You, of course, know that nuts and bolts are used to fasten two pieces of materials together and prevent them from coming apart easily. They are mainly used because they are not permanent and you might need to disassemble and assemble different products for use, fitting, ease of transport or for repair purposes. If permanent adhesives are used, such activities would not be possible.

Here are some specifics you need to know about nuts and bolts:

Material Composition

You want nuts and bolts to be extremely durable and physically robust to effectively carry out their task; this means that they have to be rust-, impact-, heat-, cold-, corrosion-, chemical- and water-resistant. The material that ticks all the resistance checkboxes is stainless steel. That is why you might find that stainless steel makes up the material composition of the highest percentage of nuts and bolts.

Also, remember that nuts and bolts have threads; these threads should be able to interlock each other when a nut is screwed tight onto a bolt. When pulled apart, the interlocked threads should not come apart. If the bolts and nuts are made using a weak material and you tried pulling them apart using a high force, the threads can easily come apart and permanently damage the bolt and nut since they cannot be used.

Types of Bolts

There are different types of bolts and nuts that differ in their use. You might come across carriage bolts that fasten timber and metal, anchor bolts used for structural applications in concrete or masonry work, elevator bolts that are found in conveyor systems, lag bolts that create their thread in the material they are tightened in, timber bolts used for timber as the name suggests, U-bolts that are U shaped, toggle bolts that are used to mount items on walls, stud bolts that have nuts on both ends, etc. As you can see, you need different types of bolts for different types of materials, needs or components.

Size

Different types of bolts come in different sizes to cater for different sizes of components to be joined together. Of course, you don't expect every component to be fastened by one specific bolt or nut size. Therefore, when purchasing bolts and screws, first identify the materials you want to join, then determine the type of bolt that matches your needs and finally the size of the bolts and nuts you might require.

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