When designing sheet metal enclosures and products, engineers must decide how the components will be joined. Hardware insertion is a common method, allowing engineers to cleanly add fasteners to sheet metal parts. Fasteners are used across industries, including consumer electronics, data and telecom, medical equipment, and automotive electronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may have heard them called PEM\u00ae fasteners; however, PEM is a brand name and registered trademark for specific fasteners manufactured by PennEngineering.<\/a> In addition to PEM, several other companies manufacture fasteners. The choice of fastener will depend on your application. Some fasteners include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are other methods of attaching metal components, including several types of welding.<\/a> However, under specific circumstances, fasteners are more appropriate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welding is more appropriate when you want a permanent attachment. In addition, welding is more robust, so weld fasteners may be more suitable for heavier applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Choosing the correct hardware will impact the quality of your final product. Since some sheet metal may be too thin to be threaded, the fastener essentially becomes part of the metal to provide threads or studs for joining. Hardware specification is a critical step in the design process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hardware is inserted by punching or drilling a hole smaller than the diameter of the fastener. A parallel squeezing force presses the fastener through the hole and crimps it into place. The sheet metal cold flows around the fastener to provide torque-out resistance, so the time the squeezing force is applied is critical to allow this process to happen. The head will be flush with the sheet when installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holes must be spec\u2019d to be the correct size. Holes that are too small can be made larger, but it takes additional time. Holes that are too big will generate scrap because once removed, material can\u2019t be added back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Material compatibility between the hardware and the sheet metal is essential. The fastener cannot be a softer metal than sheet metal. If the sheet metal is harder than the fastener, it can be damaged and won\u2019t have the clinching to secure it to the metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placement of the fastener is vital to ensure it doesn\u2019t impact the structural integrity of the part or negatively impact the fastener\u2019s performance. If the fastener is placed too close to an edge or bend, the sheet metal can bulge, and reduced performance can occur. The manufacturer provides the centerline-to-edge (C\/L) dimension for each fastener. If several fasteners are placed next to each other, the distance between them should be C\/L + \u00bd the diameter of the second mounting hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To effectively use hardware inserts, they must be correctly chosen and properly designed for your project. As a full-service precision sheet metal fabricator<\/a>, Tusco Manufacturing assists clients in achieving desired outcomes by applying design for manufacturability (DFM) principles to each project. We will ensure material compatibility and that the fasteners’ placement will not negatively impact the part’s integrity. Contact us for a quote.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When designing sheet metal enclosures and products, engineers must decide how the components will be joined. Hardware insertion is a common method, allowing engineers to cleanly add fasteners to sheet metal parts. Fasteners are used across industries, including consumer electronics, data and telecom, medical equipment, and automotive electronics. You may have heard them called PEM\u00ae […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuscomfg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
When To Use Fasteners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Hardware Insertion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We Can Help With Hardware Insertion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n