Assembling products with fasteners can be a blessing or a headache.
Fasteners are an important element of any assembly. About 70 percent of all joints are connected with mechanical fasteners. However, choosing the correct fastener, from more than 500,000 types of metal and plastic fasteners, can be overwhelming. And the decisions don't stop there. Engineers also must decide how much torque to apply to the fastener; how to feed and install the fastener; and how to ensure that the assembly has been fastened correctly. The following case studies demonstrate how some manufacturers overcame challenges when they decided to go the fastener route when assembling their products.