When bigHead Bonding Fasteners returned to Advanced Engineering in 2016 with a larger stand than previously at the show, it was clear the company was moving forward apace – and it had a clear mission to help manufacturers and integrators of composite products turn their design ideas into reality.
The show proved a landmark for the business. With a full complement of bigHead design engineers on hand to discuss new or existing applications, the emphasis was firmly on providing engineering solutions where innovative form and function, and associated production costs, were not compromised or restricted by component fastening.
At that show, bigHead’s sales and technical teams were fully focused on demonstrating the UK manufacturer’s passion for solving customer’s challenges by close collaboration from the very first ideas through to prototyping, production and beyond – creating, optimising and refining composite component design as a partnership. And that impetus has continued right through to the present day.
In the past year or so, bigHead has successfully secured a KTP-funded project with Cranfield University’s Composites Centre for developing fastening solutions for high-volume manufacture of lightweight composite components for the automotive industry. The project is now well underway with new assembly techniques to precision-fix bigHeads using specialist dry adhesives that can be scaled from small quantities to fully automated high-volume production.
bigHeads can be surface bonded using other agents or directly embedded in components and panels using injection or SMC moulding processes, with all these technologies were covered at the exhibition.
bigHeads have certainly evolved fast as an enabling component. “From its beginnings as the original fastening solution for discrete thin-panel and composite fixing, with its distinctive flat perforated head design with numerous fixing options, the design versatility of the bigHead has migrated beyond its original concept – tracking advances in materials technology and offering innovative fastening solutions that can be applied to countless manufacturing techniques,” states the company.
