Application Notes
IMPULSE AND POWER TOOL TESTING
Impulse tools have become prevalent throughout industry. The advantages of ergonomics and function-
ality of impulse tools are well known. It is also well known that, due to the lack of standards in the
industry, all impulse tools are not created equal.
The frequency at which the pulse tool pulses has not been standardized. Some are fast and some are
relatively slow. Some tools create sharp torque vs. time peaks and some create flat peaks. In addition
to this, the characteristics of the joint (soft, medium or hard) changes the output of the tool, so a tool that
pulses one way on one type of joint will pulse differently on the next. To further complicate things, each
brand of tool will act different given the same joint characteristics. And to make things worse, variations
in air pressure to the tool will also make the tool behave differently. The good news is that individual
impulse tools repeat under the same conditions (within reasonable limits). So creating the same condi-
tions as the application under test is important.
Due to these non tester related variations, it is difficult, if not impossible, to create a torque tester that
will be out-of-the-box accurate for all impulse tools and all joint conditions. This is not to say that the
tester is not accurate, only that the conditions during test may not simulate the conditions during the
application, and due to the variance in pulse tools, the tester may show a different torque value than
what is actually happening at the application.
In order to minimize the effects of these variances, the application must be analyzed so it can be
simulated properly on the torque tester with a joint simulator.
The TorqueMate® Plus, and the mountz family of transducers have been designed to minimize these
variations and are well suited for both the analysis of the application joint and the testing of the
impulse tool.
Always use a quality joint rate simulator (run down adapter) when testing power tools in a simulated
application. Do not use the peak mode. The power tool mode is designed to meet the demanding fre-
quency requirements for testing dynamic torque applications.
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I M P O R TA N T
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