Adjustable locking levers LS55 bushing black

Adjustable Clamping Levers LS55 with a bushing are clamping levers built for frequent use; the toothed ring that locks the position of the lever is made here in steel instead of plastic. The function is the same as in all adjustable clamping levers: lift the handle, turn it freely to a position where it is not in the way and let it down so the teeth take a fresh grip. The joint keeps its torque whatever angle the lever is parked at, and you avoid levers pointing straight out into a walkway or at a guard.

The lever body is in glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic with a matte black surface, and the internal thread sits in a bushing of blackened steel. The combination gives a stiff lever with a metal thread run and a locking mechanism that takes considerably more cycles than a toothed ring in plastic. That detail is exactly what separates LS55 from the sister series LS514, and the reason to choose LS55 when the lever is reset many times a day.

Ten versions cover the lever lengths 45, 65, 80 and 95 mm with internal threads from M3 to M12; the thread depth follows the size, from 8 mm in the smallest lever to 17 mm in the largest. The M3 and M4 sizes suit precision mechanics and instrument builds, while the 95 mm lever with M12 handles joints that have to be pulled up with force. The whole range sits as variants under the same item.

The glass fiber reinforcement in the lever body does more than stiffen it. It keeps the shape of the lever stable over time so the tooth engagement does not wear unevenly, and it takes the knocks a lever inevitably gets in a production environment. A matte surface hides scratches and dirt better than a glossy one, which shows on equipment that is used often but cleaned seldom.

The use in workshop industry is wide: clamping fixtures that are reset between parts, welding tables with movable stops, machine guards that are opened for cleaning, height adjustment on feed tables and format settings in packaging machines. Everywhere the operator has to be able to release and clamp without tools, many times per shift, the steel toothed ring pays for itself in the form of precision that stays in the locking.

The bushing version is the right one when the machine part has a stud or threaded pin that the lever is fitted onto; the lever then works as a nut with leverage. If you instead need a lever with an external threaded stud that is screwed into a threaded hole, LS55 is available in a stud version too. Blackened steel surfaces have a certain corrosion protection in a dry indoor environment, but in wet or chemically loaded environments the choice of material should be checked against the manufacturer's data sheet.

When choosing size the same logic applies as for all clamping levers: the leverage decides what torque the operator can apply by hand, so pick a size larger rather than force the operator to reach for a tool. Also check the swing radius, since the lever has to be able to be lifted and turned freely all the way around without hitting nearby parts. The levers are supplied in packs of 25 to 100 pieces depending on size, and full dimensions for each version are in the data sheet.

That the lever position can be chosen freely also has a safety side. A lever pointing out into a walkway or into a moving machine area is a risk, and with the toothed ring you rule those positions out completely. In risk assessments of machines it is precisely protruding controls that tend to come up as a remark; with an adjustable clamping lever the measure is already built into the choice of part and costs nothing extra in the design.

Do you want to compare LS55 with LS514 for your particular fixture? Get in touch and we will look at it together.