Hello everyone, I am brand new to this forum and so far have enjoyed thumbing through some of the discussions and questions. But know I have a question of my own. I am a designer for my company, I have worked my up from the shop floor welding for several years decided to go back to school for drafting and design wound up in the engineering department and know doing design work and research and development. 90 percent of all our products are fabricated from stainless steel, mainly 304 and 201. for one of our product lines we use a turret punch/press to embosses square cut outs and indentions to receive a plastic insert that accepts a 1/4-20 "hi-lo" screw. this is the only product that we use this turret for anymore. I have been tasked with finding a fastener to replace the plastic insert therefor not requiring the embosses. I have found many inserts that would probably work but was wondering if anyone had any experience with using such fastener i.e. captive 1/4 turns, pem studs, clinch nuts items along that line. we use a tube and flat laser to cut all of our material so hole profiles and cut outs are not a problem.......so I guess im just looking for a little info if anyone would like to help out. thank you in advance for your time.

 

Hi Man,
I think you can go for “southco”fasteners, such as the type “Clip-on”,”Snap-in”,balabala.Work?
Or if you show us some pictures that wouldbe more clear your requirement.
Kevin

 

I work for a fastener company (10 years) who is a distributor for Southco and was once one for PEM.

The recommendation would depend on what the application is and what you are hoping to achieve.

Do you need quick access?
Fixed in place permanently?
Low cost?
Eliminate processes?

Clinch would still require a press to press in the stud/nut/standoff.

Example for quick access, Southcos D8 range is excellent but consider the cost against a simple clinch stud.

www.southco.com
www.pemnet.com

All depends on what the application is, pictures would help.

 

Yet another way you could go is create your own 'tinnerman' style nut in place. A couple of slits and a hole with the laser and it's likely your hi-lo screws will still work. Test this out first of course. This is easily done in lighter gauges with turret tooling made by Wilson and no doubt others.