Some of the major innovative fastening designs and assembly methods have been around for decades. Yet lighter, thinner materials that must withstand higher temperatures are challenging suppliers to devise new fastening systems that are smaller, stronger, and weigh less. Shrinking mobile consumer electronics and, more recently, even tinier wearables are also posing challenges for fastener makers.
Although there are highly specialized fasteners, like those made for aircraft assembly, most of them aren’t aimed at specific system types or industries, but more at the specific jobs they have to do. One big exception to that generalization is the shrinking sizes of consumer electronics — both the system itself and how everything gets crammed together inside the machine. Recently there’s been quite a lot of growth in wearable devices, including medical wearables, and thus growth in demand for micro-fasteners used in them. This has required a re-thinking of what micro-fasteners can and should do on the part of suppliers like PennEngineering.(…)
via Design News – Blog – Fasteners Get Tinier, Tougher, and Smarter.