Engineering opportunities at the FAST Exhibition

The RAF Museum Cosford is an exciting and appropriate venue for the engineering and manufacturing professionals visiting the FAST Exhibition on April 18th, when products on display will again cover the full range of fastening and assembly solutions from threaded fasteners to structural adhesives, thread locking adhesives, fabric fasteners, springs and cabinet hardware. A number of the UK's most eminent authorities on advanced bonding for design and production engineering applications will be exhibiting offering those with an interest in bonding the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the most adhesives-focused brains in the business. Many of the exhibitors are using the event to introduce recently announced additions their ranges of adhesives for use in applications ranging from structural to electronics and games to glass. Included amongst these exhibitors are industryleaders such as Henkel Loctite, Sil-Mid, Viking Industrial, ADCO, tesa UK, and Three Bond. The FAST Exhibition is well known for its informal and highly productive roadshow format. It is an event where engineers are encouraged to bring their drawings, product samples, design concepts or production problems for expert fastening and assembly appraisal. This advice is provided free of charge by experienced staff at the companies at the cutting edge of fastener design and installation, to say nothing of the bonding expertise that is also freely available from exhibitors. There are some interesting new comers to the show's exhibitor list including: structural bonding expert Adtech; precision handtool supplier Eurotool; Advanced Adhesives, which will be showing a case study demonstration of how its adhesives have been used to bond panels to the latest French AGV high speed train; and DS Fasteners, showing all kinds of engineered nuts. Adtech has 16 years' experience in the adhesives industry can achieve structural bonds, which can replace traditional riveting, welding and screwing operations in a number of applications. Airbus is currently running test with three competing adhesives to see how the materials cope with continuous vibration. Adtech's SAF product is still going strong when the other two have fallen apart. In another application, a carbon fibre bicycle manufacturer was found to be layering epoxy and fibre around the tubular joints to give the frame strength by bonding it structurally. When tested, the carbon fibre gave way, not the bond. SAF products will be on show at the RAF Museum later this month. Tecman is exhibiting for the first time at FAST Exhibition and showcasing Bond44, a range of high performance industrial adhesive tapes, which are fantastic alternatives to traditional fastening and fixing methods. Also on the Tecman stand will be a selection of bespoke precision die cut components. Another exhibitor new to the show is Würth Industrie Service UK which specialises in the creation and management of vendor managed inventory programmes for C-Parts and MRO products. Lee Spring is presenting its updated Series 19 stock spring catalogue, which includes its new enhanced range of metric springs. The company's complete range now includes 2,000 new metric additions. Springs manufactured using metric-wire help Lee Spring to offer more accurate spring measurement to customers working in metric units. Regular exhibitor, Lee Spring manufactures and supplies springs and fasteners to various industry sectors for a wide range of different applications, in particular to numerous medical applications, where reliability and precision are essential. The exhibitors will be all set up and ready to help visitors at 0830 on April 18th so you can get your visit to the FAST Exhibition off to an early start. The experience can only be enhanced with the convenience of free parking for all plus a free bacon roll and brew for pre-registered visitors.