Spring steel fasteners offer important cost saving and assembly advantages. Excessive small parts and small parts handling can be drastically reduced through the benefits of multi-purpose spring steel fasteners.
Experience has shown that assembly savings from 30 to 80 percent can be made through use of spring tension fastening.
Spring steel fasteners such as ARaymond/Tinnerman’s Speed Nuts are one-piece, self-locking fasteners. They provide an inward locking thread and an arched spring lock which is energized as the screw is tightened. The combined forces of this double locking action provides a secure connection while preventing vibration loosening. ARaymond/Tinnerman manufacturers a variety of spring steel fasteners in the “Speed Nut” family including Push-Ons, Clips and Nut Retainers.
Spring steel fasteners derive their locking characteristics, holding power and vibration resistance solely from spring tension. Unlike ordinary threaded nuts, they do not have to be tightened with any great amount of torque. Excessive torque can distort the arch of the prongs and reduce the spring tension resiliency. Let’s explore why they are an inexpensive fastening solution for many applications.
16 ways that spring steel fasteners can save you money and time
1. Eliminates Lock Washers
Self-locking Speed Nut fasteners require no auxiliary holding device. They save both the cost of the lock washer and the time necessary to handle them.
2. Faster, Easier To Apply
Spring steel fasteners start easily and run freely on threads. No wrench is needed to hold them. When used with coarse-thread sheet metal screws, fewer turns are required to tighten.
3. Prevents Vibration-Loosening
Speed Nut fasteners provide a double lock to prevent vibration-loosening. Their live spring action absorbs vibration instead of resisting it, ensuring permanently tightened attachments.
4. Performs Multiple Functions
Speed Nut prongs can be incorporated in almost any shape or form and can be made to meet the requirements of specific applications or to combine several parts into one.
5. Eliminates Spanner Washers
Wide bearing surface of Speed Nut fasteners spreads the fastening load over a greater area. No spanner washer is necessary so time and money are saved.
6. Provides Design Flexibility
Spring Steel fasteners can be “tailor made” to meet the requirements of specific applications to improve product design, and to provide better and faster assembly.
7. Provides Spring Tension Resilience
ARaymond/Tinnerman fasteners provide the spring tension necessary for assembly of porcelain, enamel, glass or plastic parts, and are sufficiently resilient to prevent damage due to expansion and contraction, vibrations or shock.
8. Self-Retaining
Many types of Speed Nuts hold themselves in screw-receiving positions, eliminating welding, riveting, or clinching operations, as well as the necessary equipment and space.
9. Will Not “Freeze” On Threads
Corrosion of screw threads presents no servicing problem with Speed Nut fasteners. Engine one thread instead of several, they can be removed easily.
10. Compensates For Tolerances
ARaymond/Tinnerman fasteners compensate for tolerance variations on screw threads. Self-retaining, they provide the necessary “float” to compensate for misalignment of clearance holes.
11. Eliminates Paint-Clogging Problem
Speed Nuts cannot clog with paint. No costly delays on the assembly line for masking of threads before painting nor retapping of threads after painting.
12. Saves Weight
Made of strip instead of bar stock, ARaymond/Tinnerman fasteners weigh less than ordinary threaded nuts. They can be used on shorter screws and eliminate washers and other parts, thus saving more weight in assembly.
13. Locks On Unthreaded Studs
Push-On type spring steel fasteners bite on unthreaded studs or rivets to lick parts together. They eliminate costly threaded inserts in plastics, and machining of die castings.
14. May Be Reused Indefinitely
No matter how many times ARaymond/Tinnerman fasteners are attached and removed, they always return to their original shape and retain their spring tension locking power.
15. Minimizes Assembly Damage
The ease of attachment plus spring tension resiliency permits assembly of porcelain, enamel, plastic, or glass parts without danger of cracking or chipping.
16. Reduces Shipping Damage
ARaymond/Tinnerman fasteners greatly reduce damage to products in transit. Spring tension “cushions” your product against shock and vibration during handling, packing and shipping.
Installation of spring steel tension fasteners is easy and fast. On performance tests, ARaymond/Tinnerman Speed Nut fasteners withstand greater tensile loads if the screw holes provide a minimum amount of clearance. This does not apply to self-retaining fasteners that snap or push into place.
Advance has been a master stocking distributor of spring steel Speed Nut fasteners by ARaymond/Tinnerman since 1972. In fact, we were one of the first Tinnerman distributors in the country. The Advance Sale Team is highly trained in applications, so give us a call or send us an email if we can help you with any questions you have about spring steel fasteners.