Nearly one million fasteners are used in a large aircraft and yet there is little discussion in the media about their important role in aircraft production.
Everyone talks about wings, engines and assemblies, but the nuts and bolts of the operation are the poor relation. And that’s a shame as it is a fascinating and integral part of production, and their accurate measurement can make production lines more efficient.
There are a wide variety of permanent and non-permanent fastener types used in the assembly of the body and wings of the aircraft, holding a complex structure of panels, cladding and ribbing together. But what is a fastener? A fastener is a device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together.(…)
