SIGNIFICANCE OF NUTS AND BOLTS IN AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS
Production environments were born of the automotive industry, the realization that cars would one day encircle the globe. Nuts and bolts were and still are the fasteners of choice here. The fasteners bind the parts of the car together, tightening quickly in this fast-paced setting, but they also inject sound locking characteristics into the mix, for they’re about to enter a domain that will do its utmost to undermine their function.
The design of an automobile is a necessarily exhaustive process as far as fasteners are concerned. No one wants the rattle of a loose housing piece, but that one example pales into insignificance when compared with the active areas that bolts and their companioning nuts are employed. A set of brake discs and the brake drum must always be fixed, and this stability factor is applied to the rest of the brake system, steering assemblies, and critical parts of the engine. A fastener failure, at speed, could cause a tragedy, which is why manufacturers include fastener audits in their productivity cycle. Complex calculations account for breakaway torque and balance the torque settings of tools against the hardness of the bolt and its thin-edged threads.
Once tested, the automotive components lock the parts of the car together. On starting the engine, the fasteners now exist in a realm where movement is the be-all and end-all of functionality. The axles and shock-absorbing suspension system pairs with wheels and tyres to ease impact, but such events are part of the job, after all. There’s vibration from the engine. The exhaust pipe transmits this vibrational force along the chassis, and the entire body is pounded by loosening forces. The nuts and bolts that live on this moving knife-edge of balanced mechanical forces embrace stability, holding everything together as the vehicle hurtles down ill-maintained highways and bumpy off-road backdrops. The fasteners maintain a solid lock between two or more surfaces, add active vibration compensation elements, and deter the shocks that can’t be absorbed by a hard-working suspension system. Mechanically designed from wide heads, the nuts and bolts use a larger cross-sectional area and a stronger helical form to distribute these forces. Additionally, the alloys sourced for their material backbone are made from the most robust grades of steel, tempered materials that won’t fail when huge clamping forces are applied.
Remember, a fastener should be hard but not so hard that brittleness enters the form. Brittleness equals breakage. The tempering of fasteners is essential in this case.
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TCI Fasteners – Topcope
13 Slater Parade, Keilor East VIC 3033 Australia
Telephone: (03) 9336 0155