For Quick Production Changeover Innovation Fastener Thread Offers Nuts, Taps, and Wire Inserts

         Managers and engineers are understandably hesitant to change familiar production practices, but benefits to the bottom line through better joint integrity as well as streamlined assembly and maintenance are proving to be strong motivators in a range of industries, which are rapidly adopting a unique thread form with exceptional resistance to shock, load and vibration. Production changeover to the thread form, offered by Spiralock Corp. is quick and seamless, usually requiring just an exchange of traditional nuts, taps, and wire inserts.
         Canton, Ohio-based Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems turned to the Spiralock thread form when seeking to streamline nut installation onto trailer air spring studs, while improving joint integrity. Hendrickson wanted to prevent nuts from potentially galling or damaging the air spring studs during installation or routine maintenance. "We went to the free-spinning Spiralock nuts over prevailing torque nuts for simplified installation and maintenance with equivalent or better locking ability," said Greg Copeland, Sr. Project Engineer at Hendrickson. "The Spiralock nuts were interchangeable and and backward compatible with what we'd used previously, and we realized overall cost savings by making the change. The change was well worth it both immediately and in the long haul."
         "From an engineering standpoint, making the change from prevailing torque nuts to Spiralock nuts was as easy as picking up the phone to place an order," adds Darin Morman, Manager of Generator Engineering at Hamilton Sundstrand, a leading global aerospace supplier. "Once we'd proved the threadform's reliability in testing, we changed our parts list to enable ordering the new nuts," says Morman. "Implementation has been straighforward, transparent to our assemblers as well as our customers in the field."
         For Fredericktown, Ohio-based Dana Corp., an axle manufacturer for ATVs and the leisure utility vehicle market, integrating the new Spiralock tap into production was no more complicated than using a standard tap. "We haven't had an issue on almost 30,000 axle assemblies to date, with 12 fasteners per assembly," says Howard Reaser, Dana's Product Application Engineer. "And we haven't had to replace any axle housing in the field. We're eliminating future problems by getting it right from the start, so service and warranty costs will be much lower."  
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