Design
A lug nut is a nut with one rounded or conical (tapered) end, used on steel and most aluminum wheels. A set of lug nuts are typically used to secure a wheel to threaded wheel studs and thereby to a vehicle's axles.
Some designs use lug bolts instead of nuts, which screw into a tapped (threaded) hole in the wheel's hub or brake drum or disc. This configuration is commonly known as a bolted joint.
The lug's taper is normally 60 degrees (although 45 is common for wheels designed for racing applications), and is designed to center the wheel accurately on the axle, and to reduce the tendency for the nut to loosen, due to fretting induced precession, as the car is driven. Honda uses a spherical rather than a tapered seat, but the nut performs the same function. Older style alloy wheels have a 1/2 to 1 inch shank slipping into the wheel to center it and a washer that applies pressure to clamp the wheel to the axle.
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Famous quotes containing the word design:
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)