Installing waterproofing solutions as simply as possible, but still avoiding leaks and structural damage: This was the challenge facing the Rhede-based company KRASO. That's why it developed a special nut that stands out from the competition in several respects.
Find out more about the innovation from Münsterland on this page.
Since 1981, the medium-sized family business KRASO GmbH & Co. KG from Rhede has been developing, producing and distributing water pressure-tight installation parts for concrete construction and sealing solutions for cables and pipes. With its innovative solutions, the company is one of the market leaders in Germany. Practical relevance on the construction site is particularly important to KRASO: KRASO products not only have to pass the test in the laboratory, but also withstand the hard everyday work on the construction site.
KRASO sealing inserts are often used to lead cables and pipes into and out of a building in a pressure-water and radon-proof manner. The cable is then passed through a sealing insert consisting of two stainless steel clamping plates with a rubber seal in between. First the insert is inserted into a core bore or a casing, then the clamping plates, which are connected by threaded bolts, are tightened to a specified torque. This squeezes the rubber against the pipe and into the core bore so that it can seal against pressurised water and gas.
To tighten the threaded bolts, a torque spanner was previously necessary - a tool that is not always available on a construction site. Then a socket spanner is often resorted to, which again does not allow control of the torque. In the worst case, the bolt breaks off or the pipe is bent. Thus it can leak and the cellar become damp.
KRASO GmbH was in close contact with the construction companies about this problem and worked on a solution that would make the use of a torque spanner superfluous and still guarantee error-free installation. This is how the torque control nut KRASO DKM came into being: a two-piece special nut made of glass-fibre reinforced high-performance plastic. Inside, it has a low-wear friction clutch that ensures that the nut can only be tightened until the integrated torque is reached. Then there is a signal that can be heard and felt.
In addition, the nut can be loosened again and re-tightened with the integrated torque - it is therefore reusable. Comparable solutions have not been able to do that so far.
Not only KRASO tested the DKM extensively in practice, but also Weidemann + Schillings Bau GmbH from Rhede. With success. "The KRASO DKM is advantageous for us because it can be installed quickly and easily without special tools and installation errors are virtually eliminated," is Florian Schillings' conclusion, Managing Director at Weidemann + Schillings.
According to KRASO, it has brought a world innovation to the market, which it also had patented. The DKM now facilitates the installation of KRASO sealing solutions - from simple sealing inserts to complete house connection systems - and thus offers a further advantage over competitor products. It can also be used wherever the right torque is required: In vehicle and machine construction as well as in heating and air conditioning technology. Because the sophisticated design can be applied to almost any torque. "First and foremost, of course, the DKM was intended as a further improvement of our products. But in the meantime, quite a few companies from the most diverse areas of industry have expressed their interest," explains Dennis Krasemann, managing partner and responsible for the development department at KRASO.
2022 KRASO GmbH & Co KG was nominated as one of four companies for the Münsterland Innovation Award in the business category. With this video, their innovation, the torque control nut, was presented at the award ceremony.
As a regional joint initiative, Enabling Networks Münsterland supports companies and universities in the Münsterland region in developing innovations, implementing them and finding the right partners for the project. In order to show how innovative and at the same time cooperative Münsterland already is, the project also went in search of innovative cooperation projects from the region. The results are presented on this page. The Enabling Networks Münsterland project is funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW".
