SUMMER 2011

42 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

42 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK Douglas R. Rammer (left) Douglas R. Rammer is currently a Research General Engineer at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. He obtained his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1991, and holds a B.S. degree from the same university. Douglas works in all areas of design criteria, with current research centering on the mechanical and durable behavior of connections, condition assessment of wood structures in service, and the performance of wood structures subjected to natural hazards such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Douglas is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers amongst others and is an author on 63 journal publications. Samuel L. Zelinka (right) Dr. Samuel L. Zelinka is currently a Materials Research Engineer at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Dr. Zelinka obtained his PhD from the Materials Science Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2009 and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the same university. After obtaining his PhD, he conducted post-doctoral research at Empa- the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Science and Technology in Dübendorf, Switzerland (outside of Zürich). His current research interests are corrosion of metals in wood, the electrical properties of wood, and the interaction of water with wood. Since 2005, Dr. Zelinka has published 18 firstauthored refereed journal publications (27 total publications) and given over 25 scientific presentations (6 invited). MEASURING THE SURFACE AREA OF FASTENERS Introduction Accurate identification of the surface area of threaded fasteners is essential for understanding the behavior of fasteners in numerous applications. For example, the surface area of a threaded fastener is needed to properly calculate its corrosion rate. Following the voluntary withdrawal of CCA (chromated copper arsenate) from residential use, alkaline wood preservatives, such as ACQ (alkaline copper quarternary) and CuAz (alkaline copper azole), are being increasingly used. These new alkaline based preservatives are more corrosive than CCA, but little is known about their corrosion rates on threaded fasteners in contact with the treated wood. This is in part due to the fact that, up until now, no general analytical expression of the surface area of threaded fasteners existed so previous corrosion rate calculations were imprecise. With increasing environmental regulations, it is likely wood preservatives will be modified on a more frequent basis, requiring a revaluation of the corrosion potential of all fasteners in these new treatments. Currently, the corrosion of fasteners in preservative treated wood requires a time consuming evaluation process that only results in relative comparison of metals and metallic coatings. For fastener manufacturers that are developing new coating systems this can be costly and time consuming. Electrochemical techniques offer a screening method that has the advantage that it is both rapid and quanatative. Recent work at the US Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory has shown that these techniques can be extended to polymer coated fasteners. A critical parameter is the determination of the fastener surface area. Until lately, the use of electrochemal test methods has been limited to simple geometries for surface area determination. Reseachers at the USDA Forest Service Electrochemical test cell. understood this and developed a method to evaluate the surface area of a threaded fasteners for the corrosion performance but would like to make it available for inclusion in the fastener industy’s product development and inspection control. Optical Technology for Determining a Fastener’s Surface Area Our product uses an optical method and apparatus that determines the surface area of a threaded fastener from high contrast digital images. (Left to right): polymer coated fastener after exposure to wood extracts, electroplated fastener after exposure in solid wood. High Contrast Image with key fastener characteristic identified. please turn to page 162

THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK 43 One Stop Packaging 71 B Kingsland Ave Clifton, NJ 07014 Tel: 973-272-0170 Fax: 973-689-9538 Email: sales@1stoppackagingservice.com www.1stoppackagingservice.com FOCUS ON ONE STOP PACKAGING One Stop Fastening & Packaging Inc. has been serving the fastener industry since 1998 as being a major distributor of all types of fasteners and a packaging service. In May 2011 One Stop Fastening & Packaging, Inc. changed its name to One Stop Packaging, LCC and moved to a facility that better fit its needs. The change in name coincides with a sharpened focus on packaging services. Now under new management, One Stop Packaging, LLC will be a premier provider of parts packaging service in the North East. Long time industry expert Jason Werba has been promoted to Operations Manager. goods are weighed individually for 100% accuracy with inline Mettler-Toledo and All Fill check weighers. The end result is high quality packaging, prompt service and competitive pricing. To further reduce costs, One Stop Packaging, LLC also offers drop ship service. In addition to shipping with a customer supplied packing slip, "ship from" information is changed within UPS Worldship to display our customer as the shipper. With free pick up at major Northern NJ hardware wholesalers and high level drop ship service, our customers are assured of the lowest cost packaging in the industry. One Stop Packaging, LLC works with customers throughout the kitting process packaging customer supplied components or utilizing One Stop Packaging, LLC’s extensive component sourcing network. In addition, One Stop Packaging, LLC is now offering free pickup at major Northern NJ hardware wholesalers. Jason Werba had this to say, “By eliminating inbound freight costs from our customers to us, we help to lower costs and return customer’s product faster. Lowered costs and rapid delivery will help our customers in a competitive market place. By doing this, we can offer Same Day Delivery for both single and multi-item kitting.” One Stop Packaging, LLC offers Poly-Bagging and Boxing Services along with Bar-coding and Labeling for all hardware items. The packaging process starts with high speed computerized Automated Packaging counters and baggers. These are coupled with thermal transfer printers for labeling of part numbers, content description, barcodes, logos, etc. Finally the packaged