The Misunderstood Fastener

If you work with fasteners or in the industry to supply fasteners you have likely been met with a blank stare when someone asks what you do for a living.  Fasteners are misunderstood components, although they quietly dominate our lives.

If you ponder what our world would be like without fasteners you would quickly realize that many products would simply not exist.  These hidden little gems make our world go around, and have for thousands of years.

Fasteners are used in both the simplest and most complex production of consumer and commercial goods yet few people realize the impact they have on our lives.

From the time you woke up this morning in your bed, shut off your alarm clock, turned on a lamp, perhaps a quick look at TV before hitting up the coffee maker and microwave.  Perhaps you used gym equipment, then grabbed a drink from the refrigerator, had a quick shave with a razor before looking at your phone or computer. All of this before you even got in your car, opened the garage door & put on your sunglasses.  These products are all held together with fasteners.  The rest of the day you would encounter fasteners being used in elevators, rollercoasters, MRI Machines and Security Scanners like you see at the airport.  Looking up towards the sky that jet or drone you see is held together with many fasteners.

Knapp Fasteners is certified for Aerospace Fasteners and we have had our fasteners in the cockpit of planes and satellites orbiting in outer spacer. Certainly much more complex than many people may have imagined a fastener to be used. You could say our fasteners are out of this world!

One of the world’s most famous tourist attractions is held together with 2.5 million rivets.  This would be the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  The rivets were heat-mounted by a team of four riveters: one to heat the rivet, a second to hold it in place, a third to form the head, and the last to lock it in place with a sledge hammer.  This method also helped to guarantee the most effective and rapid assembly of the tower, which was built in record time: 2 years, 2 months and 5 days.

There are thousands of fasteners available in the marketplace which come in a wide variety of materials. Some common fastener materials include Steel, Stainless Steel, Brass, Copper, Titanium, Aluminum and Nylon.

The global industrial fastener market is set to display impressive growth for the forecasted years of 2019-2025. Innovative manufacturing which was once a stronghold of the USA and a few European economies such as France, Italy and Germany, has expanded in emerging markets along with a large increase in automation expenditures by manufacturers. The adoption of fasteners in both automobiles and automobile manufacturing units has grown considerably. The global automotive fasteners market alone is expected to reach USD 34 billion by 2025. The demand for threaded fasteners is also likely to grow at a rate of 4% over the forecasted period due to their increasing application in construction, industrial machinery, railway, electronics, machinery and consumer appliances.

At Knapp Fasteners, we are fastener specialists and we are happy to take your questions and advise which fastener is best for your specific application. We are passionate about fasteners and they are embedded into our floors in the office, kitchen and company gym.  Check out our gallery images to see for yourself.

The misunderstood fastener is generally overlooked when it comes to the consumer market. They are very useful components that are meant to keep hold of everything, and one can find the hidden fasteners everywhere around. But remember, every fastener isn’t equal, and therefore it is important to use a fastener expert and certified company when it comes to each individual requirement and application.

We encourage you to take a look around and see where you see fasteners that you would not have noticed prior to reading this blog.  Email your responses to info@knappfast.com for your chance to win a gift card and be sure to include your City so we can send an appropriate card.

Knapp-holding the World together one Screw at a time!