Tag Archives: Design

Is There Value in Application Engineering?

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Reprint from LINK, Summer 2021

I began my career in the fastener industry over thirty years ago as an Application Engineer. This was a great place to start, and, perhaps, the most cherished time of all my years in the industry. I suppose that Application Engineering can mean different things to different people, but within the fastener realm this role is pretty universally understood as an interface which works with the customer to provide the best fastening solution. This not only means choosing the correct fastener but also the related joint design, fastener heat treatment, finish, packaging, and any number of other design or process related decisions.

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A “Galling Development” – What Every Distributor Should Know about Thread Galling

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Reprint from LINK, Spring 2021

A number of year’s back I was engaged by a Midwestern distributor to review an application problem that had intermittently plagued one of their more important customers. Upon meeting with their customer, I learned the problem occurred during the assembly of a stainless steel Nylon insert lock nut to a like stainless steel screw. Although this was a sporadic problem, when it occurred the customer would experience assembly difficulties like nuts that were very hard to turn, nuts that reached installation torque levels before seating, and in the worst cases, nuts that became totally frozen (seized) in mid-run down position, often breaking the screw in torsion.

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A Primer on Fastener Marking

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Reprint from LINK, Summer 2020

A number of years ago I owned an old John Deere tractor that was clearly showing its age. As I tooled around my yard cutting the grass I noticed that the engine was laboring more and more and it was consistently blowing oily blue smoke from the exhaust. I knew it was time to either retire the tractor or rebuild the engine. Although I had never done it before, I decided I would try my hand at rebuilding the engine.

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Tension Control Bolts

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Reprint from Hardware & Fastener Components Magazine, Vol. 51

What are Tension Control Bolts?
Tension Control Bolts have a domed head, body, threads, and a splined tip known as the Pin Tail. (See Figure 1) Tension Control Bolts are part of the structural bolting family given by ASTM F3125. Like the other structural bolt variations, these come in two different types, regular and weathering steel and two different strength grades, 125,000 psi and 150,000 psi. The 125,000 psi version is considered Grade A325 and marked as A325TC or A325TC depending on whether it is Type 1 (regular steel) or Type 3 (weathering steel), respectively. The 150,000 psi version is considered Grade A490 and marked as A490TC or A490TC depending on whether it is Type 1 or Type 3, respectively.

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Dr. Fastener: Aerospace Fasteners

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Reprint from China Fastener World Magazine, Vol. 186

Q: What are Aerospace Fasteners?
A: Aerospace Fasteners are fasteners that are used in aircraft and space vehicles. Normally the Aerospace Fastener market breaks into three segments; Commercial Aircraft, Business Jets, and Defense and Space. Many Aerospace Fasteners fall into similar categories as industrial and automotive fasteners, like bolts and screws, wrenchable nuts, and inserts but there are some fasteners that fall into categories only found in aerospace like pin and collars, anchor plates, and panel fasteners. Somewhere around 40% – 50% of all Aerospace Fasteners are made to National Aerospace Standards Committee (NASC) standards.

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Strategies To Mitigate Fatigue Failure in Fasteners

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From Fasteners Technology International, August 2013

Although component failures have probably been around for as long as man has been putting things together, it wasn’t until the early to mid nineteenth century that engineers began studying the progressive failure mode that we know today as fatigue. Although highly undesirable, fatigue is a relatively common failure among fasteners and regretfully can lead to some dramatic and even life-threatening consequences. A great deal of progress in understanding fatigue has been made since the nineteenth century, and yet there is still much to be learned. Fortunately, enough is understood today that specific strategies and practices can be employed when a bolt or screw is designed in an application at risk of fatigue failure. This article will look at the basics of fatigue in fasteners and preventative measures that can be adopted to reduce the risk of failure and improve the durability or life of the fastener component.

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Doing it Right the First Time

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Designing the right joint or fastening system up-front with some value and application engineering techniques in the early design stages is extremely important.

From Fastener Technology International, August 2012

In the 1998 movie, “Armageddon”, as he is being strapped into a space capsule atop a rocket, Rock Hound, the character played by Steve Buscemi utters this line to Harry, the character played by Bruce Willis, “Hey Harry? You know we’re sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has two hundred and seventy thousand moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it?”

 In my opinion, this ranks as one of the most humorous lines from Hollywood in recent years. But unfortunately, one that expresses, at its core, an attitude that all too often seems to prevail among even the best and most enlightened users of fasteners.

 How often have you heard that, “it’s only a screw, nut or bolt” or found yourself in a tense situation trying to make or locate a fastener because your customer failed to appreciate the engineering complexity, time or dollar constraints associated with making or procuring the right one?

 Naturally, most of the readers of Fastener Technology International probably have a healthy respect for how much engineering goes into specifying, designing and manufacturing the right fastener for a specific application. You realize how critical a fastener can be to the overall success or failure of a customer’s project.

You can probably cite multiple instances of customers that have failed to adequately consider the design of the fastened joint or waited to the last minute to choose the proper fastener, and then had the audacity to wonder why your company cannot support them. How often have these delays or oversights ultimately cost the customer precious resources and you “reputation points”?

 Fortunately, no one needs to find themselves in this predicament. With proper education, communication and the latest in application and value-engineering tools, many of these pitfalls can be avoided. Generally, it doesn’t take a significant investment of time or resources to work with a manufacturer, authorized distributor or knowledgeable party to conduct value and application engineering services early in the design cycle and eliminate much of this frustration on the backend. In most cases, it is clearly evident this early investment can pay significant dividends later in the design cycle.

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