Product category:
Mechanical fasteners, fixing and joining, and equipment
News Release from: Northern Precision | Subject: Sheet metal fasteners
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 September 2007
Fasteners supply is dependable,
cost-effective
A sheet metal working fabricator's business is all about producing assemblies to customer specification - and that includes an efficient supply of dependable, cost-effective fasteners.
Fasteners probably represent the lowest constituent part cost, yet important factor in every sheet metal assembly manufacturing process, said the managing director of a sheet metal working subcontractor, Grahame Humphries GNJ Sheet Metal recently made a substantial investment in, for example, Amada machines - a CNC punch press and a laser cutting machine - yet even the significance of these machines to his business does not overshadow the attention Humphries pays to every aspect of production, including fasteners
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 2 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Humphries said: "Price is always an issue, of course, but component quality and responsive customer service also play major roles in our fastener buying decisions.
Our business is all about producing assemblies to customer specification - and that includes the fasteners.
We've sourced a range of sheet metal fasteners from Northern Precision for a long time; they're consistently of the appropriate high quality and they're always cost-effective, and the level of customer service we receive both from Northern Precision's Doncaster headquarters and via direct contact with the local technical sales representative means we've never been let down".
Serving a UK-wide customer base of predominantly electronics companies with such items as enclosures, panels and brackets, the 24-employee Launceston (Cornwall) based company regularly sources a variety of self-clinch nuts and studs, and panel fasteners.
These are acquired from the in-house stock of 5,000 standard items maintained by Northern Precision, an independent, market-leading, single-source supplier of fastenings as well as special-purpose turned and cold-formed parts.
Humphries regarded these as critical complements to the steady flow of components produced by the Amada EM 2510NT electric punch press (capable of processing sheet up to 4mm thick) as well as the Quattro flying optics laser cutter installed to handle more unusual shapes/large radii applications in sheet up to 8mm thick.
"With sheet metal assemblies, fasteners invariably represent the smallest component part in the sense of both size and cost," he concluded, "But they can often create the biggest and most costliest headache if they are not accurately specified, installed or, indeed, manufactured correctly.".
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