However they are arrived at, these companies, major, long-established, electrical engineering concerns have staked their financial well being (and FAIK in some jurisdictions the liberty of the directors) on them being right.As I've just said, most of the quoted torques have the appearance of simply being round-figure 'guesstimates', which largely ignore variation in terminal size or conductor size/number - which surely cannot be the result of much 'science'?
But for some reason which has no rational or logical basis, everybody seems to think that they must be wrong, and everybody seems to think that they have been quite justified in contravening the Wiring Regulations when tightening the screws.
I don't doubt that you do.As you say, in the case of electrical terminals, I feel sure that the judgement of an experienced person is likely to be much better/safer than these almost 'generic' (and possibly largely 'arbitrary') torque figures.
Some people feel equally sure that the world is flat, or that the US Govt blew up the WTC, or that the Apollo moon landings were faked. But at least with some of those the believers do have an answer to "why on earth would they do that?"
