Flange Bolt Tightening Procedure | Bolt Tightening

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Anup Kumar Dey October 15, 2019

The correct placement of gasket and proper tightening of bolts in a flanged joint
will ensure a leak-free joint. Proper bolt tightening will ensure uniform load
distribution in all bolts without damaging the gaskets. The following procedure
describes how to tighten flange bolts.

Flange Bolt Tightening Procedure

Before actual tightening starts, the flange, gasket, bolts/nuts need to be observed as
below:

Flange checking points before flange bolt up

Leakage through a flanged joint is prevented as gasket material flows inside the flange
surface imperfections and seal them. But there are limitations that a gasket can
successfully seal. Hence, Flange surfaces must be checked thoroughly to ensure the
absence of large nicks, dents, or gouges. So the flange surface finish must be as per
manufacturer recommendation for particular gasket materials. Recommended values of
flange surface roughness are as follows:

Solid Metal Gaskets: 63-80 rms

Spiral Wound Gaskets: 125-250 rms
Jacketed or Metal Clad Gaskets: 63-80 rms

Here, RMS stands for root mean square. Roughness is normally specified in millionths of
an inch as the average of the peaks and valleys measured from a midline of the flange
surface.

A flange is recommended to be machined using a 1/16″ radius, round-nosed tool to have

30-55 serrations per inch in a concentric or spiral pattern.

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 Fig. 1: Bolted Flanged Joints at operating plant

Check the following points prior to flange bolting.

Before inserting the gasket in between the pipe flanges, check the flanges are
parallel and co-axial (When none of the bolts is installed in the flange).
As per ANSI B 31.3 clause no. 335-C, permitted tolerances are as follows: Flange
faces shall be aligned to the design plane within 1 mm in 200 mm(1/16 in. /ft)
measured across any diameter; flange bolts holes shall be aligned within 3 mm (1/8
inch) maximum offset.
If pipe flanges are not meeting the ANSI B31.3 requirement, the piping shall be
rectified.
All gasket seating areas shall be cleaned properly before gasket insertion. If
serration is damaged, re-serration must be done.

Checkpoints for Gasket prior to tightening flange bolts

Ensure the gasket of the correct dimension and of specified material is used.
The gasket shall be located correctly to ensure full sealing as indicated in the
drawing. For example – a gasket on the tube-sheet of an exchanger needs to be
located so that the outer periphery of gasket matches with OD of tube-sheet at all
points.
Examine the gasket in advance and ensure that it is free from defects.

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Bolts for Pipe Flanges
Bolts create compressive pressure on the flanges and gasket so that leakage is
prevented. So, while selecting, the temperature variations in service must be considered.
Recommended values of flange bolting temperature are as under.

Fig. 2: Recommended Bolt Temperatures with respect to materials

Ensure that material of all bolts and nuts is as specified.

Bolts & nuts shall be cleaned with suitable solvents like Diesel / CTC using a wire
brush, especially in the threaded portion.
The bolt shall be lubricated with molybdenum disulfide and it is essential especially
in all bolts of size 7/8” and above to check the application as the bolt load
developed by torque is dependent on the lubrication of threads.
It is recommended to avoid the use of short bolts on the flange joints.

Flange Bolt Tightening Procedure

It is important that all bolted joints are tightened uniformly and in a diametrically
staggered pattern (A typical sketch attached in Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Typical sketch showing bolt tightening pattern.

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 In case of pipe flanges 8″ NB & up to 12″NB and having a pipe with spacer piece
and a minimum of two gaskets (which are getting compressed simultaneously
during tightening) the distance between two flanges should be measured at four
locations like 12’o clock, 3’o clock’ 6’o clock and 9’on clock positions and
maintained equal for even tightening. The tightening shall be gradual and uniform.
In case of flanges above 12” NB distance between the flanges shall be measured in
8 locations for uniform tightening.
All stud bolts of 7/8″ and above shall be tightened using a torque wrench. While
tightening the bolt with torque wrenches (for pipe / Manway flanges) ensure that
tightening load to each bolt is applied as uniformly as possible. The tightening shall
be carried out in three or four stages in steps of 30, 50 & 70 percent of the final
torque value. A fourth stage again uses 70 percent of the final torque value.
For heat exchangers flanges torque values to be 30,70,100 and 100 percent of the
final torque value.
Where recommended using hydraulic tensioner for bolt tightening follow the
manufacturer recommendations.

A table is provided in Fig. 4 below to show an example of torques applied for bolt
tightening.

Fig. 4: Suggested Applied Torque for ANSI 150 lb Flanges

Wrong Practices followed during Flange Bolt Tightening

Many a time, plant operators use wrong practices while flange bolt tightening as follows

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Improper sequence of bolt tightening.
Reuse of old gasket.
Procurement of un-specified material.
Improper storage of gaskets.

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Use of many gaskets to fill a large gap between flanges.
Use of ordinary fasteners instead of high tensile fastener
Use of dirty / rusted fasteners without lubrication.

Few more related articles.

How to Select a Bolt: A definite Guide

Bolting Features in Bolted Connections/Bolted Joints

Guide for Coating Selection for External Bolting to Reduce Corrosion

Collar Bolts To Maintain Removable Bundles in Heat Exchangers

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