Checktorque

The Checktorque® is a retorque indicator that can extend and enhance the established best practice of the transport and tyre industries.

It is accepted best practice that following a tyre replacement, moving a wheel to a different axle or hub for any reason or the replacement of a wheel nut, the wheel should be torque checked after a given period of time or distance travelled.

Most responsible tyre service providers and fleet management do have suitable labelling, printed notices and walk-round procedures in place to ensure that drivers, tyre service or workshop personnel are reminded to carry out this safety-critical retorque.

The Checktorque® operational concept is to communicate and reinforce visually, the need to complete this safety -critical torque check. It is recognised that under time pressure or logistic needs, existing procedures, notices or other checks can be overlooked or not communicated. The use of the Checktorque® procedure is a second line of defence, a backstop.

A Checktorque® placed on one wheel nut of the wheel requiring attention signals two important pieces of information:

1. This is the wheel requiring the torque check.
2. The torque check has not yet been carried out.

The Checktorque® can be fixed to the wheel nut without the need to remove an existing Checkpoint® from the wheel nut.

Personnel not in the employ of the service provider often undertake this torque check at a workshop or depot away from where the original work was carried out. Complications can occur where the vehicle is an unhitched trailer, or where a VOR call-out was involved.   Though existing procedures have been designed to accommodate these scenarios, time pressure, operational co-ordination and communications can give rise to procedural failure or confusion. This can result in the wrong wheel being torque checked or missed, or for safety's sake, all wheels being unnecessarily retorqued by well intentioned personnel. Improved resource management, downtime reductions and correspondingly improved operating margins are a spin-off.

The incorporation of Checktorque® indicators into your established Tyre and Risk Management procedures can help reduce the chance of procedural or communications failure and ensure that the vital retorque of the correct wheel is not missed.

Checktorque use helps reinforce safe running awareness by operational and support personnel.