Rebooting old TV shows with famous characters is all the rage in Hollywood these days. Should this movement ever take hold in manufacturing, Rosie the Riveter would be a perfect icon to reintroduce to the industry.

Every assembly technology has its advantages. But, it’s hard to top the variety of fasteners and fastening methods available to manufacturers.

There are many ways to crimp or flare a lip on a cylindrical part. For example, it can be done with a press or an orbital forming machine. However, the problem with those processes, particularly the former, is that they require a good deal of force.

Fastening and pressing equipment have been used to assemble medical devices for decades, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.

Engineers at a major manufacturer of portable electronic devices had a problem. They needed to rivet a small, thin electrical contact to the device’s charger subassembly, but how could they head the tiny rivets—0.02 to 0.03 inch in diameter—without crushing the assembly?

Lean manufacturing was not a concern for Mark DeWys in 1977 when he founded DeWys Manufacturing Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI. The focus of his one-man shop back then was the fabrication of fireplace inserts, racks and various small metal parts.

Permanently assembling parts using an orbital process offers many advantages including: 80% less force required than a conventional press, a low profile aesthetically appealing head-form, low cost fasteners, a high strength joint, and the option to allow a joint to rotate.

The Baltec HPP-25 is based on a revolutionary new hardware and intelligent software; this system offers users a broader application spectrum for continuous quality assurance allowing for effective monitoring of any riveting variable in assembly applications.

Plenty of options are available for semi- or fully automatic riveting.