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SUMMER 2012

Distributor's Link Magazine Summer Issue 2012 / VOL 35 / NO.3

180 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

180 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK MFDA - P.O. Box 1477, Wayne NJ 07470 • Tel: 201.644.7424 • Fax: 201.644.7427 • Email: admin@mfda.us METROPOLITAN FASTENER DISTRIBUTORS ASSOCIATION, INC MFDA’s 2012 SPRING MEETING - DINNER & DISCUSSION: “YOUR FASTENER FUTURE” by Mike Smith On Thursday evening, April 12, 2012, the MFDA presented its Round Table Event titled “Your Fastener Future” at Moran’s Restaurant in New York City. The key speakers were Brent Jenkins, Sales Manager of Vulcan Threaded Products, Roger Stillman, Operations Manager and QA at Metric & Multistandard, and Simmi Sakhuja, the President of Stelfast Corporation. Garland Parker, GM at St. Louis Screw & Bolt was also invited, but due to a conflict he was unable to attend. He generously sent his notes in order to contribute his insights. The event was moderated by Mike Smith (Smith Associates), who gave an introduction and brief bio of the panelists and served as Garland Parker, in his absence. Members of the panel were selected in order to represent a cross-section of the industry: an Asian Importer and Distributor; a Domestic Manufacturer; a European Metric Importer and a Domestic Distributor. Row 1: Ginny Palmer & Chris Smith (Smith Associates) Row 2L: Mildred & Ed Werner (EZ Sockets) Row 2R: Kellie Nirmaier & Vikki Perkins (Kanebridge) Row 3: Freddy Barr (Stelfast, Inc.) & Larry Engelson (Nova-Esco Fasteners) Row 4: Ed Werner (EZ Sockets) & Dave Schuster (Leo Coar Assoc.) Row 5: O.J. Simpson (Stelfast, Inc.), Gail Marsh (Stelfast, Inc.), Gary Schottlander (Brighton Best) & Donna Garcia (Stelfast, Inc.) Row 6: Roger Stillman (Metric & Multistandard), Brent Jenkins (Vulcan Threaded Products) and Simmi Sakhuja (Stelfast, Inc.) All of the panelists have had many years of experience in the fastener industry and brought their diverse knowledge and insight to the evening. The discussion started with Mike Smith asking each of the panelists to give their thoughts on the fastener industry’s future for next year and then for the next five years. The consensus of opinion was that the industry has changed significantly as a part of the global economy. The U.S. economy will continue to grow slowly but individual companies will need to focus on internal fine-tuning to maintain profitability. A comment was made by a member of the audience that larger companies gaining market share without increasing ROI is not healthy in the long run for the industry as a whole. Simmi Sakhuja observed that growth is possible in any environment and said that her company is staying focused on Return on Investment (ROI). The evening was a huge success with great audience participation, lively questions and comments. It was great to hear comments from some of our long time members including; Barry Cohen (Baco Enterprises); Larry Engleson (Esco Fasteners); Marty Schneider (Continental- Aero); and Mildred Werner (EZ Sockets). It was discovered that MFDA members present in the room had as many as 40 years in the industry and a wealth of experience. The evening was enlightening for all and was ended with a raffle of 3 items which were donated by ND Industries, EZ Sockets, and Kanebridge Corporation. Thank you to all for your support.

THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK 181 LENGTHEN THE BOLT TO STOP THE LOOSENING continued from page 153 The amount of applied load in the previous example is 75% of the yield strength (.75 X 130,000 psi) which is 97,500 psi. To relate that to stretch divide 97,500 psi by 30,000 psi to determine the amount of stretch for a Grade 8 bolt per inch of “free-length” which is 0.003 inch per inch (rounded to three places). I acknowledge that this calculation and the table below are extremely simplistic and do not take into consideration the difference in the cross sectional area of the tensile stress area verses the area of the body of the bolt. These figures are just intended to explain the concept that the resultant bolt stretch is directly proportional to the applied force, and not that these values are an exact presentation of the exact bolt stretch that may be achieved for a specific bolt length. Short screws are particularly troublesome for loosening in applications where vibration is present. As can be seen above if the “free-length” of the bolt is only 1.000 inches then if the relaxation or other movement in the joint is 0.003 or greater the bolt will come loose. If the free-length is lengthened to 2.000 inches the bolt will remain tight provided the relaxation or other joint movement is less than 0.007 inches. In a given application the bolt’s free-length can be increased by adding hardened washers or spacers under the head of the bolt or by counterboring the internally tapped component above the thread engagement. When the loosening of short bolts is a problem lengthening the free-length of the bolt is frequently much more effective than adding various locking components, because lengthening the bolt is allowing it to effectively utilize its inherent material behavior of stretching to keep the assembly tight.

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