Tag Archives: Innovation & Technology

Solar Fasteners

Posted on by

Reprint from Fastener World Magazine, Vol. 152

Thomas Edison is attributed with the following quote, “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide…. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” Today, many would see his words as prophetic. As concerns have increased over the supply of consumable energy sources and their lasting impact on the earth, cleaner and renewable energy sources have become a topic of intense interest and anticipated source for future energy consumption.

Read the full article (PDF)Download

Where Does Cold Heading Wire & Rod Come From? Part 3 – Wire Processing

Posted on by

From Fasteners Technology International, October 2014

In recent years, there has been a strong resurgence of interest in the wine and spirits industry. One of the advantageous traits of many wines and other spirits is their ability, or in some cases necessity, to age in the bottle or a wooden barrel. This “aging” time transforms the wine or spirit from a drink that may be initially quite nondescript or even “nasty” to one that is of fine quality and enjoyed by the consuming practitioner.

In much the same way, hot rolled rod looks to all but the trained eye like a product ready to go into a cold header and be made into bolts. Like wine though, at this stage looks can be deceiving and a variety of unpleasant surprises may be in store for fastener manufacturers that would consider
using hot rolled rod straight from the mill.

Download the full article (PDF) »

Characterization of Flow Drill Screwdriving Process Parameters on Joint Quality

Posted on by

From SAE International, September 2014

Abstract: A state of the art proprietary method for aluminum-to-aluminum joining in the automotive industry is Resistance Spot Welding. However, with spot welding (1) structural performance of the joint may be degraded through heat-affected zones created by the high temperature thermal joining process, (2) achieving the double-sided access necessary for the spot welding electrodes may limit design flexibility, and (3) variability with welds leads to production inconsistencies. Self-piercing rivets have been used before; however they require different rivet/die combinations depending on the material being joined, which adds to process complexity. In recent years the introductions of screw products that combine the technologies of friction drilling and thread forming have entered the market. These types of screw products do not have these access limitations as through-part connections are formed by one-sided access using a thermo-mechanical flow screwdriving process with minimal heat. The friction drilling, thread forming process, hereto referred to as “FDS” is an automated continuous process that allows multi-material joining by utilizing a screw as both the tool and the fastener. The process uses the friction caused by the rotating screw to pierce and extrude the material. Threads are then created in this formed extrusion which allows the fastener to be screwdriven into the parts. A final torquing then securely clamps together the sheets of material. This study explores the quality design space as represented by resultant joint geometry as a function of the critical process parameters of fastener force and drilling speed. Feasible design space regions are explored to determine how process parameters affect joint geometry, and strength testing performed to validate the findings. (Article No.: SAE 2014-01-2241)

Available for Purchase on SAE International: http://papers.sae.org/2014-01-2241/

 

Where Does Cold Heading Wire & Rod Come From? Part 2 – Hot Rolling

Posted on by

From Fasteners Technology International, August 2014

In the June/July 2014 issue of this magazine, we began this three-part series tracing the origins of cold heading wire and rod. In Part I, we looked at the steel-making process and how the CHQ wire and rod used in North America today mostly starts out as a combination of smelted or processed iron ore and steel sources melted in electric arc furnaces, refined and continuously cast into intermediate steel products known as billets or blooms.

It is from this point that we pick up the process. In this, Part II, of this series, we will explore how these intermediate products are transformed from a long, usually square or rectangular section of steel, to the “round” coiled rod we associate with raw material for cold heading.

Download the full article (PDF) »

Where Does Cold Heading Wire & Rod Come From? Part 1 – Steel Making

Posted on by

From Fasteners Technology International, June 2014

Although our human nature is innately curious, we often simply don’t have the time to fully explore our world and accept many everyday occurrences at face value. For example, when we flip on a light switch we rarely, if ever, consider how that electricity was generated or delivered to our home. In a similar fashion, those of us who manufacturer fasteners rarely give much thought to how the raw materials we start with are transformed into a product that we can successfully cold head.

This article is the first of a three part series that looks at the origins and processes of cold heading quality wire and rod. Part one explores how steel is created today from both scrap and elemental sources and continuously cast into intermediate steel products. Part two will explore how these intermediate products are “broken down” and hot rolled to form coiled bar and rod. Part three will explore how hot rolled product is further processed into wire and rod that can be introduced and used in a cold header.

Download the full article (PDF) »

The Power of Value Engineering – Converting Screw Machine Parts to Cold Headed Parts

Posted on by

From Link Magazine, Spring 2014

As markets become more global, customers are ever demanding new ways for suppliers to deliver them value. Over the last ten years or more, these same companies have been reducing their engineering and purchasing staffs, creating a new dependence and responsibility in their vendors to generate both quality and cost improvement ideas. For many distributors, this new responsibility is an unwelcome diversion in their already hectic and changing environment. However, for a select few, these new expectations present a unique opportunity to be exploited and profited from.

Download the full article (PDF) »

Miniature Thread Forming Screws for Plastics and Light Metals for Electronics Applications

Posted on by

From Fastener World Magazine, May/June 2014, Volume 146

As handheld electronic devices have gotten smaller and lighter, the fasteners that hold them together have had to follow suit. Although miniature metric and imperial machine screws have been used in eyewear, watches, and cameras for many years, it is only relatively recently that very small variants of thread forming screws have become commonplace. It is impossible to explain why this is the case, but probably stems from the fact that thread forming in plastics and light metals is a practice that has itself only recently gained universal acceptance.

Download the full article (PDF) »

Self-tapping Fasteners for Lightweight Designs

Posted on by

From SAE International, April 2014

Abstract:  As automotive technology rapidly provides advances in lighter weight designs and materials, the technology to fasten and join them must keep pace. This paper will explore two uniquely different fastening technologies that are being used to address some of today’s demanding application challenges in plastics and thin steel and aluminum sheet. These are two areas of application that have historically provided few good options for designers, especially as they attempt to push the envelope with progressive, light weight designs. The first technology is self- tapping screws for plastics that, although not new, are now evolving to enable smaller bosses and shorter thread engagements, and incorporate light weight design options. Although dependent on the demands of the application, these screws can be produced in both steel and, now, lighter weight materials such as aluminum and plastic. The paper will explore how these technologies can be employed by the designer to obtain desired weight reduction initiatives over more conventional threaded fasteners for fastening plastic. The second technology are self-tapping, thermal forming screws that enable fastening of thin metal sheets that normally are unable to safely accommodate a threaded fastener joint because of the minimum sheet thickness. This technology is proving especially useful in automotive body-in-white applications where multiple stacks of aluminum sheet, mixed applications of aluminum and steel, multiple stacks of thin steel, and applications into extruded aluminum or magnesium members, particularly with one-sided access are necessary. This portion of the paper will specifically explore how this technology allows lighter weight aluminum or thinner steel sheets to be used since a robust and secure threaded joint can be formed. (Article No.: SAE 2014-01-0785)

Available for Purchase on SAE International: http://papers.sae.org/2014-01-0785/

Basics of Austempering — A Thermal Hardening Process for Fasteners over HRC40

Posted on by

From Fasteners Technology International, February 2014

What do many lawn mower blades and automotive spring steel clips have in common? When considering their applications, probably very little, but in their product realization, they likely have both employed Austempering (a heat treating process) as their method for strengthening and toughening. Although over 75 years old, Austempering is a heat treating process that has really only become practically viable and commercially employed in the last 40 years. Austempering will likely never supplant conventional quench and tempering processes for the majority of threaded fastener applications, yet some of the advantages are so compelling that there will always be interest and activity in expanding the current application field. At hardness levels above 40 HRC, Austempered parts demonstrate improved mechanical properties such as toughness, ductility and strength over their quench and tempered counterparts of comparable hardness. Austempered parts undergo significantly less distortion, which reduces the subsequent cost of post heat treatment remediation.

Since this technology has direct application for the fastener industry, both now and well into the future, it is advisable for practitioners of the industry to have an understanding of the basics and enough information to consider what future possibilities might be waiting out there. The goal of this article is to provide a simplified explanation of this complex process and to explain some of its more compelling advantages.

Download the full article (PDF) »

Fastening Solutons: Plastic Clip-On Bosses for Thin Sheet Applicatons

Posted on by

From Fastener Technology International, December 2013

I have an older garden tractor that I use to cut my grass. Several years ago the engine began to puff smoke and quickly deteriorated to where it was evident that I either needed a new tractor or to rebuild the engine. Since a new, comparable tractor was not in my budget, I decided to rebuild the engine on my own. This meant removing the hood and cowlings to gain access to the engine so that I could take it off the frame and rebuild it. On this tractor, each side of the engine compartment is shrouded by a separate metal panel with two clearance holes in the top corners, which allow a screw to pass through and clamp the panel in place with a metal J-type clip located at a connection point behind the panel. Although this type of joint had worked fine for almost 30 years, after removing these screws and reconnecting them a couple of times, the much harder spring steel clip “stripped” the threads off of the softer screws and they began to back-out. Of course this created a problem when the tractor was running because there was no clamp load left and the panels would vibrate loudly.

Initially, my solution was to retighten the screws, later I began rotating them between joints, and finally I replaced the old screws with new ones. None of these solutions worked for long and I finally got fed up with it and decided to fix it for good.

Download the full article (PDF) »