This torque calculator is a great tool for a person who wants to know how much torque is needed to do a particular job. You can use the torque calculation for many different purposes, including car repair, plumbing, and more. A torque calculator is a tool used to measure the torque applied to a threaded fastener.
This tool is used in industries that manufacture or assemble fasteners, or in construction, in the automotive industry, more precisely in parts production. You can use the device to measure the torque of rivets on a mounting strip, for example. With this tool, a person can understand how much torque he needs for a particular task and better understand what to buy to do the job.
This article shows which formulas you need to use to calculate the torque and apply them to a specific example.
What is torque?
In the case of keys, handles, bicycles, bottle openers, scales, or sports equipment, forces act on the rotating bodies. The moment or moment of force is an equal quantity of force. To understand torque, you should already know what a lever is and know the law of the lever.
The law of leverage comes from Archimedes and is an essential theoretical basis for studying mechanics. He says the force applied to the pivot point increases in proportion to the length of the lever. There are single arms where load and force act on the same side and double arms where load and force act on opposite sides.
Now, we come to the part where we talk about the middle ground. The torque is generated at the pivot point if the force acts on the lever. The moment, therefore, shows how strongly the force acts on the rotating set body. It is sometimes called torsional force.
Torque equation
Decisive for the action of a force acting on a body outside the axis of rotation is:
- amount of force,
- direction of force,
- the distance between the application point and the axis of rotation.
In general, you can calculate torque using the equation:
M = r\cdot F\cdot sin\theta
F is the acting force in Newton, and r is the length of the levers for pivot points in meters, sinθ is the angle between the force vector and the lever arm vector.
So, using two already known values, he can easily calculate the third value. However, several different forces often act on the angular amount of body motion. The action of several different forces makes the calculation formula much more complex because the moment is calculated as the vector sum of all individual moments. Such situations make the calculation much more complicated and time-consuming, which is partly due to the comprehensive determination of core values.
Torque units
The moment has the symbol M, and we express it in newton meters. 1 Newton meter is a force acting on a lever 1 meter long with a force of 1 Newton. It is derived from the unit of force SI.
Newton Unit Meter is correctly marked as an N⋅m. If you need to convert the unit of measurement, the newton meter can also use our Nm to ft-lbs Converter.
Metric units of the United Kingdom and the United States
In the next table, you can find cooperation between metric units of the UK and the US.
| Newton meter – N-m (UK) | Pound force inches – lb-in (US) | Pound force rate – lb-ft (US) | Ounces of force inch – oz-in (US) | Ounces of force rate – oz-ft | Pound rate – pdl-ft (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8.8507458 | 0.7375621 | 141.61193 | 11.800884 | 0.04214011 |
How to calculate torque
If you want to calculate torque, you must first determine the application area because torque occurs in many different application areas. Therefore, we calculate it in other regions. For example, in industry, the application of torque differs from the application in the case of the required tensile forces in screw connections. However, the calculation remains the same.
The first step is to determine the force acting on an object. You can also use our Force Calculator to calculate the force.
We will assume that the force F = 10 N, and the length of the lever, r = –0.5 m. The angle between the lever and the force vector is θ = 30 °.
Enter the obtained values in the torque calculator:
\tau = r\cdot F\cdot sin\theta \Rightarrow \tau = -0.5\cdot 10\cdot sin30 = -2.50NmThe answer is -2.50Nm. If you have data on the amount of torque, you can calculate the values of the force or the length of the lever.
The difference between torque and mechanical work
Mechanical operation W and torque M must not be confused with each other. It is also not allowed to calculate the torque and convert the value into mechanical work. While you can use unit J (Joule) for mechanical operation at Nm, only Nm (newton meter) is valid for torque. This rule applies because the force and trajectory from which you calculate the mechanical work run parallel to each other. However, in order to calculate the torque, the lever law is always followed, in which the force and the arm of the lever are perpendicular to each other.
Integration of measurement methods in your own data processing
However, torque measurement alone is not practical in most applications as you also need to transfer the data to the appropriate systems. Depending on the measurement method used, torque-transmitting amplifiers must be used for this purpose, among other things, and thus make it usable for other systems. Often these are complete packages that ensure optimal results and allow the transmission of measurement results without interference. In this case, the measurement tolerance can be particularly low, thus stabilizing the results.
FAQ?
1. How do we measure the moment?
Torque can be measured using a torque wrench. When a force is applied, the long shaft with the handle bends until the position of the pointer changes. You can read the moment on the scale.
Note: Several torques are prescribed or recommended for a number of screw connections. You can only achieve the recommended number of torques if you work with a torque wrench. For example, the recommended torque for wheel nuts in passenger cars is 90Nm. For trucks and buses, this value is about 600 Nm.
2. Which are the five methods of torque measurement?
There are currently five different methods of measuring torque. There are other solutions and options, but these are not usable and effective enough for regular use. Most of these solutions work only in perfect laboratory conditions and are therefore not sustainable for use in industry. So, if you want to measure the exact torque, you should rely on one of the following five methods:
– Extensional measuring strips: classical torque measurement,
– Opto electrical torque measurement,
– Magnetoelastic torque measurement,
– Saw measurement,
– Piezoelectric moment measurement.
