Saffle Karosseri (Saffle, Sweden) was founded in 1913 and started building wooden bus bodies in 1928. The company changed to aluminum in 1950. Since 1981, the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volvo Bus Corp., offering a comprehensive range of buses. Three hundred buses are produced per year.

When the company introduced System 2000-a system for building bus bodies based on a special noncorrosive aluminum alloy, new frame design and bonding method-the demanding assembly required a different fastener.

"We needed a fastener with a high tensile strength and a strong clamp force to cope with the vibrations that a bus body is subjected to. In addition, the fastener had to be easy to install where it wouldn't be seen. After tests, Magna Bulb blind rivets from Huck International (Telford, England) proved to be perfect for the job," says Karl Erik Aronsson of Saffle Karosseri. "There are now over 1,000 of these fasteners in every bus we produce."

The Magna Bulb fastener has superior holding power with a wide, bulb-shaped "footprint" on the blind side. It won't pull through the hole and is suitable for thin or low-strength materials, such as aluminum, fiberglass and plastic. The fastener is commonly used in truck cabs, school buses, shopping carts and trailer liners.

Although the company has been using Huck fasteners since 1978, the continued use of Huck's fasteners and tooling has significantly improved Saffle Karosseri's assembly operation.

"Prior to fasteners, we used a complicated installation combination of solid aluminum rivets and very heavy tooling. The process is now much easier and quicker for our operators," says Aronsson.

System 2000 allows for considerable variation in design layout and thus tailored products.

The results are satisfied customers.

For more information on fasteners, call 800-234-4825 or visit www.huck.com-/industrial.