A split nut is a nut that is split lengthwise into two pieces (opposed halves) so that its

female Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

thread may be opened and closed over the

male Male (Mars symbol, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot sexual reproduction, repro ...

thread of a

bolt The BOLT Browser was a web browser for mobile phones including feature phones and smartphones that can run Java ME applications. The BOLT Browser was offered free of charge to consumers and by license to mobile network operators and handset manuf ...

leadscrew A leadscrew (or lead screw), also known as a power screw or translation screw,Bhandari, p. 202. is a screw used as a linkage in a machine, to translate turning motion into linear motion. Because of the large area of sliding contact between ...

. This allows the nut, when open, to move along the screw without the screw turning (or, vice versa, to allow the screw to pass through the nut without turning). Then, when the nut is closed, it resumes the normal movement of a nut on a screw (in which axial travel is linked to rotational travel) A split nut assembly is often used in positioning systems, for example in the

of a

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to ...

. It is one of the machine elements that makes single-point threading practical on manual (non- CNC) lathes. The very earliest

screw-cutting lathe A screw-cutting lathe is a machine (specifically, a lathe) capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotat ...

s (in the late 18th and early 19th centuries) did not have them, but within a few decades, split nuts were common on lathes. The two halves of the nut have chamfered ends (60° to axis), which helps the threads to find engagement during the closing action. Usually the screw and nut are also oiled for lubrication. Such provisions prolong the service life of the threads by minimizing

wear Wear is the damaging, gradual removal or deformation of material at solid surfaces. Causes of wear can be mechanical (e.g., erosion) or chemical (e.g., corrosion). The study of wear and related processes is referred to as tribology. Wear in ...

. Split nuts work best with trapezoidal threads. Split nuts may not engage and disengage with multi start threads due to the overlapping leads.

References

Nuts (hardware) {{Mech-engineering-stub