4 Questions That Can Help You Choose The Right Metric Fasteners
Picking out the right metric nuts, bolts, and other fastening devices involves more than simply choosing particular product diameter or head style. The same kind of metric fastener that does a stellar job in one application might prove a miserable failure when used for a different purpose or in a different environment. It's important to understand how your intentions and work processes affect your choice of metric fasteners, so here are four key questions that can help guide your decision.
1. Are You Doing Electrical Assembly Work?
Ordinary metal bolts and screws have one property that makes them highly problematic for use in electrical assembly work: conductivity. This property can wreak havoc during the building of delicate electronic components and systems. If you need to isolate these parts against electrical impulses as you assemble them, then you need to seek out metric fasteners made of non-conductive materials. Options may include polymers such as plastics and resins as well as aluminide or zirconia ceramics.
2. Do You Need the Strongest Fasteners You Can Get?
Polymer-based metric fasteners may allow you to assemble fine electronic components without conductivity problems, but these materials will never stand up to massive stresses. If you're putting together a large-scale construction project, select durable stainless-steel screws instead. Stainless steel can withstand both structural loads and the everyday outdoor threats of humidity and rainfall.
3. Will Your Fasteners Be Exposed to Seawater?
Moisture is one thing, but seawater represents an altogether different kettle of fish. The salt in seawater greatly hastens corrosion in unprotected metal structures and components, including the metric fasteners holding those metal pieces together. If you're building a boat or other aquatic device, make sure that your fasteners can hold up against this serious threat. A galvanized zinc coating can help a fastener withstand limited exposure, but more constant seawater exposure may require the fastener itself to be made of a particular type of metal. All stainless steel is not created equal in this regard; you'll need to go with a high grade (because the extra heat-treating increases corrosion resistance). Aluminum and silicon bronze also make good choices.
4. Do You Assemble Your Products in a Sterile Vacuum?
Some products must be assembled within a sterilized vacuum environment or clean room. In these situations, you want to make sure there are absolutely no pockets of contaminated air trapped within the product. Unfortunately, ordinary metric screws will often cause a problem by preventing gases from venting out of the product's insides. That's when you need to place order for ventilated metric screws. These specialized fasteners have a hole running through their shafts, allowing for a vacuum environment to draw out the air inside an assembled product for proper sterile manufacture and flawless product operation.
Put these tips to use the next time you contact a provider of metric fasteners like Jackson Bolt & Screw, Inc. The more your provider understands about your specific product or building applications, the more likely you are to receive the ideal fasteners for your needs!
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