There are three major steel fasteners used in industries: stainless steel, carbon steel, and alloy steel. The largest distributor of fasteners in North America is the Fastenal Company. More than 200 billion fasteners are used per year in the U.S., 26 billion of these by the automotive industry. The industry is strongly tied to the production of automobiles, aircraft, appliances, agricultural machinery, commercial construction, and infrastructure. In 2005, it was estimated that the United States fastener industry runs 350 manufacturing plants and employs 40,000 workers. Likewise, hinges and springs may join objects together, but are ordinarily not considered fasteners because their primary purpose is to allow articulation rather than rigid affixment. Items like a rope, string, wire, cable, chain, or plastic wrap may be used to mechanically join objects but are not generally categorized as fasteners because they have additional common uses. There are also special-purpose closing devices, e.g., a bread clip. Fasteners can also be used to close a container such as a bag, a box, or an envelope or they may involve keeping together the sides of an opening of flexible material, attaching a lid to a container, etc. Some types of woodworking joints make use of separate internal reinforcements, such as dowels or biscuits, which in a sense can be considered fasteners within the scope of the joint system, although on their own they are not general-purpose fasteners.įurniture supplied in flat-pack form often uses cam dowels locked by cam locks, also known as conformat fasteners. Force may also be used, such as with magnets, vacuum (like suction cups), or even friction (like sticky pads). Other methods of joining materials, some of which may create permanent joints, include: crimping, welding, soldering, brazing, taping, gluing, cement, or the use of other adhesives. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Typical fasteners ( US quarter shown for scale)Ī fastener (US English) or fastening (UK English) is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) ( November 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources where they are used inappropriately. This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |