Fastener Standards for Wind Energy Industry

Jul 24
2009
1
Comment

I have been following the Wind Energy Industry (Wind Turbine Manufactuaring) for several months now.  Just two weeks ago a large convention (Wind Energy Convention) was held in Chicago and I know several fastener manufacturers attended.  It is a HOT topic in manufacturing and should be of great interest to the fastener industry as millions of fasteners will be used in the manufacturing and installations of wind farms.  A great source of information is the American Wind Engery Association www.awea.org and should be a good starting point for those interested in this business.

However, I have a question!  Who is going to establish the fastener standards required for the Wind Turbine industry?  Is it going to be inch standard or will the metric standards be established from the European companies working in this industry.  Remember all automobiles are metric fasteners, while all airplanes are inch standard.

Do we start from the ground up and have the International Building Codes (IBC) set the standards for the anchor bolts and concrete requirements for installation?  The rigging industry will have requirements for hoisting up the blades and setting them for installation.  How about the contruction of the tower itself.  Will it be structural bolts for strength and stainless steel fasteners or hot dipped galvanized fasteners to prevent corrosion?  Is it an ANSI, ASTM, IFI or other fastener standard the fastener suppliers need to find out about and the fastener standard requirements?  Do the engineers from the nearly 100 companies manufacturing wind turbines really know how to construct these towers in regards to what the wind speed and vibrations will do to fastener applications? How about lock nuts and special locking threads?  It will be interesting to watch the growth of this industry in the next 10 years.

I was just wondering and would love to hear anybody’s thoughts.  I will follow up in the future to see how fastener standards are being applied to the Wind Engery Industry.

Mike McGuire
KNOW WHAT MIKE KNOWS!

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Why post such a variety of news from around the world?

Jul 24
2009
1
Comment

I was asked that question the other day and the answer is simple.  Everyday, anymore it takes me a least an hour and a half to review all the email news releases we receive at the office overnight.  Then we receive news releases all during the day.  Some of those releases are poseted immediately and I mean immediately like in just 2 or 3 minutes. That is one reason we lead with the news and are very timely!   Our goal is to present as wide a selection of news releases available from around the world as we believe it is truly a Global Fastener Industry. Our digital version of the American Fastener Journal has given us great exposure and I am sure that is part of the reason for the increased volume of news releases and articles we receive each day. The digital version has continued to grow daily for well over two years now.

Believe it or not, but we reject a lot of fastener news releases that we believe will not be of any value to distributors, manufacturers, importers, master distributors, sales reps and others.  But on the other hand we look for that one unique release that might have only limited interest, but could help say a fastener distributor add a new product line or solve a fastener application problem.

FASTENER NEWS NOW (FNN) is a lot of fun to produce and keeps us will informed of what is going on in the world of fasteners.  I am please to say that we offer the widest variety, the greatest selection and the most comprehensive fastener news releases in the world.  We are proud of that fact here at the office, but we want to continue to grow FASTENER NEWS NOW to earn your readership and respect of the material presented.  Look for some NEW changes coming shortly to a computer on your desk and always remember FNN is always FREE!

Mike McGuire
KNOW WHAT MIKE KNOWS!

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American Fastener History Association

Jun 12
2009
1
Comment

I had an idea come across my desk last week from a reader that I thought might be fun and some interest to the Ole’ Timers in the fastener industry. I am one of those Ole’ guys! But it should also be of interest to the younger crowd to know a little bit about where we came from and how we got to where we are today. The question I got was, Where is the history of the fastener industry?

I know the IFI did a booklet several years ago (like 25 years ago)and nothing since has been written to my knowledge except one article by Pete Blake in the AFJ years ago. Maybe this could be a jumping off point. What about company histories that could be organized from the internet to start a small fastener history association.

Many of us remember Mel Krisner and his great fastener museum, but all that information and material was lost in the fire that destroyed the fastener museum. So we need to start from scratch!

So to start from scratch, let me hear from anyone who has some ideas, questions and the time to research some past history of the fastener industry. Some ideas or questions I have that might help to start are as follows:

  1. Who invented the Elastic Stop Nut and the orginial Lamalloy L-8 fastening system?
  2. What is the history behind many of the fasteners developed by ITW, like the Teks and Sems screws, the Keps nuts and many others.
  3. Star Expansion was a very innovative company with anchoring devices.
  4. Heads & Threads was the first fastener importer, but what about the XL Screw and Porteous Fastener histories? Reynolds Fastener, World Fastener, Allied and others could be added to the list.
  5. How about who had what market share at what time for both the fastener distributors and fastener manufacturers.
  6. A list of just the American fastener manufacturers that have gone out of business say since 1950. Just a few like Southern Screw, Lamson & Sessions, Stanscrew, Buffalo Bolt, Reed & Prince, American Screw, Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel and Armco Steel. The list goes on…
  7. We could always do some histories of fastener personalities…that could be interesting and fun!
  8. Do any of the fastener associations have any real histories they might share with a fastener historical association.
  9. How has the packaging and labeling of fasteners changed over the years?

I think you get the idea. If you have some interest please give me a call.

Mike McGuire

Phone: 480-488-3500
Fax: 480-488-3247
Email: mmcguire@fastenerjournal.com

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