I would have figured that everyone in the PV industry would know about
anti-seize compound by now. SS to SS or SS to Al is prone to seizing
even when not over-tightened. Dis-similar metals everywhere can be
vulnerable to seizing.
Jim Duncan, retired North Texas Renewable Energy Inc 817.917.0527
solarguy2...@gmail.com
https://www.grainger.com/product/2VFF3
*****************************************
On 9/7/2021 11:36 AM, Jerry Shafer wrote:
Wrenches
Per request from Unirac I cut sections off and sent it back to unirac
and they say that modules that did not come loose we over tightened,
they do something like magaflux on iron, they could see fractures in
the rails, aluminum cracks when bent where steel is bending.
Jerry
On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 4:30 AM Will White <w...@solarenergy.org
<mailto:w...@solarenergy.org>> wrote:
Jerry,
I'm curious, how did they prove over torquing? When doing
inspections it's easy to find connectors that are under torqued
but I haven't heard of a reliable way to check for over torque.
Thanks,
Will
On Mon, Sep 6, 2021 at 1:34 AM Jerry Shafer
<jerrysgarag...@gmail.com <mailto:jerrysgarag...@gmail.com>> wrote:
1/4" x 20 is no more the 10 ftlbs (120 inlbs) and a good 1/4"
impact should be able to get you over 30 ftlb. When you
overtorq bolts and nuts you put undue and irreversible
stretching and or tearing of the material not to mention
warping or bending of the plates, and rails, loosening and
retorqing is a wait as if damage is done its done, the best
solution is to replace all the stressed hardware. I have seen
unirac "T" bolts crack the the rails with a bad result, so the
question is how far do you want to dig and risk to take.
Regarding cracked glass, I have only seen this with incorrect
use of the clamps but over torqing will also crush the frames.
I have inspected arrays after high wind events that resulted
in destruction of the array and the manufacture in all cases
used over torq as thier out so warranty are only as good as
the installers.
Jerry
NABCEP PV inspector
On Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 8:56 PM Corey Shalanski
<coreso...@gmail.com <mailto:coreso...@gmail.com>> wrote:
August,
Thanks for your feedback.The racking model is EcoFoot2+
<https://ecolibriumsolar.com/ecofoot2plus/> by Ecolibrium
Solar (now part of Unirac). These module clamps are also
self-grounding with teeth to bite into the module frame. I
reached out to the manufacturer, who confirmed that
the clamp material is aluminum extrusion and the hardware
is stainless steel.
The modules were installed about 2 weeks ago, so not very
much time has elapsed to be able to observe potential
resultant damage. We haven't seen any problems so far.
--
Corey
On Fri, Sep 3, 2021 at 6:35 AM August Goers
<aug...@luminalt.com <mailto:aug...@luminalt.com>> wrote:
Hi Corey -
For many years we used Pro Solar racking and Unirac
Solarmount and tightened the clamps with impact
drivers. At some point maybe roughly 8 years ago,
Unirac switched its mid clamps to stainless steel self
grounding clamps with teeth to bite into the module
frame. We continued to use impacts with no issue.
Then, starting around 4 years ago, we started to have
module glass failures with our SunPower commercial
systems and these Unirac clamps. We immediately
switched to torque wrenches for tightening the clamps.
However, the failures continued. My guess is that the
poor design of the Unirac mid clamps in conjunction
with thinner “weaker” module frames exasperated the
issue. We now have stopped using those mid clamps and
continue to hand tighten all clamps. We primarily
install SunPower, and their residential module frames
have a lip so all the pressure from the clamp doesn’t
go to the glass.
Getting to your question - what kind of mid clamps
do you have? If they are aluminum, there may be less
risk than the stainless clamps. I would be worried
that the process of loosening and then re-tightening
might cause more damage than good if there aren’t any
problems that have occurred to date. It’s a good question.
August
Luminalt
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