Heavy industries need fasteners that will enhance the stability of their mission-critical machinery for safe and efficient operations. Hence, they need to source products that are better suited to high-performance applications.
Stressing the importance of prudence in procurement, RS South Africa Sales Director Erick Wessels tells Machinery Maintenance Matters about critical aspects in product selection.
‘Putting a square peg in a round hole’ best describes how some organisations – with professionals who should know better, truth be told – approach metal fastener selection for coastal infrastructure, energy installations, and chemical processing facilities. In this context, metal fasteners include screws, spacers, and washers.
These organisations use fasteners unsuited to their applications. More often than not, there is no prize for guessing the outcome: higher-than-expected fastener failure rates.
What is worse, this comes at a significant cost: damage to equipment resulting in unscheduled replacement and repair costs, and, in some cases, operator injury or fatalities.
Costly misconception
In many cases, wrong procurement is due to the misconception that fasteners have similar characteristics and can therefore be used across different environments and applications while still delivering the desired performance.
However, the reality is different.
Typically, for instance, operations on South Africa’s Cape coast (such as Cape Town), which are humid and prone to corrosion, require different specifications from those used at a refinery in Zambia’s Copperbelt.
In most instances where fasteners fail prematurely, RS South Africa Sales Director Erick Wessels points out that the root cause is that critical properties were overlooked during product selection, specifically: fatigue resistance, microstructural integrity, abrasion and corrosion resistance, and load/vibration compatibility. RS is a global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers.
Using modern technologies and suitable materials
Clearly, considering the immense cost of wrong products, it is advisable to be discerning when selecting fasteners capable of withstanding tough conditions.
Wessels underlines that the correct use of advanced methods and the informed selection of suitable materials can help organisations meet their needs:
“To address the issue of low fatigue resistance and microstructural weaknesses, use high-precision cold forming and thread rolling techniques.
“As regards inadequate abrasion and corrosion resistance (for high-impact and high-abrasion conditions), apply nanostructured coatings and use duplex stainless steel or titanium alloys to ensure high tensile strength and lifecycle performance.
“Last but not least, prioritise reusable, low-maintenance fasteners (life-cycle optimised materials, lower-carbon manufacturing processes, and product development focusing on reusable fasteners).”
Role of simulation technologies
Adding more on these approaches, Wessels highlights the role of simulation technologies and digital twins as suitable tools in fastener selection. “Simulation technologies and digital twins help improve fastener performance by modelling behaviour in different conditions such as under heavy loads, vibration, and thermal stress before physical manufacturing. They provide the ability to customise fastener strength, durability, and compatibility to exact specifications,” he says, mentioning the value they add in the following areas:
• Optimising joint performance;
• Reducing prototyping costs;
• Accelerating development cycles; and
• Enabling customised, safer, future-ready designs.
Eventually, these help manufacturers and infrastructure developers build systems that are safer, more reliable, and better suited to high-performance applications.
On the whole, informed selection is key in fastener procurement. Ultimately, a fastener is only as effective as its selection.
RS South Africa is a global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers.
