Bay Supply Blog - Rivets, Fasteners, and Tools | Tips & Tricks

If you have bought fasteners before, you have probably heard of Cherry rivets. The original application for Cherry rivets has been all but forgotten thanks to the many times the brand has changed hands, but they were actually created for aircraft manufacturing.

If you’re working with thin materials and need a strong, durable fastener that is removable and reusable, blind threaded inserts are the solution. Not only are they incredibly easy to install, but they’ll also enhance your application by ensuring production efficiency and durability.

On-the-job safety is everyone’s concern, but when maintaining a safe workplace or job site, it’s up to management to implement policies and procedures to keep everyone safe. Much of on-the-job safety stems from common sense, but without guidelines or protocols, common sense is not enough. Everyone needs to adhere to an established set of safety rules to promote an injury-free job site.

The assembly path to a completed product is often complex. The supply chain getting parts to the assembly line must be reliable. Necessary components must be of high quality and fit the tasks at hand. Assembly itself must be efficient.

A modern Boeing 747 contains about 1 million rivets. If each rivet took a hypothetical five seconds to place, you would need more than 57 days around the clock to complete the job. Of course, building a 747 takes longer than 57 days, but you get the idea—the labor behind the riveting for creating such an enormous machine is substantial.

With some projects, finding a fastener that works with thin or brittle materials can seem impossible. This is where rivet nuts, which are also known as a blind nuts, blind rivet nuts, or threaded inserts, come in. A variation on the standard rivet, the rivet nut has a tubular round, splined, square, or hexagonal body that is internally threaded and counterbored. As a blind fastener, the rivet nut is installed in instances where only one side of the workpiece is accessible, making it incredibly versatile.

Whether you’re fixing an oversized or misplaced hole or need to complete a repair on original equipment (OEM), key locking inserts are the ideal fastener for repairing damaged threads.