Cordless battery-powered torque tools for safety-critical and heavy industrial applications

RS Components offers a new series of battery-powered torque hand tools from Norbar Torque Tools for torque applications, including tightening, measurement and calibration.

The EvoTorque Battery Tool series has been specifically created to provide improved performance and data traceability in safety-critical and heavy industrial operations. Furnished with a high-powered and maintenance-free brushless motor, the series is excellent for applications where mains-supplied electric or pneumatic power is not available, or in environments where the proximity of cables may constitute a safety risk.

As well as excellent performance, it also provides outstanding thermal durability reducing any overheating problems, which can often occur with battery-operated tools. For many purposes, the number of tightening cycles executed by a hand tool before it overheats is a more critical specification than the number of cycles offered by the battery.

A key feature of the series is its transducer control, rather than being current controlled, which allows it to give a precise torque to within an accuracy of ±3%. Also, the units combine the maker’s ‘intelligent joint sensing’ technology, which constantly measures the joint being tightened and uses dynamic braking to evade torque over-shoot.

Two-way communication with the series is offered either wirelessly via Bluetooth, or via USB cable: as well as being capable of downloading up to 3000 time/date-stamped readings or even stream live data from the tool, users can also upload information such as tightening sequences. Also, all the tools are provided with a free copy of the company's EvoLog PC software to manage the data; alternatively, data can also be produced in CSV format. Importantly, and particularly for safety-critical applications in fields such as railway infrastructure, the tool can also be employed with mobile phones and tablets, thereby facilitating the recording of torque tightening data that is linked to GPS coordinates.