02/03/2011

Product Pick of the Week - It's Official: ASME B18.2.6-2010 Recognizes Squirter® DTIs

Many of the best engineers, fabricators and inspectors around the world have been using Squirter® DTIs with confidence for years

That's why tens of millions of Squirter® DTI's have been sold, revolutionizing the bolt-up process on power plants and other structural steel projects, and making bolt installation and inspection easy and accurate.

However, occasionally people question whether Squirters conform to ASTM standards. To put this question to bed once and for all, ASME standard B18.2.6-2010 Fasteners for Use in Structural Applications now recognizes silicone emitting type indicator washers.

ASME standard B18.2.6-2010 is the standard adopted by ASTM F959. Sections 5.1 and 5.3, given below, now both specifically mention silicone emitting type indicator washers.

Section 5.1 Direct Tension Indicator Dimensions: All washer-type direct tension indicators, Type 325 and 490, shall conform to the dimensions give in Table 6. Additional characteristics to accommodate the necessary features for silicone emitting type indicator washers are permissible.

Section 5.3 Materials and Properties: Direct tension indicators shall conform to the requirements of ASTM F 959. Silicone emitting type indicator washers shall meet all of the performance requirements of ASTM F 959 and the dimensional requirements in this Standard.

Applied Bolting Direct Tension Indicators (DTIs) have always been manufactured to ASTM F959 standards, and therefore comply with the Special Inspection provisions of ICC and the provisions of the Research Council on Structural Connections 2009 "Specification for Structural Joints Using High-Strength Bolts". All our DTIs are tested and certified in our ISO/IEC 17205 accredited laboratory to meet or exceed ASTM standards. Squirter® DTIs are identical to our non-squirting or classic DTIs.

The "squirt" feature was added for the convenience of installers and inspectors.
Independent studies at the University of Toronto, conducted under the guidance of Dr. Peter Birkemoe and in conjunction with a larger RCSC study, have shown that the squirt medium can be used with confidence to verify that bolt tension has been achieved. Of course, one can still use a feeler gage. However, our customers have found that the silicone is a better judge of bump compression than a feeler gage.