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Why does nobody talk about hydraulic bolt tensioners vs torque wrenches
Had to pick between renting a $400/day hydraulic tensioner or trusting my old torque wrench on a flange job in Baton Rouge last week, I went cheap and the gasket blew at 80 psi, lucky nobody was standing near it. Has anyone else had a tensioner save them on a big bolt pattern, or am I the only one eating this cost now?
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the_olivia2mo ago
You really trusted a plain torque wrench on a flange that big without checking the bolt stretch after? That gasket blowout at 80 psi sounds more like a clamp load issue than a tool problem, but I gotta ask, did you verify the torque spec was even right for the gasket type? Cause I've seen guys crank to spec and still get leaks because the bolt lube changed the whole friction thing. That rental cost stings, but the downtime and near miss probably cost way more, so what's the actual bill adding up to now?
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