Copper State reveals next gen smart bolts

Copper State Bolt & Nut Co.'s revolutionary BoltSense family of services and products offers a vital piece in the cog that keeps the mining wheels turning – fasteners.

Copper State Bolt & Nut is one of the few companies that provide innovative solutions to this small yet vital element to all industrial work. Based out of its namesake, Arizona, Copper State has been providing fasteners since its inception in 1972. Yet, it was not long until it moved into the industry that requires constant upkeep and maintenance, mining.

"I have been peddling fasteners for over fifty years. My goal from the start has been to be the best distributor in the United States. I want to be known as providing the best customer service around town and I want my suppliers to think of me as their best customer. At Copper State Bolt & Nut Co., you won't find voicemail, long lines, back orders or rookies. You will find lots of inventory, same day service, and an extremely knowledgeable sales staff," said Martin Calfee, founder and chairman of Copper State Bolt & Nut Co.

At MINExpo 2021 convention in Las Vegas, Copper State showed it is evolving with the times by presenting its BoltSense line of products, which they state as "the only product in the world that will allow a customer to both attain accurate bolt tension during assembly and also monitor bolt tension equipment is in operation."

With the developing technologies in condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, the ability to track every piece of equipment to the smallest function has been providing safety and cutting costs with little to no downtime in ways never before imagined.

Streaming data from sensors into artificial intelligence analytics programs, monitoring equipment health for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, or tracking employee health from long hours of monotonous work, the options have become practically limitless with the added capabilities of smart tech for simple tools.

Now, Copper State has embedded this technology in one of the most fundamental but critical items at any industrial site.

"We are the first and only company in the world that is providing bolt tension into this data stream which is a critical dimension of data and immensely powerful in troubleshooting and at times preventing serious problems," Cory Waxman, project lead at Copper State, penned in an email to Metal Tech News. "We have had much success already and there was incredible engagement at the expo with people from all facets of the mining community and many people recognized the many challenges that Copper State can help to solve with this technology."

At the helm of Copper State's BoltSense products, the Load Monitoring Fastener plus or LMF-plus powered by Transmission Dynamics is intended to be used in rotational and foundational bolts, liner bolts, slew ring, high-pressure pumps, pipeline flanges, fluid sealing, gearboxes, gear rings, pinions, and cranes, to name a few.

This tech can be installed on any headed or threaded fastener, hex bolts, 12 points, square heads, round heads, as well as double-ended studs, enabling data monitoring that does not compromise on the integrity or strength of any of its attached fasteners.

The accuracy of the monitoring also adheres to ASTM F2483, which specifies, "the load-indicating fastener shall be calibrated to (plus or minus) 5% accuracy up to the proof load of the fastener unless otherwise specified at the time of order."

Furthermore, Copper State's LMF-plus has been designed to communicate to one another. This has been developed to handle unbalanced tension between multiple lug nuts or bolts. Sometimes called bolt cross talk, as an individual tightens one bolt, it's often found that all the surrounding bolts will begin to loosen.

With LMF bolts, Copper State has devised a method to monitor tension across multiple bolts, literally seeing the numbers begin to decrease on a heads-up display on your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Once seen, this encourages a trainee or old-timer to address leveraging or prying effects. Additionally, it can be used as an educational tool to teach torquing procedures and patterns so that you can adapt to best practices for later installations.

For the complete specification listing of what Copper State's LMF can provide, click the link: https://www.copperstate.com/files/6216/2819/8734/LMF_FAQ_1_low_res.pdf

To date, Copper State Bolt & Nut is the only company in the world that currently offers the ability to check bolt tension data for condition monitoring by streaming data to its predictive maintenance analysis software – backed by advanced machine learning algorithms – to inform mill operation and are currently working with a few OEM's to soon integrate temperature and vibration data.

To support the communication of its devices, Copper State has added a supplementary software that utilizes AI, called the Global Data Network. The GDN allows for automatic reports sent via email, or text message to key personnel, while the data reported ensures maintenance is only conducted on bolts requiring attention and allows immediate action to be taken on those installed on mission-critical applications.

Some of the other products Copper State launched include a seating and sealing liner bolt, a lower-cost version of the LMF, which is load indicating and can be upgraded easily to load monitoring, as well as a new device that uses the LMF signal to shut off a tightening tool when the bolts reach the correct tension.

As mines become smarter, a complete digital "x-ray" of a mine's body will soon become feasible, networks that link all smart parts, internet of things devices, autonomous vehicles, and now wireless transmission of the multitude of fasteners that tie everything together, Copper State Bolt & Nut Co. has jumped ahead of the game and created a solution to a problem most would overlook.