David Archer

One of the more interesting aspects of conducting joint tests for manufacturers is the question of sample size.

Bolted joints are the vast majority of our consulting business. Our work is divided evenly between validating joints under development and troubleshooting problems with existing joints.

Programmable torque tools have become popular in recent years, due to quality initiatives.

Impact head and drive style selection can have a profound effect on assembly productivity. To examine this, we recently conducted a study focusing on machine screws.

Most bolted joints enter production with installation torque based on textbook estimates.

The growing desire to reduce fuel consumption has caused manufacturers of all modes of transportation to be more willing to implement the use of light-weight materials, even where there is a cost penalty. However, use of new materials in a given application always carries some risk that must be mitigated through analysis and testing.

Just as both the quality of the joint and the quality of the joint designer’s knowledge base will be limited by reliance on numerical analysis, the same limitations occur when experience and applied experimentation is all one has to draw from.