Your understanding is mostly on point — salt dosage directly impacts the regeneration cycle by determining how much sodium is available to exchange with the hardness ions during regeneration. Lowering the salt dosage can indeed make the softener more efficient (less salt used per cycle), but it...
Check chip evacuation, tool wear, and fixturing—especially for the bottom holes. Even with low runout, trapped chips or slight flex can cause undersize/oversize. Also, try adjusting reamer type or coolant flow.
Torque alone isn’t a reliable indicator of preload for long anchors like micropiles. Unlike short bolts, factors like friction, seating loss, and grout interaction affect load transfer. Direct measurement (e.g. load cells) is needed to confirm actual pretension.
