Providing High Quality Solutions for Food Processing Industry
Posted on 07/03/2017 | by The Orbitform Blog Team
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 a seal that would not allow powdered food ingredients to pass through. You see, our customer is in the business of machine building for the sifting and food processing industries and they needed this special solution to improve the performance of the equipment they manufacture.
This metal fastening application began as a lab project after the customer was referred to us by one of their agricultural industry suppliers. They had been trying to figure out a way of securing the nut while also sealing the gap at the same time. Orbitform’s lab technicians developed a captured flat orbital forming peen tool and installed the peen into an HS-750 orbital forming head driven by the Orbitform model B-840 orbital riveting machine.
In addition to proving out the process with the existing part designs, the lab technician also recommended the customer consider minor design changes to the threaded rod in order to reduce the force need to deform the material and also to speed up the metal working process.
The mild steel threaded rods were successfully cold worked over the top of the nut and after the customer reviewed the samples, they decided to order an orbital forming machine equipped with a custom clamp style fixture, swing out arm mounted HMI, and a spare tooling package.
The machine designed and built was the Orbitform B-840 bench top orbital riveting machine which has the highest orbital forming capacity of any pneumatic riveting machine in the world.
If you think this type of assembly process could help your manufacturing operation, please contact us by clicking here.