However, in a recent series of evaluations to establish the preferred fastening option, a leading manufacturer of snowboards has settled on Bollhoffs’ RIVNUT blind rivet nuts to achieve the design objectives.
Fastening into, or on to, thin-wall materials is notoriously difficult, if a high-strength solution is required, so Bollhoff developed RIVNUT, a range of products designed specifically to provide a secure and strong mounting for thin-wall use where tapped threads just won’t work. In fact, RIVNUT can be used to great effect in both thin-wall metals and plastics (and combinations thereof), and is available in a range of sizes and finishes to suit most projects.
There aren’t many applications for mechanical fasteners that present the range of challenges found in snowboard mountings. The boards need to cope not just with a lifetime of multi-directional shock loading, together with abundant compression and vibrational forces, but also need to survive (for years) being subjected to extremes of both cold and wet when in use, combined with heat and dry when stored indoors between expeditions.
As a result, in addition to the necessary structural demands being made on the fasteners, corrosion remains an ever-present threat in this hostile environment: and combating this was another reason why Bollhoff’s RIVNUT was chosen by the snowboard manufacturer. Tests revealed that RIVNUT was the only fastener of its type to offer both the design strength and required corrosion resistance over the long term.
Although stainless steel is clearly the preferred option for many applications where absolute corrosion-resistance is required, standard RIVNUT fasteners can also be specified in other steels with a variety of coatings that can help prevent the onset of both electrolytic and galvanic corrosion, and Bollhoff has the results of the full salt-spray tests available to demonstrate this.
RIVNUT is available as standard in aluminium, steel or stainless steel, and users can choose between specifying standard stainless or zinc and zinc-nickel plated finishes to deliver the necessary long-term corrosion resistance for given applications. A further advantage for manufacturers needing high-strength fastening in thin-walled materials is that RIVNUT can be specified as either a nut or as a stud. This not only provides design engineers with a choice of useful options, but can also lead to additional benefits on the shop floor, too, dependent upon the labour skills and machinery currently employed.
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