News

Welcome to Applied Bolting's new website. While we get compliments on our old website on a weekly basis, it was time for an update. The content and information that many of you have come to rely on to solve your bolting concerns and to improve your constructability is still here. We have tried to reorganize the site so it is less busy and easier to navigate. Much of the content is still the same, but things will be changing over the next 6 months.

Our customers have always helped us shape what we do so please contact us with any concerns and changes that you think will benefit the structural bolting community. We'd appreciate hearing what you think and your criticisms.

Be safe,

Chris Curven

WINDPOWER 2010 Conference & Exhibition

When: May 23 - 26, 2010
Where: Dallas Convention Center, Dallas, TX
Booth#: 10147

AWEA's Windpower Conference and Exhibition is the world's largest and most anticipated event for the wind industry. This year the conference will be held in Dallas TX, May 23 - 26, 2010. Be sure to visit Applied Bolting at booth 10147. See you there!

http://2010.windpowerexpo.org/

North American Steel Construction Conference (NASCC)

When: May 12 - 15, 2010
Where: Gaylord Palms Convention Center, Orlando, FL
Booth#: 1131

Applied Bolting will be attending and exhibiting at the North American Steel Construction Conference (NASCC) hosted by American Institute of Steel Construction. This is a great time to catch up on what's new in the steel industry, attend great lectures, catch up with friends, and visit with us to drive a Squirter® DTI and see how Squirter DTIs improve jobsite constructability.

http://www.aisc.org/form.aspx?ekfrm=18232

Wind Power

Squirter® DTIs used on Leitwind LTW77 Wind Turbine Tower with ViewPOD, constructed for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games. View a Today Show segment on the Wind Tower:

New Bolting Articles

	Download	"A Busy Year For Applied Bolting"
	Download	"A Simple Quality Assurance System for Wind Turbine Towers"
	Download	""Retightening Wind Turbine Flange Splice Bolts Inherent Problems With Installation and Retightening Using Torque Values" "

Christian Nath and Mike Woebbeking of Germanischer Lloyd present certification document to Applied Bolting's John Herr and Wayne Wallace

Squirter® DTI in Wind Tower Flange

Applied Bolting Technology Receives Germanischer Lloyd Certification

At Windpower 2009 Conference and Exposition in Chicago, IL, Applied Bolting Technology received certificate number 73638 from Germanischer Lloyd. GL certify that Applied Bolting's M32, M36 and M48 Squirter® Direct Tension Indicators (DTIs) control bolt tension to +/-10% with a confidence factor of 97.7%.

GL states that this is the first visual bolt tension indicating system that doesn't require special tools.

Applied Bolting selected GL for this certification process because of their expertise in bolting wind tower flanges.

Squirter® Direct Tension Indicators are compressible washers, made with special slots stamped into their bottom surface. When the DTI bumps are sufficiently compressed, indicating that the bolt has achieved a certain tension, an orange silicone squirts out from the perimeter of the DTI.

The Squirter® DTI has been hailed by construction and bolting professionals as an amazingly simple and yet revolutionary product which enables someone tightening a bolt to see just when they should stop tightening—not too soon, and not too late. Tens of millions have been supplied to structural bolting applications world wide, and now are available for wind power.

Located in Bellows Falls, VT, Applied Bolting Technology is the world's premier manufacturer of Direct Tension Indicators for structural connections. For more information, contact Barnaby Myhrum at 800-552-1999, or visit www.appliedbolting.com.

Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is a ship classification society and an international inspection, certification and technical consultancy company. With its head office in Hamburg (Germany) GL employs more than 5,000 engineers, surveyors, experts and administrative staff in 77 countries. For more information, visit www.gl-group.com.

New Bolting Articles

	Download	"Applied Bolting & Germanischer Lloyd Work Together For Wind Turbine Tower Flange Bolt Squirter® DTIs "
	Download	"RC Tests, Nut Factors, and the Europeans"

Read more articles about bolting

Wind Generator Tower Splice Bolts: The Problems in North America
by Wayne Wallace - President, Applied Bolting Technology
Published in North American Windpower magazine, November 2008

Wind generators, designed and built for many years in Europe, are now being constructed and manufactured in North America. Because the engineering for them has been based on European standards, the bolts used to assemble them have usually been designed as metric. In a wind generator, there are all the various bolts in the nacelle, the bolts connecting the hub to the generator, the bolts connecting the blades to the hub, and the bolts used to splice the tower sections together in the field. They all are important and critical.

But this discussion will concentrate only on the tower splice bolts. In Europe these are big bolts, typically M36 at least, more frequently M42 and M48 diameter, and occasionally M56 and M64 (!!). Lengths of the M42/48 vary from 330 to 380 mm, and grade 10.9 strength is typical.

Download

"Wind Generator Tower Splice Bolts: The Problems in North America"

Applied Bolting QA Lab Ten Years Accredited to ISO/IEC 17025

"One of the best Quality Systems I've ever seen." - ISO/IEC auditor

The Applied Bolting QA Lab has completed its tenth year as an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited Materials Testing Laboratory! The lab has recently achieved its sixth consecutive accreditation to this rigorous standard and also has qualified for Supplier Merit Program status. The fact that the lab has consistently been accredited with few non-conformances is a testimony to the competence of its staff and the integrity of its structure. This ensures that you can depend upon the excellence of the products and services you receive from Applied Bolting Technology Products.

Our quality meets the highest standards and stands up to the toughest scrutiny.

Learn more about our Quality Assurance

IN THE NEWS

Profiles in Business:
Applied Bolting Technology | Vermont Business Magazine

Read Full Article HERE

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3675/is_200709/ai_n21033696

How well do Squirter® DTIs work?

In 2008 the University of Toronto, at the request of Applied Bolting, subjected Squirter® DTI's to independent testing with the objective of determining just how accurately they work. Using outside disinterested workers, who were asked to follow Applied's calibration instructions and then to tighten bolts blind using just Squirter® DTIs, and then by checking actual bolt tensions using ultrasonic measurement, they found that Squirter® DTIs gave them almost exactly the tension they were aiming for.

Here's the University of Toronto report in summary form as delivered to the Research Council on Structural Connections (RCSC) June 2008 meeting:

Download Report in PowerPoint (2.5 MB pps) format

What the pros say about our products: Squirter® DTIs

Observation from Tom Picaso of Edison Mission Energy, Irvine California, who has built and now maintains 200 generators, at the June 2008 AWEA Trade Show in Houston, where 350 wind power exhibitors were present:

"...Your Squirter ® DTI is only the third product I've seen at this trade show that can really help contractors in this business ..."

"I've specified standard DTI's for years, but found that our contractors sometimes didn't check with a feeler gage as diligently as they should. With Squirter® DTIs, they can see if they have tightened it enough, and they don't miss any. And, Squirter® DTIs are a big help with the ICC Special Inspectors too, because they can see the squirt has happened even though they might not have been right there at the time."

Read more Squirter® DTI testimonials

Squirter® DTIs: Technology For a Modern World
"The times they are a-changin" —Bob Dylan. There was a day when, if you wanted a steel erector to "snug" a connection, mark it, then hold the bolt head and rotate the nut either 1/3, 1/2, or 2/3 turn, it would happen. Today, it probably won't... Read Full Article (pdf)

View All Articles

Bolting Contructability: in 3D3D
3D Interactive Bolting Technology: helping to prevent global warming, solve world hunger, bring our troops home, and all the while making for Better Constructability.
Read the "Boltzitzer" Prize* nominated article:

Download

"Emailing Interactive 3-D Bolting Pictures Makes for Better Constructability"

View All Articles

November 2007 Squirter® DTI's Specified for Dubai's new Jebel Ali airport project.

The steel frames for Dubai's existing airport terminal stuctures, Terminal One, then Terminal Two, have used Squirter® DTI's. In 2005 Cleveland Bridge Middle East proposed Squirter® DTI's for the first parts of the Dubai International Airport structures, some 29,000 tonnes of steelwork. The consultant, DAR of Cairo asked CBME to test the Squirter® DTIs extensively to be sure the silicone squirt could be a reliable indicator of bolt tension. CBME then went on to use them and throughout the project, now with Terminal Three about 42,000 tonnes. Squirter® DTIs gave the owners visual assurance the connections were done right, and the Squirt feature helped avoid overtensioning the A490 bolts.

Now the next Dubai airport is beginning construction, and Squirter® DTI's are to be used again.

Visit DAR's Site:
http://www.dargroup.com/

May 2007 Applied Bolting Celebrates Opening of their new Squirter® Room

The twenty employees of Applied Bolting took a break for lunch, and then toasts with champagne, to celebrate the official opening of their new Squirter® DTI production room. After five years in much smaller accommodations, the added 3000 square feet of space will make the operation of the three silicone deposition robots and the associated curing equipment much more economical and worker-friendly.

They Said it Couldn't Be Done...

They said it couldn't be done - to stamp a 5/16" thick 16 bump Squirter® to fit an M64 (2 1/2"+) diameter bolt and to generate 1680 kN of force (!!). But we did it, and now we are continuing to perfect the Squirt action on bolts of these diameters. Call for information.

SQUIRTER® FAQ: What to include in Inspection Test Plans (ITPs)

Bolt Coating Thickness and Nut Overtapping — A Lesson in Practical Necessity

Applied Bolting Helps Union Ironworkers Apprentice Program

Here's what some have to say about Squirter® DTIs and Applied Bolting's
benefit to the industry of structural steel bolting.
We are truly flattered.
View Letter 1 View Letter 2 View Letter 3 View Letter 4 View Letter 5

Recommended Wrench Capacity & Make

Use of DTI Washer in Accordance with ICC Specifications

Squirter® use helps CBE and DAR achieve bolting and inspection in record time at Dubai International Airport

The first 8000 tons of the new terminal building used standard DTI's. When Cleveland Bridge began their portion, they began to use Squirter® DTI's. Now, several hundred thousand Squirter® DTIs later, they would not change back. The project has three levels of inspection: Cleveland Bridge, the outside inspection company, and the inspectors from the owner's consultant DAR. Despite all this inspection, CBE state that they get their bolting done and approved in record time, and they tell us that's because of the visual comfort that Squirter® DTIs afford the site staff. As the bolts approach full tension, the installers and inspectors can see it, and they don't go too far. Once CBE finishes a point, it gets inspected, and there are never call-backs.

View The Dubai International Airport project page

Visit the DAR Group website

Coated Bolts Can Improve Constructability

Download the article in PDF format (176k)
or view this article and more in our
Downloads Section

Direct Tension Indicators: Squirter® DTI's and Constructability

Bolting can consume 30 percent of all field labor to erect steelwork. Inspection labor would be in addition to this.

Technologies make a lot of sense that reduce field installation and inspection labor, and that?s what constructability is all about. Read more here.

M36 Euro Squirter® DTIs- Cheaper, Better Than Torque

Here's some work we did on proving the M36 DTI made specially for the windpower industry really works:
Read more here.

BULLETINS

New Spanish squirter® DTI Installation and Calibration sheet - click here

Squirter® DTIs and Squirter-Twist Bolts Win Modern Steel Hot Products Competition! -
The results are in! Attendees at the North American Steel Construction Conference in Long Beach California were invited to vote for products that they thought merited a "People's Choice" award. They voted, and the winners were both Squirter-Twist bolts and Squirter® DTI's. Congratulations to us at Applied Bolting Technology. Now, what do we win?

Application Advisory: Weathering Steel DTI's on Bridges