Panel nuts are low-profile fasteners used to secure small threaded components to panels and enclosures. They have a large bore to overall diameter ratio and can be hexagonal or rounded with a knurled surface. They are not meant for high torque applications and are often used with springs or lock washers to prevent loosening. Common materials include brass, nylon, and stainless steel. They are typically used on through-panel mounted electrical and audio components and have a small footprint due to space constraints.
A panel nut is a fastener specifically designed to secure small threaded components such as switches, potentiometers, and lamps to the surface of panels and enclosures. This type of nut is typically of a very low profile with a large bore to overall diameter ratio. Panel nuts can be of a conventional hex design for tool fastening or have a round, knurled outer surface for hand fastening. These fasteners are not intended for high torque applications and are often used with springs or lock washers to prevent loosening and movement of components. Common panel nut materials include brass with a nickel plated finish, nylon, and stainless steel.
Through-panel mounted electrical and audio components such as small toggle and push switches, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and indicator lights, jack sockets, and potentiometers are typically equipped with a threaded shoulder/nut arrangement for locking. Typically used on vehicle dashboards, audio equipment, and circuit enclosures, these components are mounted through a hole in the panel or enclosure surface with the component connections on the inside and the locknut on the outside. This lock nut is known as a panel nut and due to the design constraints typical in this type of application, it must be of a very specific design.
Most of these components feature a threaded shoulder that is often not much longer than the thickness of the typical cabinet panel or wall. This doesn’t leave much thread exposed to accept the locknut. This requires the panel nut to have a low profile design to allow for full thread penetration while still having enough clearance to include a washer. Because of this, most panel nuts have an average height of about 0.11 inch (2.8 mm), which is much thinner than most fasteners.
In many cases, the through-panel components are stacked very close to each other, which also places space constraints on the type of nut used to lock them in place. This means that most panel nut designs have a very large hole to overall diameter ratio to keep the nut as tight as possible. An average panel nut will have a hole diameter of 0.31 inch (7.8 mm) and an overall diameter of only 0.44 inch (11.2 mm). This leaves about 1/10 of an inch of “flesh” around the outside of the hole, thus giving the panel nut a very small footprint.
The slim design of the panel nuts means they are not designed to exert high torque and are only meant to secure the component under light pressure. Due to the lack of clamping force applied to these fasteners, they are typically used with a spring or lock washer to prevent loosening. To this end, these nuts can be hexagonal in shape for wrench tightening or rounded with a knurled surface for finger tightening. Panel dice form, for the most part, part of the visual appeal of any installation and are often designed with some decorative finish such as high gloss plating and domed profiles. Common materials used in manufacturing panel nuts include nickel-plated brass, zinc-plated steel, nylon, and stainless steel.
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