Engineered Fasteners: Enhancing Automotive Manufacturing

Engineered fasteners are not just nuts and bolts; they are precision-engineered solutions that offer たくさんの advantages across automotive design and manufacturing. 

So, how exactly do the smallest vehicle components impact the final product? Join us as we uncover how engineered fasteners contribute to: 

• Design optimization & enhanced performance 
• Safety and reliability 
• Cost efficiency 
• Innovation 
• Weight reduction 

Design Optimization and Enhanced Performance through Engineered Fasteners 

Fastener engineers can identify areas to meet technological demands automotive manufacturers face.  One such example is designing the geometry of a fastener to reduce the overall vehicle weight significantly.  

Another example would be identifying different materials, such as aluminum, to dissipate heat buildup, which is of paramount importance for electric vehicles as heat buildup can lead to battery life degradation or catastrophic failure.  

Designing fasteners that can be easily integrated into automated assembly processes enhances production efficiency. Ultimately, fastener engineers will look to address your unique design requirements. 

The Role of Engineered Fasteners in Enhancing Safety and Reliability

While securing components together, the fasteners used must meet high tolerance demands to ensure the vehicle meets safety standards. Take a banjo bolt in a wheel for example, these fasteners bear loads between 65-90% of their yield strength so they don’t loosen in application or worse shear. There are instances where design, assembly, performance and safety factors mean standard fasteners cannot meet all these demands. This is a key use case where engineered fasteners provide automotive builds with many benefits that also satisfy specific requirements.

Fastener engineers can review a components’ design and application and suggest enhancements that offer improved vibration resistance or tightening torque requirements.

Fastener Engineers Can Improve Your Cost Efficiency

Engineering expertise also can focus on reducing costs at each stage of the product’s lifecycle. So, the earlier you start to implement functional improvements the more likely you will see a greater reduction in costs—and elevated performance. This is because it is far easier in the early design stage of a product to make changes as opposed to one already in the market. Ultimately, incorporating fastener engineers earlier can help reduce costs throughout the product’s lifecycle.

For more details on how fasteners can impact エンジニアリング requirements, like lightweighting, watch our latest webinar with Automotive News here. 

Maintain Innovation throughout your Automotive Products with Engineered Fasteners

Innovation continues to drive the automotive industry with new concepts and intricate features appearing frequently in the market.

The same is true for fasteners. There are continuous advancements in materials, coatings and manufacturing techniques that support automotive manufacturers achieving unique results which can help differentiate the product from the rest of the market. Whether it be specialty alloyed materials that perform in sub-zero or high stress environments, to being on top with the best secondary operations to machine your components through, like turning, grinding and shaving.

Fastener engineers can also aid in the recommendation of suitable coating systems accounting for the application requirements such as corrosion protection, lubricity, UV resistance and working temperature range.

Partner with Optimas to Achieve ‘Best-in-Class’ Engineered Fasteners

Optimas provides expert engineering services to automotive OEMs who require their builds to be designed and produced with the most innovative parts and processes. Our dedicated team of fastener engineers, located in multiple locations across the world, work on a project basis or on-site with OEM engineering teams.  This close relationship enables Optimas to infuse quality, performance and cost savings in product development and innovation, scale up and mass production.

Optimas worked with a global manufacturer to redesign a part that eliminated downtime and yielded $120,000 in annual cost savings without sacrificing performance. Check out the full case study here to learn more about the impact we have on our partners.

Contact us here to see how we can help you with new solutions for your business needs.