FEATURE FASTENINGS & ADHESIVES
With the metal formed fasteners it manufactures destined for
TOP QUALITY B
efore installation in an application, metal formed fasteners must be
inspected to ensure there are no defects. It has, however, traditionally been difficult to inspect the internal threads for tiny defects such as chips, tears, weld splatter, and short or missing threads. When manual inspection of the
vertical walls of a fastener hole and its threads is carried out, not only could issues be missed due to the small size of the component, but the process is slow, labour intensive and potentially prone to human error. So, to ensure the fasteners are correct – whether for safety reasons, mission critical performance, or to optimize the manufacturing process, companies need alternative ways for inspecting. Take H&L Tool, an ISO-TS 16949:2009
registered manufacturer of precision turned and cold formed fastener products, as one example. The fasteners the company produces – such as small fuel fittings and unions for the auto industry – are safety parts, with 100% quality essential. As a result the company needs to check key areas including the internal threads. A solution was therefore needed to ensure that all the internal features were perfect and within the print. According to the company, however, even typical cameras and laser-based equipment have difficulty detecting required features inside of parts, and the deeper the hole or recess the more challenging this becomes. “One of the problems that arises
when looking at internal features on a machine is the different colour in the plating and different lighting,” said Chuck Abbate, vice president of operations. “It is very important to get a machine that determines what it is looking at, that it is truly looking at the part and not at glare or a shadow.”
INSPECTION To overcome the problem, the company selected a GI-100DT high-speed vision based measuring machine from General Inspection, a developer of high-speed
38 SEPTEMBER 2016 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
measuring and sorting fastener inspection systems. This uses a series of front and backlit cameras to calculate a part’s height and profile, as well as inner and outer diameters. For H&L Tool, this also features cameras to check for internal threads, an axial viewer that detects surface imperfections on multiple sides of a part at once, and eddy current capability, which enables checking for metallurgical defects along with plating or hardness variations. Of benefit, its 360˚ internal thread
inspection capability means the device incorporates hole inspection optics to specifically image and measure both the bottom of a hole and its vertical walls. This allows great detail of I.D. threads and the detection of very small defects like weld splatter, torn threads, reamed threads, chips in threads, short or missing threads, as well as a single damaged thread.
applications where 100% quality is essential, H&L Tool has invested in high speed sorting technologies to ensure the components leaving its facility contain zero defects
The machine is capable of distinguishing
the interior part features from glare or shadow. It features a dial table style glass top, which stabilises the parts during inspection while allowing viewing of the top and bottom at once. This helps to improve image analysis, data capture and precision, while simultaneous top and bottom viewing speeds the process. Abbate commented: “Because the parts stand straight up on the glass dial style table that the parts ride around on, cameras with convex lenses can look straight down at the parts and see 360˚ around from either side. That way with 100% sorting, you don’t miss anything. “With the glass dial style table that the parts ride around on, we can view the top and bottom of a part at the same time,” added Abbate. “On a double featured piece like a union, this allows us to run it through once instead of twice.” An axial viewer also allows detection of any surface discontinuities on six sides of a part at once. With such a capability, the camera could, for instance, simultaneously ‘see’ the top and sides of a fastener. Along with the device’s eddy current
capability, which detects any metallurgical defects including plating or hardness variations, Abbate has found the device provides the efficient, zero defect fastener sorting required. In addition, it is ten times faster than hand sorting.
General Inspection
www.generalinspection.com
A CUSTOM-DESIGNED SOLUTION
bigHead Bonding Fasteners is often challenged to provide custom designed fastening solutions for its customers. In one example, Siemens began investigating composite materials for nacelles used on its new 6MW offshore wind turbines. A composite maintenance hatch had been designed to replace a steel panel – and traditional bolt fixings were used to lock and unlock it, a two person task. To overcome this, it was decided to surface bond the 316 marine grade stainless steel bigHead to the outer skin of the nacelle and pass the threaded stud section through its composite structure. This enables the panel to be easily secured or removed by a single person from the interior of the structure. The bigHead’s large perforated head allows a generous flow of adhesive to firmly secure it in position
and its outer surface includes an over-moulded insulation layer that safeguards the nacelle against lightning strikes as well as match its colour. Now in its third year, the solution has been thoroughly field proven.
bigHead Bonding Fasteners T: 01202 583696
www.bighead.co.uk
The fasteners produced by H&L Tool – such as small fuel fittings and unions for the auto industry – are safety parts, with 100% quality essential
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