Nuts and bolts loosening, tightening and torqueing solutions developer Slogging International’s Slogging Hammer is currently under- going on-site trials at a railway project for a West African oil and gas exploration company. If these trials prove to be successful, about 6 000 units of the South African-made solution will be sold to the West African nation through one of Slogging International’s authorised distributors, family-owned RapX Group, says Slogging International MD Renier Coetzee.

He notes that the Slogging Hammer, which was launched in 2011, is an ideal solution for the removal of large nuts and is significantly safer and more efficient than the traditional method of using a wrench and sledgehammer.

Coetzee further explains that traditional methods require an operator to hold the wrench in place while another operator uses the sledgehammer to strike the wrench. He adds that it is difficult to accurately strike a wrench with a heavy sledgehammer. Misplaced swings with the hammer have, therefore, often resulted in serious injuries, including severed fingers and shrapnel from the wrench flying into an operator’s eye.

However, the Slogging Hammer eliminates the risk of injury, as the grip of the unit is a safe distance away from the impact zone. The unit has a weighted hammer confined within a hollow shaft. The hammer is raised at the handle and thrust downwards, towards a perpendicular wrench attachment. The impact created by the Slogging Hammer generates the force necessary to loosen or tighten a nut.

The unit has successfully loosened a nut that was tightened at 1 500 Nm, says Coetzee.

He adds that the Slogging Hammer also significantly improves task efficiency, as an individual can operate it, as opposed to the traditional wrench and sledgehammer method that requires two people.

Coetzee further points out that an operator using a Slogging Hammer can strike five consecutive blows in the time it takes to swing a traditional sledgehammer once. Future, while the probability of missing the target using such a sledgehammer is high, “each shot is a perfect shot” when using the Slogging Hammer, he adds.

Coetzee tells Engineering News that the Slogging Hammer has achieved success in the rail industry, as Slogging International has supplied a customised unit to South African locomotives manufacturer Trident SA. The company was unable to remove the nuts on the cuckoo pan wheels of locomotives it was refurbishing, which forced the company to cut the axles to remove them, leading to significantly increased downtime for the locomotives.