Rivet nuts have a wide variety of uses. They are used to assemble furniture, automobiles, refrigerators, exercise equipment and everything in between.
But what about huge pieces of equipment, like large construction and agriculture equipment? Could a little rivet nut handle the rigors of heavy vibration and rigorous use that construction workers and farmers demand out of their large investments? Short answer is yes. The rivet nuts that are used in those pieces of equipment are just bigger and stronger.
Lots of balers, tractors, dump trucks, and other enormous earth movers use large size, high strength rivet nuts in their assemblies. These rivet nuts provide the strength needed to handle the rigors of these giant machines. In our testing, Sherex’s 5/8-11 LRGH Full Hex Rivet Nuts had a pull out strength over 30,000 pounds of force, spin out was greater than 157 ft-lb and torque out greater than 250 ft-lb. To give an example of how strong the torque out is, a Grade 5 bolt recommended assembly torque is 120 ft-lb.
LRGH Series — This Large Size, Full Hex Rivet Nut is amongst the strongest rivet nut available.
Large size rivet nuts come in thread sizes as large as 3/4-inch and M16 and can come in both round body style and hex style. The large size, hex body style rivet nut is amongst the best performing rivet nut on the market today, as the hex body provide superior spin-out performance to any round body rivet nut.
To install these large size, high strength rivet nuts, you need a large size, high strength tool. Sherex’s FLEX-18 delivers up to 18,000 pounds of force to install these rivet nuts on the assembly line.
3D Models of Large Size, High Strength Rivet Nuts Available!
3D Models of Sherex’s Large Size, High Strength rivet nuts are now available for download on Sherex.com and Traceparts.com. For those interested applying large size rivet nuts to your project, please contact us to talk to our engineers.
It’s always a cool feeling walking around an assembly line or installation station and seeing your parts or tools being put to good use.
But it’s even sweeter when you see an old tool of yours still being used by the assemblers and it’s still humming. On a recent trip to a construction, military and heavy duty truck fabricator to check out the assembly line, we came across one of our first, possibly THE first, FLEX-5 rivet nut tool we’ve ever sold – and it’s still in use!
Check out this photo of this first generation FLEX-5 that’s used to install Sherex Rivet Nut Studs. Based on the serial number, this was probably delivered in the second half of 2009. Almost 12 years old and still installing rivet nut studs today. COOL!
Possibly the first FLEX-5 delivered to a customer in late 2009
Now, this particular user does have a new FLEX-5 that they are using on the line, but “Ol’ Reliable” is still humming too.
When these images were shared with our Engineering Technician, Mike, who services a lot of our tools, he was quite impressed.
“These older FLEX-5’s hold up really well with just some basic care.” Mike said. “But even knowing that, it’s cool seeing one still out in the wild.”
Mike has FLEX-5 serial No. 1 on his desk, which is a keepsake at Sherex Headquarters for now.
FLEX-5 Serial No. 1, from probably late 2008 – early 2009
Easy FLEX-5 Maintenance Tips!
Basic care of hydro-pnuematic rivet nut tools is really important to their durability. Here are a few easy steps to take to ensure a long-lasting tool like the ones above.
If the air supply is not equipped with lubricator before use, squeeze a few drops of light lubricating oil on the tool air inlet.
High friction locations, such as spindle housing, should be re-greased with a high speed, high temperature grease.
Every 500,000 cycles the tool should be completely checked and parts that are worn or damaged should be replaced.
O-rings should be replaced and lubricated with Molykote® 55M grease or equivalent before assembly.
Please contact Sherex to order replacement o-rings and lubricant. Remember, if having any issues with your tool, contact Sherex.
With an easy to use sort function, find the correct rivet nut based on thread size and material thickness, click on the 3D icon in the table, then download your 3D rivet nut in just seconds.
The 3D widget allows users to use the mouse to drag, turn the model, and zoom in and out using the scroll wheel.
There are over 50 different file type prints are available for download, including including SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, and PDFs, with each 3D model. Design engineers are encouraged to download our installed models for better design capabilities in their projects.
This project with ThomasNet and Traceparts integrates the 3D models of installed versions of rivet nuts that are available on TraceParts onto Sherex’s website for a better user experience for those looking for quality rivet nuts.
Find the right style and size of your rivet nut faster. Check it out!
For installing rivet nuts into flat materials, the solution is usually rather simple when it comes to geometry. It usually just comes down to making sure there’s sufficient clearance for installation and the right hole size to properly fit the rivet nut. Since the material is flat, the only thing to worry about is ensuring the rivet nut is suitable for use with the thickness of that material.
With curved materials, the options may be narrowed down, and a solution may become more complex.
Installing Rivet Nuts in Curved Surfaces
The options depend specifically on the curvature of the material. Since the entire circumference of a rivet nut collapses onto the material, the geometry of the rivet nut’s crimping bubble will possess the same curvature as the material it’s mating to.
If the base thickness is in the middle of a rivet nut’s grip range, the curvature may not have a significant effect, as the grip range would cover all of the effective thicknesses that rivet nut is crimping onto. However, if a rivet nut is installing into a base thickness toward the upper edge of its grip range, it may have trouble properly installing if the curvature is at all substantial. To account for this, there are two main options.
Material thickness plays a big role in determining whether a rivet nut can be installed in a curved surface
The first option, sometimes preferable for thicker curved material, would be a swaging-style rivet nut. These rivet nuts expand into the installation pane rather than crimp onto it, and thus only have to meet a minimum thickness requirement. Swaging styles are recommended for high (or variable) thickness applications where high joint strength is not an option.
For improved spin-out, pull-out, and torque-out performance, pre-bulbed and slotted rivet nut styles are the recommended option for variable thicknesses. These rivet nuts are typically suitable for large thicknesses, but also a wide range of them. This is because the slots of the rivet nut fold over to collapse onto the material, rather than a significantly smaller counterbore region found in other body styles.
Typical round body rivet nut in curved material
If installing tin to curved surfaces and have questions, feel free to reach out to Sherex’s engineering team with application details and performance requirements. Whether for standard round or hex body rivet nuts, swaging, slotted, or pre-bulbed, Sherex will help guide to users to a recommendation we have the tools to determine the best solution for you.
When installing rivet nuts using a Sherex FLEX-5 hydro-pneumatic tool, you have a decision to make on what kind of tool you want. Do you want a tool that offers a pull to stroke? Or do you want a tool that offers pull to pressure when installing rivet nuts.
Both Pull-to-Pressure and Pull-to-Stroke tools can install just about any style of rivet nut from sizes #4-40 to 3/18-16 (M3 – M10), and can be used for both low volume and high volume installations, including on an assembly line.
FLEX-5P – Pull to Pressure
The FLEX-5P Pull to Pressure tool is a great, all around tool that can be used to install a variety of different products into different thickness material. With a single stage trigger the tool is easy to use and if you know the proper pressure of the part being installed in your specific material, then you are all set. Use the Sherex Hand Tool Calibration Unit to find out the exact pulling force of your tool and begin your installations.
The FLEX-5P has a pulling force upwards of 5,000 lbs.
FLEX-5S Pull to Stroke
The Sherex FLEX-5S, Pull to Stroke rivet nut tool gives a precise install to an exact material thickness. It can install rivet nuts at a set length and is better suited when the installation has limited backside clearance. The tool offers 7mm of available stroke.
So if you’re installing a very high volume of rivet nuts into the same material thickness, the perfection of the pull-to-stroke tool may be ideal over a pull-to-pressure tool.
Pull to stroke tool is also best utilized when installing into soft or brittle materials.
Conclusion
In terms of performance, both tools are extremely durable and can install the same rivet nuts. But the biggest question to answer when deciding between the FLEX-5P or FLEX-5S, do you need the flexibility in installing rivet nuts by pressure, or will this tool be used for a specific material thickness and installed length for a project’s needs?
If you need help on deciding on what tool to purchase, contact us and a member of our engineering team will point you in the right direction.
After reading Why Rivet Nuts?, you may come away with, well that’s good, but what’s a rivet nut stud?
Rivet nut studs are simply rivet nuts with an already outward protruding stud installed in the rivet nut. Instead of threading the bolt into the rivet nut, you thread your attachment on to the bolt and you would attach a nut to tighten down the attachment.
Sherex Rivet Nut Studs
They work the same way as a blind rivet nut, are installed in a similar way, and already have the stud installed. This saves installers the step of putting in the through bolt. Also, when putting an assembly together, it can be beneficial to have something that gets hung on the stud before getting tightened down. This gives the operator something to take the weight off the component before installing the nut over the stud.
Like most blind rivet nuts, rivet nut studs are great replacements for weld nuts when you need a blindly installed, outward-protruding stud for your joint. They are also only needed to be installed in one side of the work piece, where access to the backside is not possible.
Rivet nut studs can come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Round body, hex body, wedge head, knurls – anything a typical rivet nut can be made into and rivet nut stud can. Rivet nut studs are very customizable. Another thing to consider is the stud. How much thread or stud length will you need for the application? Rivet nut studs can be made to a specific length for the application.
The performance of rivet nut studs vs. a typical rivet nut is very similar, although harder material like steel might yield better performance results than softer material. In general, the performance of spin-out or pull-through of a rivet nut stud compared to a typical rivet nut is negligible if all things are equal.
Rivet Nut Stud Application Use
There are a number of different applications a rivet nut could be used for:
Wire harnessing on a Truck Frame
Any applications where a rivet nut stud will be used as a hanging point on a centering pin
Locating or guide pin
Can replace any weld nut application
Automotive applications, like spoiler installations, installed into castings, roof racks
Agriculture applications
Heavy Truck applications
Rivet Nut Stud Application on Automotive Casting
Rivet nut studs are typically more expensive than a rivet nuts, but remember, the cost of the stud or bolt is also considered into the higher price. When you factor a rivet nut plus a bolt/stud, it’s roughly the same amount per part ($rivet nut stud = $rivet nut + $stud/bolt). Another thing to consider is the potential in time saving, or even ease of assembly for assemblers and installers. Rivet nut studs could very well be a more productive fastener depending on the application, saving money by being able to assemble more products faster.
Rivet nut studs are a great option and should be considered any time you have an application that needs a rivet nut and weigh out the options if it makes sense to use one. If you’d like to speak to one of Sherex’s application engineers to see if an application is worthy of a rivet nut stud, contact us!
That’s what our warehouse manager Justen Ehrig will be doing over the next seven months. Justen is a competitor in the 11 Day Power Play, an 11-day long hockey game that takes place in November to benefit local charities and cancer research in the Buffalo-area. This year, the event will be trying to break the Guinness World Record for the longest hockey game, which currently sits at 252-hours long.
This will be Justen’s second time trying to break the World’s Longest Hockey game.
Justen will be playing approximately 100 hours of hockey in just 11 days, putting in around 20, 4-hour shifts as goalie and skater. At the same time he’s training for this event, Justen will be hoping to raise $20,000 to help the event reach its goal of $1,000,000. As of April 1, he’s already over $9,000.
Justen has played in this event since the event began in 2017, playing as an ode to his mother. Justen’s mother, Sherrie, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2016 and passed away in December 2017 after Justen played in the inaugural event. Sherrie watched Justen play all 11-days when he participated in the event in 2017.
“I was driving to work one day and heard about it on the radio promoting the event, and I signed up immediately,” Justen said. “That was my way of wanting to fight for her and everybody else in our community.”
Training for this game is intense. Justen said his team is currently being trained by Excelsior Orthopedics, whose certified Athletic Trainers often train professional and Olympic athletes.
With the event seven months away, overnight skates, running, dieting, and even sleep training has already begun. After all, Justen will be sleeping, eating, and spending all 11 days of this event at the hockey rink. There’s no going home to refresh. Over 250 straight hours either at the hockey rink or in a locker room acting as a makeshift dormitory, waiting until your shift gets called every eight hours or so.
“You play hockey more than you sleep,” Justen said. “It’s quite the physical gauntlet, but it is really just as much a mental battle as well.”
Justen has raised upwards of $40,000 since 2017 while participating in this event. To donate to Justen’s fundraising efforts, click here.
More to come as we periodically check in on Justen during his journey to participate in the 11-Day Power Play!
Wheel-offs are some of the most dangerous situations on the road. This happens when a wheel from a truck or car comes loose and rolls down the road. Whether the wheel-off occurs on a 30 mph road or a 65 mph freeway, runaway wheels are absolutely terrifying and always leads to incredibly unsafe and unpredictable situations. With the deadly risk that they pose, wheel-offs are a massive risk for any commercial trucking fleet.
How can this happen? Over time, thousands of miles of starting, stopping, turning, just putting wear and tear on your tires, lug nuts come loose.
There are ways to prevent wheel offs though. Disc-Lock and Securex make products that prevent wheel offs. But which one is better?
Disc-Lock M22 Safety Wheel Nut
We put them both on our Junker’s machine to see which one could stand this rigorous vibration test. If a nut can withstand this kind of heavy vibration, then it will surely be able to handle the rigorous driving tractor trailers, off-road, and military vehicles have to endure on a day-to-day basis.
Disc-Lock Safety Wheel Nuts are used on many commercial, government and military fleets to give piece of mind that wheel offs won’t occur. Using Disc-Lock Safety Wheel Nuts to prevent a wheel off is a small price to pay compared to the risk of a potentially enduing a wheel-off.
There are dozens of different styles of rivet nuts manufacturers can choose from when deciding on a fastening solution to help improve their assembly. While the material, coating, size, body style are all important, how the rivet nut performs under strenuous conditions is often times what matters the most.
Performance testing of rivet nuts is extremely important. It helps validate how the rivet nut will perform under an array of conditions to give manufactures and assemblers assurance that under that same kind of stress in their own design application, their joint will be able to hold up to any expected loading condition.
Here are some of the ways Sherex conducts rivet nut performance testing.
Pull-Out Testing
Pull-out failure occurs when threads are pulled from the rivet nut (ultimate thread strength), or when the base material is distorted and the rivet nut (either partially or entirely) pulls through the base material. Sometimes this happens with the hole size is too big for the rivet nut or when the force applied to the joint is higher than anticipated, causing the rivet nut to pull right through the hole.
Using a tensile machine to pull the rivet nut through the hole
This is tested by assembling our joint into a tensile machine. Tensile load on the joint is increased until the integrity of the crimp fails, whether it be due to material deformation or due to severing of the crimping bubble from the flange of the rivet nut.
Spin-Out Testing
Spin-out is the amount of torque required to make a rivet nut spin in the hole it was installed in. This happens when the bolt cross-threads into the rivet nut, causing it to spin. It can also occur when excessive corrosion causes the bolt to bind in the nut.
What it will take for the rivet nut to spin in the hole?
This is tested by assembling a test bolt into the shank end of the rivet nut. Torque is increased until the integrity of the crimp fails and the rivet nut starts to spin in the material. Failure torque recorded is the maximum torque reached before the rivet nut starts to spin.
Torque-Out Testing
This is the torque required to strip threads out of the rivet nut. This method of testing sandwiches the head of the rivet nut between the non-rotational mating part and parent or base panel.
Spin-out is not a factor because tightening the bolt on the non-rotating part holds the rivet nut in place and prevents it from spinning.
Torque the bolt on the flange side of the rivet nut until the bolt, rivet nut, or base material is compromised
This is tested by assembling a test bolt into the flange side of the rivet nut, with the flange supported entirely by a hardened test plate. Torque is increased until the integrity of the joint fails, whether it be due to the bolt snapping inside the rivet nut or due to the threads of the rivet nut stripping. Failure torque recorded is the maximum torque reached before thread failure occurs.
Assembly Torque / Clamp Load
Sherex gives recommendations for the assembly torque to achieve recommended clamp load in our catalog to give the recommended torque for assembling a rivet nut joint using any Sherex-manufactured rivet nut. Testing is for this is important, because different joint configurations will produce different clamp load levels.
Assembly torque is calculated as a ratio of proof load, which designates thread strength per SAE J995 for unified (UNC/UNF) internal thread sizes and ISO 898-2 for metric sizes. This is our recommendation for Sherex-manufactured parts meant to meet Grade 5/Class 8 thread strength specifications. All torques designated represent recommendations for assembly from the flange side with the flange entirely supported.
All failure loads, torques, and assembly recommendations are heavily application-dependent, and any recommendations found in the catalog or results from different applications should only be used as a reference.
For any questions on testing or any parts that require a higher grade or property class designation, please contact us!
The Sherex Fastener Fix blog is supposed to be an unbiased, informative, technical and thoughtful conversation on all things fasteners. But once in a while we have to toot our own horn.
Sherex’s patented RIV-FLOAT® rivet nut is truly great. It allows for greater ease of assembly because fastening can occur when the through bolt is off-center.
How does this happen? There’s a .02-inch radial floating nut inside the rivet nut, which allows the bolt going through the rivet nut to be a slightly off-center while pulling the attachments together. Think of when you’re assembling a piece of furniture and you’re trying to get the final attachment holes to line up exactly for your bolt or screw. It can be a pain! With a RIV-FLOAT installed in base attachment, there can be a little play while joining the attachments together with a bolt or screw. And since RIV-FLOAT is a rivet nut, there is no need to attach a nut to the backside.
RIV-FLOAT development started in 2007. An aerospace customer had an application that required floating threads. The concept was worked on by engineering, and from there it went from drawings to life and eventually a patent.
“The idea came from a customer specific request,” Sherex president Adam Pratt recalled, “but we thought the idea had promise for other markets so we developed the product.”
Other markets include automotive, construction and agriculture equipment, and general industry applications. Applications in these industries are wide ranging. RIV-FLOAT has been used for enclosures for mounting large door panels and in difficult fastening locations where the drive angle can’t get square to the base material.
“RIV-FLOAT can improve ergonomics and improve safety,” Pratt said. “RIV-FLOAT gives customers that adjustment they need to easily assemble these applications.”
When it comes to performance, RIV-FLOAT actually performs better than most standard round body rivet nuts. RIV-FLOAT’s size is a little bigger, which helps. Also, spin-out performance is improved too since the internal threads of the RIV-FLOAT help align the screw angle of the bolt during assembly.
“This dramatically reduces the cross-threading risk in the application and aids in speeding up assembly,” Pratt said.
Overall, RIV-FLOAT combines ingenuity, performance, and efficiency for a quality fastener that can improve the assembly and performance of any application. For more information, visit RIV-FLOAT’s product page, or contact us!
