Orbitform designs and builds assembly equipment for manufacturing. Since 1984, Orbitform has delivered over 7,000 assembly machines and custom assembly systems to a wide range of customers and industries around the world.
We Build Machines For:
Orbital Riveting & Fastening
Impact Riveting
Roller Forming
Hot Upset Forming & Riveting
Projection & Resistance Welding
Assembly Automation
Conveying Systems
NEW Flush Self-Piercing Riveting
We Provide Services For:
Assembly Analysis
Tooling Development
Batch Production Runs
Orbitform Overview Video
Learn Even More
For more information about Orbitform, the services we offer, and permanent part assembly, read our white paper, catalog, or journal.
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Processes & Services
Blog Posts
Orbital Riveting / Forming
A smooth, non-impact cold forming process used to create permanent joints with a high aesthetic appeal and a range of articulation potential.
All Orbitform tooling is developed in-house. Our engineers can make special recommendations based on your application to deliver ideal tooling for your machines.
Riveting with stainless steel rivets presents advantages and challenges. Rivets made of stainless steel are durable and corrosion resistant. Stainless steel rivets are also more difficult to upset due to the material strength of the rivets which requires more impact riveting force to upset the shank side of the rivet. Stainless steel rivets often require [click here for more]
A manufacturer of bear proof garbage cans was looking for a better way of securing the bear proof latching and locking mechanism on their product line of animal proof waste receptacles. They wanted to look into riveting the edge trim sections on the upper lip of the trash bin and fastening the latch device with [click here for more]
Kitchen utensil manufacturing companies often inquire about Orbitform riveting machines as a way to assemble spatulas, ladles, kitchen forks, slotted cooking spoons, salad tongs, and other types of food handling equipment. Food serving utensils of all shapes, sizes, and materials are efficiently and safely assembled when Orbitform utensil fastening riveting machines are used in the [click here for more]
Did you know the orbital forming process can be used to deform the end of threaded rods over nuts in order to create a permanent lock nut? Orbitform’s customer needed to perform this metal forming operation on the end of the threaded rod in order to secure the nut in place and also to create [click here for more]
Carbide peen. 60 Rc hardness ASTM 52100 bearing steel. Automotive OEM high performance engine component. Special pressure pad. Process monitoring. The words and phrases above could cause some companies to walk away, or to wilt under the pressure, when used in conjunction with the product engineering and process development of a new automotive engine component. [click here for more]
One of the more recent assembly processes Orbitform has developed is the hot upset riveting method of joining parts, fastening materials, or riveting components together. The hot upset forming methodology came to life when Orbitform was helping a customer rivet a door striker assembly. The striker assembly included a very hard metal striker wire to [click here for more]
Cookware manufacturing companies utilize Orbitform riveting machines to assemble pots, pans, trays, skillets, and other types of cooking equipment and baking ware. Cooking gear of all shapes, sizes, and materials is efficiently and safely fastened when an Orbitform cookware riveter is included in the product assembly process. Types of Cookware Assembled with Riveting Machines Any [click here for more]
We love running experiments in the Orbitform customer solutions lab! A customer asked us to test the orbital forming of a wheel shaft into and around the hexagon shaped hole in a plate. The plate acts as a wheel hub for a type of lawn and garden equipment. The customer desired to replace welding with [click here for more]
An equipment manufacturer was welding a hardened steel rod into a hexagon shaped hole to prevent the part from rotating, but the welding method annealed the rod and vibration caused some assembled parts to fail. The increase in ductility and reduction in hardness of the steel rod as a result of the high heat introduce [click here for more]
Flush self-pierce riveting is a metal assembly process used to join two or more metals together. The flush self-pierce riveting process is used when there is a need to join dissimilar metals, when the metals being fastened have varying thicknesses, if pre-painted metal materials are to be joined, and/or if pre-coated materials are required to [click here for more]
Milford Rivet impact riveting machines built by Orbitform come equipped with safety devices which protect factory workers and increase the throughput of fastening and assembly processes. The safety probe is an excellent method to protect hands and fingers on riveting machines as the safety device reduces accidents at the point of operation where the operator’s [click here for more]
Driving into Orbitform this morning I saw exciting sights. A steady stream of trucks hauling race-car trailers decorated with college and university colors heading south down US-127 on their way to the race track. You see, this week is Formula SAE week at Michigan International Speedway near Jackson, Michigan. Just this morning I saw the [click here for more]
Medical devices present unique challenges to the engineering and manufacturing world since many medical devices work inside the human body or are even permanently installed inside the human body. Thus, the medical device must be clean, smooth, safe, secure, dependable, and simple to install. A surgical implant medical device company approached Orbitform for help with [click here for more]
The flush self-pierce riveting process is often compared to and confused with clinching. Clinching is a reliable and well known metal assembly process used in a variety of fastening applications, however there are assembly applications where the flush self-pierce riveting permanent assembly process has advantages over clinching. The most obvious factor differentiating flush self-pierce riveting [click here for more]
I have heard of golf course hole layouts being shaped as a dog leg, but when I heard about the lower tooling on a Milford Rivet impact riveting machine being shaped as a goose neck that was a surprise. Orbitform’s rivet machine engineers recently helped a customer develop a riveter equipped with special offset lower [click here for more]
The FIRST robotics team from Jackson, Michigan, the Jacktown Vectors, recently qualified for the FIRST World Championship competition to take place in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday, April 29, 2017. The Jacktown Vectors 9th place finish, out of the top 40 teams in Michigan, at the Michigan State Championship, held at Saginaw Valley State Universit,y [click here for more]
Vacuum cup lifters and other vacuum powered lift assist devices are used to help people safely elevate hard to handle items such as glass plates, plastics, sheet metal, laminates, stone slabs and appliances. It is critical that the suction generating pumps powering the vacuum cups are well sealed in order to generate the suction pressure [click here for more]
There is a certain pop music song on the airwaves that goes something like this…”it’s all about that bass, about that bass, no treble…” When we hear that song, do you know what we think of? We think of our rivet machine competitors who only deal with one type of riveting process and often steer [click here for more]
If you ever want to give a factory tour to a group of smart, inquisitive, and fun people, then invite the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) to visit your manufacturing business. Orbitform recently had the pleasure of hosting several members of the Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Toledo chapters of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The [click here for more]
Product manufacturers, metal fabricators, contract assemblers, and other manufacturing operations benefit from utilizing metal forming equipment of high quality, durability and flexibility. All things being equal, when a single machine can perform multiple metal forming operations, then the owner of the equipment is able to be more flexible and meet the needs of its customer [click here for more]
Orbitform had the pleasure of hosting 50 local area Girl Scouts to help them earn their Inventor and Product Design badges as part of the STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) program. They took a tour of the facilities, which included demonstrations in our assembly solutions lab. The demonstrations explained the different forming processes and [click here for more]
Ever heard of an aerospace blocker door? Any idea what a jet engine blocker door does? We didn’t know what an airplane blocker door was, nor what it’s function was, either until we were asked to help an aerospace industry supplier develop a machine to install bearings and verify the push out force required to [click here for more]
What is happening in the Orbitform lab today? I’m glad you asked! An automotive supplier that specializes in manufacturing and assembling transmission clutches was facing some challenges with securing the oil dam to the clutch housing. They had heard that Orbitform had helped other clutch assembly customers attach oil dams to clutch housings before so [click here for more]
A tier two automotive supplier asked Orbitform to design and build several custom workstations to assemble the drum winders, cables, and other components associated with the window regulator sub-assembly of an automotive door module the supplier was building. This project presented many challenges associated with: cycle time requirements, quality assurance factors, operator safety considerations, model [click here for more]
An industrial company needed a better solution for a ball and socket joint, used in a hydrostatic pump piston, for assembly with a specified end-play range. The company’s previous process spun the part and was limited to forming the material in a horizontal direction. The material would flex back and allow too great an end-play [click here for more]
