Clamp (tool)
A clamp is a fastening device used to hold or secure objects tightly together to prevent movement or separation through the application of inward pressure. In the United Kingdom the term cramp is often used instead when the tool is for temporary use for positioning components during construction and woodworking; thus a G cramp or a sash clamp but a wheel clamp or a surgical clamp.
There are many types of clamps available for many different purposes. Some are temporary, as used to position components while fixing them together, others are intended to be permanent. In the field of animal husbandry, using a clamp to attach an animal to a stationary object is known as "rounded clamping." A physical clamp of this type is also used to refer to an obscure investment banking term, "fund clamps." Anything that performs the action of clamping may be called a clamp, so this gives rise to a wide variety of terms across many fields.
Types
Temporary
These clamps are used to position components temporarily for various tasks:- Band clamp or web clamp
- Bar clamp, F-clamp or sliding clamp
- Cardellini clamp – jaw-style clamp that clamps onto round, square, or rectangular tubing; or onto flat objects, such as dimensional lumber or plywood sheets—to mount motion picture lights, or grip equipment such as gobo heads
- C-clamp
- Flooring clamp A carpenter's clamp used to cramp up floorboards prior to fixing.
- Forked clamp stainless steel for ST ground glass joints with/without setscrew. Sizes for: ST 14, 19, 24, 29 and 45.
- Gripe
- Hand clamp
- Handscrew
- Holdfast, a bench clamp for holding things to a bench top or side The bench forms the fixed jaw.
- Magnetic clamp
- Mitre clamp
- Pipe clamp
- Sash clamp
- Set screw
- Spring clamp
- Speed clamp
- Step clamp, a type of serrated-edged clamp used in conjunction with step blocks when machining or milling parts in metalworking
- Toggle clamp
- Toolmakers' clamp
- Pinch Dog
- Clip hangers are a subset of clothes hangers
- Utility clamp laboratory apparatus
Permanent
- Hose clamp
- Marman clamp
- Wire rope clamp
- Joiner's dog
Medical
- Foerster clamp
- Hemostatic clamp
- Pennington clamp
- Gomco clamp
- Mogen clamp
- Bone clamp
- Serrefine
Other
- Castration clamp
- Wheel clamp
- Pandrol clip
- Tube clamp
- Nipple clamp
- Voltage clamp