Are washers necessary for proper operation

of bolts?
Posted in Steelworks |

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Fastener is a general term used to describe something which is used as a restraint for
holding things together or attaching them to other things.
The main physical distinction between screws and bolts is that screws are entirely full of
threads while bolts contain shanks without threads. However, a better interpretation of the
differences between the two is that bolts are always fitted with nuts. On the contrary,
screws are normally used with tapped holes.
High

friction

grip

bolts

are

commonly

used

in

structural

steelwork.

They

normally consist of high tensile strength bolts and nuts with washers. The bolts are
tightened to a shank tension so that the transverse load across the joint is resisted by the
friction between the plates rather than the bolt shanks shear strength.

The purpose of installing washers in a typical bolting system is to distribute the loads under
bolt heads and nuts by providing a larger area under stress. Otherwise, the bearing stress
of bolts may exceed the bearing strength of the connecting materials and this leads to the
loss of preload of bolts and the creeping of materials. Alternatively, flanged fasteners
instead of using washers could be adopted to achieve the same purpose.