The Importance of Safety Washers

Washers and belleville springs are primarily used to alleviate stress, prevent leakage or loosening, and to distribute pressure evenly. They are generally made of metal, although there are other non-metallic materials that may be used to form or create belleville washers. Washers are a very important part of anything from construction to engineering and have a variety of applications. When you use just one washer, you're using it for a specific purpose and usually they are just a flat, rounded piece of metal. Safety washers combine the spring-like characteristics and attributes of disc shaped washers with the frictional resistance of a toothed lockwasher. They normally have serrated edges and are for special purposes.

A serrated washer like this will essentially grind itself into both the head of the screw and the attaching surface to provide a much more adequate lock between the two than belleville washers can. This almost indefinitely provides major resistance to the loosening of the screw.

Belleville Washers or Springs

Very commonly referred to as disc springs or belleville springs, these washers are essentially regular washers with a conical shape. They are most commonly used as springs but can also be used with screws or bolts to give the joint elastic characteristics or to apply a pre-load to a bolted joint. Whatever application you use for these washers, it will give it an extremely detailed tuning ability. A joint generally experiences a considerable amount of expansion and contraction due to constantly changing temperatures. The belleville washers alleviate the stress and tension caused by this and supply the required pre-load. Safety washers were modeled after the design of the belleville springs to give them all of these greatly desired traits.

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