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Automotive Industry

Keeping It Together

Automotive Industries, Feb, 2001 by Gerry Kobe

Once viewed as commodities, today's fasteners are highly-engineered, multipurpose components that hold the key to quality and reduced warranty work.

Automakers around the globe have labored countless hours trying to reduce warranty and recall costs. Edicts have gone out to suppliers to improve quality, unions have pitched in with "zero defects" programs and the entire supply chain has been squeezed to help offset the rising costs of repairing vehicles. But, if auto manufacturers really want answers to what causes product failures and recalls, they need look no further than what holds their vehicles together.

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Fasteners, the necessary evil in all manufacturing operations, are one of the most basic, yet misunderstood components of a vehicle. And fastener failure is the root cause of three out of four recall campaigns.

"I don't want to sound like an anti-threaded fastener zealot," says Sandy Munro, president of Troy, Mich.,-based Munro & Associates. "But the No. 1 cause of product failure in my studies is threaded fasteners. No.2 on the list is rivets. Third, I see things like hitch pins or wire ties, and then way down at the bottom of the list are self-securing snap-fits."

To be fair, Munro concedes that world class fastener manufacturers are hitting six-sigma quality levels. And that most failures are caused by engineers selecting the wrong fastener for the job.

"Fasteners are a pre-engineered solution that allow us to just grab a handful and throw it at the problem at the last minute," Munro says. "But automakers shorten cycle times so they can change things late in a program, and that doesn't allow time to engineer the best fastening solutions. The more companies stall before committing to a design, the more incorrect fasteners and warranty work you are going to get"

Even the suppliers of fastening systems understand that while the market for their products remains strong and steady at over $8 billion, the goal is to reduce part numbers and eliminate as many fasteners as possible -- particularly commodity fasteners.

"The future of our business is fastening solutions and engineered fastening systems," comments Joachim "Jake" Hirsch, chairman and CEO of Textron Fastening Systems. "A major trend of ours is the move to vendor managed inventories. This is one-stop shopping for the customer, whether OEM or supplier. It means we will manage the fastener supply of your vehicle programs."

To strengthen its role as a fastening solutions company, Textron has added in-house technologies such as cold-forming, laser welding and an expansion of its injection molding business to its existing mechanical fastener base. It is also tapping the expertise It has gained in adhesives from its aerospace business.

There is a right and wrong place for every kind of fastening and all technologies have to be considered.

Mechanical Fastening

Still the darling of the auto industry, mechanical fastening techniques such as riveting, threaded fasteners and welding have survived attacks from Design for Manufacture and Assembly advocates as well as new material applications. And in fact, mechanical fasteners are making a comeback.

"Drawn arc stud welding is one of our core products," says Steven Bleakley, director of marketing at Emhart Fastening Teknologies. "We have developed a closed-loop feedback system for this technology that makes it foolproof. It virtually eliminates the possibility of a cold weld in the body shop. Before this technology existed, there used to be about 20 drawn arc studs per vehicle, but when GM'S full size GMT800 truck came out, it used our technology and had 129 studs per vehicle."

Variations on this technology also allow fastening of brackets, nuts and other attachments that make a single fastener technology multi-purposed and highly economical. In fact, one Emhart-supplied drawn arc welded bracket saved $1.28 per vehicle on a Ford program.

To promote its growing capabilities, Emhart has created the Virtual Innovation Center, to give engineers instant access to its technologies. The Website is incredibly comprehensive and can even do a value analysis for each fastener. For a more personal touch, Emhart has Mobile Innovation Centers that will visit the customer and give fastener and installalion tool demonstrations on site.

Electronics is also driving growth in the mechanical fastener business, particularly self-clinching products that can be easily applied to sheet metal. John O'Brien, global director of sales/product for PEM Fastening Systems, says proliferation of things like telematics, navigation systems and even ABS have boosted sales of new specialty fasteners.

"Our product actually has nothing to do with electronics," says O'Brien. "It's just that electronics uses a lot of sheet metal for RFI shielding reasons, which is perfect for our fasteners. Logically, you might imagine that would lead to standardizing and part reduction, since our product eliminates the need for washers and nuts. But as much as automakers say they want to do that, they generally create special fastener requirements that result in a new part number. They tell us our product is being designed out, but in fact, the application opportunity is expanding."

Automotive Industry

Keeping It Together

Automotive Industries, Feb, 2001 by Gerry Kobe

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