Top 5 Industrial Fastener Mistakes Done While Manufacturing

By Author: Naman Modi
Total Articles: 1
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Every day the demand for fasteners is growing tremendously. More and
more constructions are coming up. And according to Grand View Research, the fastener companies aim to reach $ 134.2 billion clients by 2025. As fasteners continue to play a significant role in the construction industry, it’s paramount to be more attentive during processing. The better their quality, the more efficient they will work and offer better performance. That results in safer and durable structures. Purchasing fasteners that fully conform to all design specifications can also amend the mistakes.

Some of the mistakes that may impact fastener’s quality during their production include:

1. Metal decarbonization
It is during the heat treatment that soft threads may occur if the temperature goes above 700 C. That mostly happens when there is an insufficient protective atmosphere in the furnace. The result can be hazardous as the threads may strip out. The standard heat treatment process for ...
... steel fastener is quenching and tempering. Quench cracking and premature failure is likely to occur if the fasteners are not hardened immediately after chucking them out from the quench.

2. Quality installation
The battle begins in this crucial step of ensuring the fasteners do not fail. That means Fastener companies should provide proper manufacturing and the perfect selection of devices. During the assembly, the assembler should avoid over-tightening the tools, which may break the fasteners or lead to undetected thread stripping. That can be a high risk.

Under-tightened fasteners are not better as they undergo external loading than usual. All these lead to squeaks, rattles, and other disastrous fatigue failures.

3. Galling

It is a significant threat to the manufacturing fastener companies, which may result in a catastrophic failure. It usually happens when the thread galls before obtaining sufficient torque. And in the extreme case scenario, galling may cause a breakage of the fastener or application failure. High risk may happen to those applications exposed to the dynamic loads. However, one can avoid this damage by using quality fasteners made of stainless steel.

4. Hydrogen embrittlement

When high tensile steel exceeds a specific hardness, then the tensile load applied to that fastener may start plating. The hydrogen found in the component flows to the stressed area, which may cause a catastrophic failure. To avoid that from happening, fastener companies should do plaiting or add a coat on the fasteners to prevent corrosion. They should test the device for resistance with salt spray, fog test.

5. Dip spin coating

Although it provides excellent corrosion protection, too much plating may create (bit fit) issues. When this fills up the internal drive heads on the screws, trust me: the result is not pretty. According to Lafferty, as fasteners endure some significant abuse during final testing and installation, their protective coating may get compromised. It may affect the application to have premature red rust.
Bonus tip: When you have inexperienced staff operating an assembling machine, it often leads to improperly installed fasteners. And that means early failure. Assemblers need to be competent, skilled, and experienced in their job.

In conclusion, now you can see why fastener industries have to treat these products like the engineered component they are, “says John Medcalf, a principal engineer for Peak Innovations Engineering. The material, geometry, heat treatment, and the finishing process will determine the fastener’s performance. And that means from assembly throughout the product’s life. It is possible to avoid the mentioned mistakes and many more factors that may contribute to the poor-quality of fasteners.