What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
(OP)
Hi All
Usually in some designs that contain a hole on the part, that another shaft is supposed to pass, I see that the hole has a bolt near outside its perimeter that tightens the circle to lower radius. in cases it happens that if the hole part is cicular, it's made from two semi circles and is bolted together. what is the reason for this ?

Usually in some designs that contain a hole on the part, that another shaft is supposed to pass, I see that the hole has a bolt near outside its perimeter that tightens the circle to lower radius. in cases it happens that if the hole part is cicular, it's made from two semi circles and is bolted together. what is the reason for this ?






RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Think of the two elements as forming part of a solid structure. The arrangement you describe is intended to clamp the two parts together, while making it possible to loosen the bolts occasionally if you need to adjust the geometry.
You need to be able to adjust the height of the saddle on a bicycle - but once you've got it to the height you want, you really need it to stay there.
A.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
TTFN (ta ta for now)
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RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
The part you show is similar to a motorcycle triple clamp, which is used to attach the front forks to the steering stem. With this arrangement the fork tubes are held in place entirely by clamped friction created by torquing the clamp bolts. To get the best result from this arrangement, there must be a very close tolerance sliding fit between the triple clamp bore and the mating fork tube prior to clamping. The reason for using this single piece triple clamp design is that it provides a lighter and stiffer structure. However, one important assembly consideration with this design is that the fork tubes (and steering stem) must have one free end small enough to pass thru the triple clamp bore. When attaching other components (like curved handle bars) to a triple clamp, it may not be possible to install the part thru a fixed bore. In this case a two-piece clamp arrangement is required. Below is a picture that shows a triple clamp that uses both single and two piece clamping arrangements.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Added to answer your question, why - for tightening.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Edited to add: I guess the forks could be vertical, though, for whatever reason.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
And by the way - I don't know what your application is for the part you showed above by I would not do it that way. Look at the internal stresses and strains that happen as the bolts are tightened. If your intent is that all three bore shall remain parallel, I don't think that will happen. You should redesign it so that the tightening bolt for each hole can be tightened without affecting the others.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Thank you very much
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
The particular geometries shown would not work very well because the flying portion is too stiff. A few minutes with a bandsaw would improve the part from that perspective.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Real triple trees usually have the clamps designed such that the section of the part subject to bending load as the bolt tightens is small, so that you can get high clamp loads even with relatively small bolts.
Such as:
The dimension labeled 'trail' in that drawing is also not typically referred to as trail. 'Offset' would be a closer, but still slightly confusing, nomenclature- because total offset can be different than steering-axis-to-fork-tube distance depending on where the axle is mounted relative to the centerline of the fork tubes.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
The stem nut looks pretty serious because it's so big, but it actually doesn't do all that much- just keeps the upper bearing where it's supposed to be.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Under the triple clamp I'd expect to find a nut (with spanner notches on the OD) that is adjusted to set the opposed tapered roller bearing clearances. Then the big nut clamps the triple clamp against the setting nut, hopefully without disturbing the bearing adjustment too much.
The Adjusting nut is item 86 here -
http://cdn1.bikebandit-images.com/schematics/schem...
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
The spec for the big nut on the end of the stem is 80 ft-lb or so, but most guys just hand tighten them plus 1/4 turn or so. When you have the steering head apart a lot (i.e. if you're racing and replacing parts often) it's much quicker not to torque that nut to spec. There's almost no load on it so it's pretty common to do it this way.
Here's the R1 parts diagram for the lower triple tree clamp- you can see the two ring nuts and the tab washer that prevents loss of preload (or attempts to...)
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Are those really caged ball bearings, not taper roller bearings?
"The inital preload is pretty low- the torque spec for the lower ring nut is 38 ft-lb."
I think 38 ft-lbs is an initial seating torque, to be loosened, then The final, operating torque is back down to 10 ft-lbs according to that diagram. Even zero rpm rolling element bearings don't think much of big preloads .
Is the stem a cylindrical diameter inside the clamp? Does the upper clamp slip off stem at disassembly? I think that the big nut is torqued to reduce/prevent micromotions of the triple clamp on the stem or vice versa. In time using reduced torque may result in fretting and wear of several surfaces there.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Actually, some upper clamp designs do clamp onto the stem.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Most late model bikes have gone back to ball bearings; evidently they have less friction than tapered roller bearings.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/x~UAAOSwa-dWoQLa/s-l...
A few decades back the finest handling, best suspended off road motorcycle did it as shown in the attached image.
The triple clamp gripped the large nut, after the nut was tightened to clamp the TC against the bearing adjusting nut.
For those Timken bearings the adjustment was not a torque, but ~ zero clearance and absolutely minimal increase in rotating torque.
Some bikes had split top nuts, so when pinched by the TC, the split nut likely compressed and the threads gripped the stem.
I'm not real keen on threads ever being in the load path to provide location, so look at the axial clamping as the main preventer of klunks and even micromotions that would fret and wear things out in time.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
Yes, a lot of motorcycle headsets use ball bearings.
You're correct that the two torques are initial (to ensure bearings are seated) and then the nut is backed completely loose, and tightened to 10 ft-lb.
The big nut that actually goes into the upper clamp is not shown in that drawing- it is the one I referred to in my earlier post, that a lot of race mechanics torque hand tight + 1 turn. This nut sees very little load in service.
In the bikes I have experience with, yes- the steering stem is cylindrical, and the upper clamp does not have a pinch bolt. I would not disagree that preventing fretting between the stem and triple clamp is probably why the big nut is there.
I will say that I've seen chassis that have hundreds/thousands of racing laps on them with the big nut hand tight +1/4 turn, and I've never seen a stem with fretting. The caveat there is that in some ways chassis loading on a race bike is less severe than a bike that does a few thousand miles on public roads.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
pinch the holes tighter. I guess that is what you were asking.
RE: What is the reason the circular holes are equipped with tightening bolts?
another application I found about this cutting a circular profile in half and re-bolt it is in Train bogie :
The smaller gear behind it is not cut this way though