Drive engineering

Two trades use das Anzugsmoment every day and mean different quantities by it. On a motor data sheet it is the starting torque: what the machine delivers from standstill the instant it is switched on, usually printed as a multiple of the rated torque. On an assembly drawing it is the tightening torque: the value a fitter sets on the torque wrench before doing up a bolt. Both grow out of anziehen, which covers a motor pulling away as readily as a nut being tightened, and German never felt the need to split them. The unit is the same newton metre, so the figure alone will not tell you which is meant; the heading of the table will. A maintenance sheet listing the motor data and the fixing bolts on one page is exactly where the two meet, and where confusing them costs either a stripped thread or a conveyor that will not start.