The Right Design
Bossard is THE fastener expert. Its services services can help you find the right fastening solutions for manufacturing and make your company more competitive by slashing time to market. This industry leader has complied a list of suggestions below, exclusively for FORGE readers.
When designing your product, many questions need to be asked. For example:
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What type of environment will it need to withstand?
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Does it need to be accessible for maintenance?
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What safety factors should I consider?
These are just a few questions that need to be kept in mind. These same questions should be considered while choosing the proper fastener to keep your product safe and reliable. The following 5 tips will help in your design:
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Match property classes/grades. Use nuts and washers that correspond to the bolt. Choosing the wrong class can cause an unexpected failure in service. For example: Class 8 nut + Class 200 HV washer + Class 8.8 bolt = safe assembly.
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Try sticking with standard fasteners as this will help keep your cost down and improve lead times.
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Keep assemblies simple as this will reduce assembly time and cost.
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Use multi-functional fasteners. This will reduce the overall total cost of your assembly. For example, using thread-forming screws will eliminate the tapping step and improve the vibrational resistance of your joint. Another example is to have a pre-applied thread locker on your fasteners instead of manually applying it. This will save time during assembly, improve consistency, and avoid operators from potentially forgetting to apply it.
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Analyze your material choices in your assembly – avoid contact between dissimilar metals to avoid potential galvanic corrosion issues.
Fasteners may be a small component in your assembly; however, they are very important and should not be left as the last step in your design. This may lead to the use of custom fasteners which are more expensive and less readily available.
At Bossard, we become strategic partners with our customers, developing solutions that help them become more efficient and outperform their competitors. We call this Proven Productivity. We would love to answer any questions you have about design and fastener selection. Explore our website at Bossard.com and check out our blog posts at ProvenProductivity.com to learn more about engineering solutions and our company! Contact us any time at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com.
