The Process of Pushing the Boundaries
Posted on 03/12/2018 | by The Orbitform Blog Team
What is it about being human that makes testing the limits a necessity of life? As humans, we are always pushing boundaries and testing limits. We’ve discovered that if we work a little harder we can go a little further. By repeating this process over and over again we are able to walk many miles on a steep incline. As time goes by, the culmination of this effort is the achievement of what was once considered impossible. This makes what was once a ridiculous idea, a reality of life, setting a new standard for everything that follows. Think about that for a minute. The concept moves me, so much so, that I get goosebumps.
Here at Orbitform, pushing the boundaries is a systematic process. We start by asking questions. We evaluate what others have done before. We review what we have done historically. Then we explore where we want to be. Lastly, we determine how we want to get there, making a strategic game plan.
The question we were given for one application, in particular, asked if we could join widely dissimilar metals. One metal was a very hard material and the other was a very soft metal. Previously, they had only been joined by the heated process of welding. Welding is unideal for many reasons: the high skill requirements, the safety concern of the heat involved, and the scrap made by human error.
Always up for the challenge, our Applications Lab Expert took the project into our quality control and testing area. There he was able to test the Rockwell Hardness of the two materials involved. As previously stated there was a large difference. He then tested the rivet to find the Rockwell Hardness of the Fas-Ner being he had proposed using. The rivet was around 15 points harder than the hardest metal, passing the test. This proved that we could join the two metal pieces flawlessly, using a Flush Self-Pierce Riveting method.
With this testing backing this method, there was nothing stopping the customer from leaving the old “ugly” weld form in the past and moving on to the aesthetically- pleasing- flush-form of the Fas-ner. They were able to purchase the Fas-Ners from AKH, a Midwestern United States company, specializing in this revolutionary method of joining dissimilar materials.
If you think this type of assembly process could help your manufacturing operation, please contact us by clicking here.