PennEngineering is working on metal fasteners for plastics that can be installed ultrasonically or thermally, said Leon Attarian, director of global marketing. Plastics are more common in electronics, where Penn tends to get most of its business. "We are also in automotive and aerospace, since there are electronics in both." The company also has worked on recently on environmentally friendly platings.
Fasteners must also cope with higher heat. In addition to military and aerospace applications, high-temperature needs can be found in the oil and gas industries. This can include anything from strip mining to fracking to deep sea drilling, said Jungmann. "The materials used there are second to none in heat resistance."
In cars, a whole generation of smaller engines with reduced displacement and fewer cylinders are creating very high heat and require higher-grade materials, he said. Other shifts in auto manufacturing include more car components, like floor pans and body cells, that incorporate sheet-molding compound to reduce weight. "These components may still use fasteners, but assembly lines are attaching the fasteners to the sheet molding compound with adhesives."
Smaller fasteners are also a major trend, partly because of the shift to thinner materials. Attarian said that demand is increasing for microfasteners, because engineers are using more stainless steel and more rigid material, "even when it's thin material, so you need very small M1 thread sizes, for example."
In automotive manufacturing, Emhart sees renewed emphasis on smaller, stronger fasteners.