps all to different torques. The wrench can guide the operator through, automatically setting the target torque and tolerance band for each bolt in the sequence and storing or transmitting the actual results to a central data collector.

My original proposition was that electronic wrenches have a place but not for the typical garage.  However, wind forward a few years.  How great would it be if, when you collected your car from a tyre change or service, you received a report detailing the actual torque applied to every bolt that was touched – your wheel nuts, for example?  Wheel loss resulting from incorrect tightening would be virtually eliminated.  The report would also give the serial number of the wrench used and the garage could initiate a recall if a fault was found on that wrench.  I suspect that this is the direction we will go but there is a gulf to bridge between where we are and the new world that I have described.  Unfortunately, even when mechanical torque wrenches are used they are often used incorrectly.  To apply such technology to the automotive aftermarket would require a quantum leap in thinking in such areas as tool cost, tool care, operator training and cycle time for each job.  This quantum leap will be reflected directly in the prices that we will pay at our garage / tyre shop but the roads will be a safer place and we will be able to get our car wheel off when we have to!

By Philip Brodey, Marketing and Sales Director

This might well be the most frequently asked of all frequently asked questions and is rightly a subject of genuine concern to production and quality managers.

To answer the question, I am going to look to the standard BS EN ISO6789 – “Assembly tools for screws and nuts – Hand torque tools – Requirements and test methods for design conformance testing, quality conformance testing and recalibration procedure”.  Unsurprisingly, most of us refer to it as “the torque wrench standard”!

In 1992, ISO 6789 was very much a document covering the design and manufacture of torque tools and the requirement was that the tool should be tested at maximum capacity for 5000 cycles in each direction.  No guidance was given on recalibration intervals.

However, when the standard was revised to the 2003 edition, the scope was broadened to include “quality conformance testing and recalibration” and so became of relevance to people using torque wrenches rather than just those designing and manufacturing them.  This is the first time that the standard discussed the interval for recalibration.

For those looking for a simple answer to the question posed in the title, the default period of use between recalibrations is 5000 cycles or 12 months.  However, the standard recognises that many businesses will have their own procedures for the control of test devices and, as a torque wrench can be considered a test device, a company’s own procedures must take precedence over the default 5000 cycles/12 months.

The reason that there is really no simple answer to the recalibration interval question is that circumstances of use will vary widely and this will have a direct bearing on how long the torque wrench is likely to stay in calibration.  Factors such as the frequency of use, setting of the wrench as a percentage of full scale, general care taken in use and storage, ambient conditions in use and storage will all have their effect.  Another major consideration is the torque tolerance existing in every individual situation and degree of safety criticality of the bolted assembly.  For example, a helicopter assembly company that I have visited tests their wrenches before every single use.  A typical automotive garage might find this degree of control onerous and unnecessary.

The other important statement made by the standard is that if a torque wrench is subjected to an overload of 25% or more above the nominal maximum, it should then be recalibrated.  For many, this might be the ultimate decider on how often your wrenches should be recalibrated.  For some, it will be almost every time the wrench is used!

The draft version of the next release of ISO6789 is already in existence.  The good news is that in respect of the advice on recalibration, the standard has not changed.  When ISO6789 is published in early 2013 we will blog on the key changes that you should be aware of.

By Philip Brodey, Sales and Marketing Director

In the past couple of weeks, we at Norbar have seen real evidence of a new generation of budding engineers. At the end of February we held an engineering open evening at Norbar Torque Tools, Banbury, designed to demonstrates some of the many career paths available in engineering. The event saw record attendance, attracting 140 visitors mainly consisting of school and college students interested in engineering apprenticeships or taking a direct graduate route to working in the sector.

If this wasn’t uplifting enough, Andy England, a final year apprentice at Norbar Banbury, picked up the Apprentice of the Year award for the second time running at the Engineering Trust. This is no mean feat and Andy beat off competition from 18 other finalists. Andy’s award is testament only to his own hard work and talent but also a reflection of the efforts that the Norbar team invested in him.

The open evening featured a tour of the entire Banbury site, with small groups visiting several engineering cells including design, manufacturing and maintenance. At each point in the tour, members of the Norbar team, described aspects of their jobs.

I was there to welcome guests and emphasise the many career paths available in engineering, it was great to see such a high turnout. As a family run UK Manufacturer we are passionate about engineering and it was brilliant to be able to showcase its challenges and opportunities to such an enthusiastic audience.

We also had representatives from Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, Warwickshire College and Oxford Brookes University on hand to provide information on apprenticeships and graduate training programmes.

Now, careers at the moment have a fairly consistent presence in the media with a perceived lack of opportunity, especially among young adults, becoming a considerable bugbear for the public and press alike. But with good news such as Andy’s and record number of visitors to our open evening, there is plenty to feel positive about, especially when there is a growing demand for engineers throughout the UK.

By Neill Brodey, Managing Director of Norbar Torque Tools Ltd