Category Archive: Fastener NEws
Sherex Fastening Solutions®, a PennEngineering® Company and global leader in engineered fasteners, tooling, and automation, is proud to announce its relationship with Desert Distribution Sales as its new sales representative in the Southwest United States.
Desert Distribution Sales is a professional manufacturer’s representative for engineered fastener and component manufacturers and suppliers for the southwestern United States, including California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico. Led by John Wachman and Jo Morris, Desert Distribution Sales has been in the fastener business representing some of the biggest US fastener companies since 2001.
With Sherex’s wide-range of innovative fastening products, like the award-winning Optisert®, RIV-FLOAT®, and Hand Tool Calibration Unit, Desert Distribution adds another impressive manufacturer to its portfolio.
“Sherex is quickly turning into one of the fastener leaders in our industry,” Morris said. “They offer a wide selection of quality rivet nut solutions along with great customer service and reliability as a manufacturer. Our customers will benefit by having them on board.”
While Sherex has provided the Southwest US with quality fasteners for over 20 years, Desert Distribution will improve the visibility of Sherex products across this region.
“I’ve always been impressed with John, Jo and David, and I think there are many opportunities for us in the Southwest,” said Sherex president Adam Pratt. “We’re glad to have the Desert Distribution Sales team represent Sherex and I’m looking forward to growing together.”
To learn more about Desert Distribution, visit www.desertdistribution.com
To learn more about Sherex, visit www.sherex.com
About Sherex Fastening Solutions
Sherex Fastening Solutions, a PennEngineering® Company, is a leading manufacturer of fasteners for thin sheet material applications in steel, aluminum, and composite materials. Beyond its headquarters in Buffalo, NY, Sherex also has sales and distribution facilities in Mexico, UK, and Poland, along with worldwide manufacturing capabilities in the US, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Ireland. Sherex services a wide-range of industries, including automotive, heavy truck, general manufacturing, renewable energy, construction and agricultural equipment, and aerospace.
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Sherex Fastening Solutions’ Jake Glaser will be awarded the Young Fastener Professional of the Year at the International Fastener Expo Awards Ceremony, held on September 10 at the Expo Session Stage.
This award “celebrates exceptional contributions to the fastener industry and recognize individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation, and dedication.”
Jake’s resume speaks for itself. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications at the University at Buffalo, Jake joined Sherex in 2014, and quickly worked his way up to a regional sales manager for the Western US, managing national and international accounts with a focus on heavy truck and eMobility applications, a role he holds today.
Since joining Sherex, he has been an active member of the fastener community, involved in Pac-West and NFDA programs and the Young Fasteners Professionals, where he served as president from 2019 – 2022. Jake is also a member of the NFDA Board of Directors since 2022.
“Jake personifies the future of the fastener industry,” said IFE Show Director, Morgan Wilson, in a press release on fastenershows.com. “His passion, ingenuity, and leadership are remarkable, and we are excited to see his continued impact and success in the fastener industry.”
Jake follows in the the footsteps of Sherex president Adam Pratt, who was named Young Fastener Professional of the Year in 2017.
“We’re so proud of Jake and it’s been really great to see him grow in this industry,” Adam said.
Now residing in Colorado, Jake enjoys volleyball, camping, snowboarding and being outdoors with his friends and his dog, King.
“I’m truly honored to receive this award. I cannot thank our industry family enough for their recognition and for supporting my growth and development over my 10 years here with Sherex,” Jake said. “I’ve met so many amazing people I am lucky enough to again call my family while working in the world of fasteners, so if you’re someone who’s younger or new to the fastener industry, there are so many opportunities to grow your career and relationships. Take those steps and soar.”
Sherex Fastening Solutions®, a PennEngineering® Company and global leader in engineered fasteners, tooling, and automation, is proud to announce its relationship with Southeast Sales & Engineering as its new sales representative.
Southeast Sales & Engineering is a professional manufacturer’s representative specializing in the transportation and industrial markets in the southeastern United States, including Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Mississippi, and Virginia. Led by president Bo Oliver, Southeast Sales & Engineering brings over 20 years of experience working with manufacturers to find the right fastening solutions for their applications.
With Sherex’s wide-range of innovative fastening products, like the award-winning Optisert®, RIV-FLOAT®, and Hand Tool Calibration Unit, Southeast Sales & Engineering adds another quality line card to their portfolio.
“Sherex’s growth over the past few years has been impressive,” said Oliver, who also represents the ATLAS® line of rivet nuts that will soon be offered by Sherex. “They are on the forefront of fastening technology and have a reputation of being easy to work with. We think our customers will benefit from their product offerings.”
While Sherex has provided the southeastern US with quality fasteners for over 20 years, Southeast Sales & Engineering will improve the visibility of Sherex products across this region.
“I’ve always been impressed with Bo and his team at Southeast Sales and Engineering, so when the opportunity came for them to represent the ATLAS® and Sherex product lines we were not going to let it pass,” said Sherex president Adam Pratt.
To learn more about Southeast Sales & Engineering, visit https://sesales-eng.com
To learn more about Sherex, visit www.sherex.com
About Sherex Fastening Solutions
Sherex Fastening Solutions, a PennEngineering® Company, is a leading manufacturer of fasteners for thin sheet material applications in steel, aluminum, and composite materials. Beyond its headquarters in Buffalo, NY, Sherex also has sales and distribution facilities in Mexico, UK, and Poland, along with worldwide manufacturing capabilities in the US, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Ireland. Sherex services a wide-range of industries, including automotive, heavy truck, general manufacturing, renewable energy, construction and agricultural equipment, and aerospace.
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Sherex Fastening Solutions’ Optisert, the best performing round body rivet nut on the market, was recently awarded as a winner of the 2023 Fastener Innovation Awards by WorldwideFastenerSources.com.
The innovative Optisert was chosen as a winner because of its incredible performance against spin-out. Its proprietary combination of an engineered knurled body and underhead wedge design helps it grip into the base material to prevent it from spinning. In softer materials, like aluminum, plastics, and composites, the spin-out performance matches that of a full hex body rivet nut.
This award “aims to recognize the people and companies to encourage Research & Development in the fastener industry,” as stated in the release by Mike McGuire, president of WorldwideFastenerSources.com.
“We are proud that the Fastener Innovation Awards are based on technical advancements compared to what exists in the marketplace today,” McGuire was quoted in the release.
The Certificate of Recognition and Crystal Marquise Globe given to the award winners
This is now the second recognition for Optisert, as it was also a finalist for the Route to Fastener Innovation 2023.
Optisert took over 7 years of research and development to become part of Sherex’s standard part offering. That meant lots of testing and tinkering to make sure Optisert would be ready to perform as a premier round body rivet nut in softer materials.
Optisert’s underhead wedges and engineered knurls give it superior grip
“A driving force in the evaluation process is that the fasteners be innovative in assemblies today and that they will become tomorrow’s standard,” the award release said. “Our philosophy is continuous improvement with innovative solutions for customers’ fastening applications.”
Sherex shares the same philosophy and with more innovations coming soon, more awards should be on the way!
It’s a little brash, but Sherex has the data to back it up: we’re calling Optisert the best round body rivet nut based on performance.
Sherex has been working for over five years on a round body rivet nut that can perform comparably vs. a half hex body rivet nut. This rivet nut can do that.
We are still going to recommend a full hex body rivet nut if you can make a hex hole – especially in harder material like steel and stainless steel. But if a round hole is the only hole that can be produced, especially in softer materials like plastic, fiberglass and aluminum, Optisert’s performance is impressive.
“We’ve had over five years of product development to get the performance where we want it,” said Sherex Engineering Manager John Knechtges. “We’ve done similar wedgehead, knurled rivet nuts as specials for projects, but this standard part has unmatched performance. We’re really proud.”
Let’s look at the numbers:
Optisert vs. CAL Series and CAL Wedge round body:
Optisert vs. Half Hex:
The numbers speak for themselves. Optisert spin-out performance is closer to the performance of a full hex rivet nut than a normal, round body CAL rivet nut, and GREATER than a half hex rivet nut.
With knurls underneath the flange that bite into the material, resistance to spin out is very extraordinary. Spin-out occurs when the rivet nut spins into the hole it’s installed into. Spin-out would potentially occur in applications that experience heavy vibration, or in applications that experience a lot of strain and force.
For industries that are continuously looking for lightweighting options, like automotive and heavy truck, Optisert is an ideal option for a threaded insert fastener. Optisert also comes in a closed end option with a seal that comes standard. The seal does not compromise grip, and helps keep dust and water out of the base material.
What a year!
It was great getting back to some normalcy. But with getting back to normal and ramping up came with challenges many manufacturers ran into this year: SUPPLY CHAIN. With that said, we feel we navigated supply chain issues better than our competitors and we even made moves that will hopefully mitigate those risks in the future.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from Sherex this year!
Operators LOVE our Calibration Unit and our Process Monitoring Units
Sherex’s Hand Tool Calibration Unit
When we released our Hand Tool Calibration Unit in 2020, we knew this would be a great tool for any installer. And after two years, we keep getting glowing praise. We hate to toot our own horn, but the tool is awesome. There are so many features the tool can provide, like exporting historical data, showing the recommended installation force on Sherex rivet nuts, and even graphing those recommended forces on to calibration unit to make sure the tool is inside of those parameters. By periodically checking the force of any spin-spin or spin-pull tool, you’ll feel confident the tool is operating how you want it, decreasing the guessing game on the pulling force, waste, and rework.
Some of our automotive tiers have had dozens of our FLEX-5 Process Monitoring Tools installed this year. Sherex Process Monitoring Tools let operators know if the rivet nut installation was perfect, instantly. Sherex sets the tool up to determine if the install was correct based on a variety of parameters: hole size, material, material thickness, rivet nut, rivet nut size, pulling force of the tool, etc. When all those parameters qualify, the system reads it as a good installation. This kind of tool combines quality and efficiency, and lets OEMs know, with data, that installations were perfect or not OK. These tools are perfect for high volume installations like on an assembly line and meets the process monitoring requirement many auto manufacturers require.
Our customers have nothing but great things to say on both these quality tools – you must try them if you haven’t already!
Sherex Poland and Sherex UK locations are off and running
We opened Sherex Poland last year and Sherex UK in 2019 and both locations have been building trust and supplying millions of our quality rivet nuts, threaded inserts, clinch nuts, wedge locking products and tools throughout Europe.
These locations serve as engineering, sales, customer support and warehousing for Europe, bringing us closer to our European customers and therefore, decreasing the total length of our supply chain. This year, new customers were pleasantly surprised we had stock AND could ship quickly! Great year by both Sherex Poland and Sherex UK.
Sherex Akron gets big upgrades, improving supply chain
New Part Former Machine at Sherex Akron
Sherex Akron, located in Akron, Ohio, makes all of our aerospace and Department of Defense parts, along with millions of other parts for a variety of other industries, put online two new part formers that as part of Sherex’s global capacity plan. These cold formers have allowed us to diversify the products we make in Akron while decreasing lead times. Akron still is capable of doing many short run jobs, but these part formers will really help with some of the major projects we’ve won throughout the year. Look for lot more product coming out of Akron in the future!
Have a Made in America requirement? Keep Sherex Akron in mind!
Optisert® is coming…
Sherex’s Optisert Rivet Nut
We’ve been talking about it for quite some time, but now it’s ready to be released. Sherex’s new round body rivet nut, Optisert, is set to be released in early 2023. Once released, Optisert will be the best performing round body rivet nut on the market. The combination of knurled body and underhead wedges give it superior strength when installed in softer material — its performance matches and in some cases is greater than a hex body rivet nuts!
This will be the “New Standard” when it comes to round body rivet nut and performance. Stay tuned!!
Look for more industry specific content in the future
You know Sherex has Solutions for EV Automakers, but we also have solutions for Construction and Agriculture, Aerospace, Heavy Truck, Renewable Energy, and more.
Keep a look out for some of that industry specific content to show how Sherex can help make applications in all industries get assembled easier and perform better.
These are some of highlights this year and our strategy going into 2023 and beyond.
Overall, Sherex had a strong year and we’re proud of our team to make that happen. One thing that will never change is our desire to find a solutions to your fastening problem. Customer service is key to our success, and we promise to provide the engineering and customer support you need from design, to manufacture, to assembly!
We wish everyone a happy holiday and best wishes in 2023.
A major benefit of rivet nuts are the variety of styles. Well not to be outdone, clinch nuts also come in a few standard styles that each have its own benefits.
Let’s take a look at different styles of clinch nuts:
ACN Series – High Strength Clinch Nut
ACN Clinch Nut
On this clinch nut, there are displacement lobes that force the sheet metal to flow into the locking groove when pressed in. This allows sheet metal to remain flat with no indentation and providing the nut with high push out and torque values. The base material remains flush.
This style of clinch nut is designed for thicker sheet metal applications from 2mm to 10mm thick, and is compatible with Class 8, 9, & 10 hardware depending on application requirements.
Front and backside of installed ACN and ASN Clinch Nuts. Notice the flush installation on the front side.
PHOTO: How Clinch Nuts are Installed>>
VIDEO: Installing a Clinch Nut with a FLEX-18>>
ASN Series — Serrated Style Clinching Nut Series
ASN Clinch Nut
This clinch nut has extensive knurls that push into the material. During installation, sheet metal is formed into an undercut section on the nut collar by the die button and the knurled ring. As a result, the nut has high push out and torque values, and space requirement is minimal due to the small outer diameter and flat installation surface.
The ASN clinch nut can be used in sheet metal applications from 1.5mm to 10mm thick, and is compatible with Class 8, 9, & 10 hardware depending on application requirements.
ARN Series – Universal Clinch Nut
ARN Clinch Nut
The ARN Series clinch nut is a unique style of clinch nut that has locking grooves to dig into the material when pressed in, while the neck part of the clinch nut is crimped over the base material using a special die, making the base material “almost flush.” Locking grooves are the clinch feature of the nut, providing high push out, pull through, and torque values, even in very thin sheet materials. The nut can be installed using several different installation methods depending on the sheet material thickness, hardness, and installation clearance.
Can be used in sheet metal from 0.4mm to 6mm thick, and is compatible with Class 8, 9, & 10 hardware depending on application requirements.
Custom Clinch Nuts
Some projects that require clinch nuts might need a higher tolerance grip range, or something that can bite into the material more, or a different coating. Sherex can design-in and manufacture special clinch nuts for your project. Be sure to look at our post Rivet Nuts vs Clinch Nuts to read the differences and similarities between the two fasteners!
If considering a clinch nut for your project and want to discuss what the best clinch nut for your project will be, contact us!
This was something no one saw coming. A pandemic that would shake up life for everyone around the world. As fast as the virus spread, families and businesses had to transition faster.
Manufacturers went from making cars to ventilators, t-shirts to masks, vodka to hand sanitizer, and we thank every single one of those businesses for it. The country, the world needed it – and Sherex is glad we could do our part to help.
Sherex Fastening Solutions went from supplying rivet nuts to some of the hottest new vehicles on the planet, to prioritizing its rivet nuts to manufacturers making products that make a direct impact in helping the world navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, four different rivet nut products went into applications that either directly helped patients or mitigated the spread of the virus.
Sherex’s rivet nuts went into were ventilator stands, hand sanitizers stands, and other critical applications used by hospitals.
“As an essential business, we have a duty to prioritize our products that will help fight this pandemic,” said Sherex president, Adam Pratt. “We’re happy knowing we can say, ‘hey our parts are in this application – we were able to help.’”
Sherex Akron, Sherex’s US manufacturing plant in Akron, Ohio, had an urgent requirement to produce these parts in short time. One of the parts Sherex Akron produced, part No. SXA25-80SPCA, is a flat head, open ended, smooth body rivet nut that installs into a stand specifically designed to hold up a ventilator. The customer was already using the part, but needed more, and needed them fast.
Ventilators are being used as a critical life saving device during the pandemic.
A more common Sherex part, part No. CAL2-580-3.3, is a knurled body rivet nut that belongs in a lot general industrial applications like refrigeration, heating and cooling units, and are used in the automotive industry. Now, they’re also used to create stands for hand sanitizers that will be used at malls, stadiums or any place with large gatherings so people will have ease of access to washing their hands.
The initial order of 30,000 rivet nuts was sent to the customer almost as fast as it was ordered.
Why are rivet nuts used and not typical nut and bolt? All were blind applications, meaning the attachment point could only be reached from the front – making it impossible to attach a nut to the backside of the bolt to keep the bolt secure. Also, efficiency. Once the rivet nut is installed, you just tighten the screw to attach your piece. Other methods are more time consuming, and during this pandemic, time is crucial.
“It felt good knowing that we could help and I know our employees had a sense of pride knowing they were helping too,” Sherex president Adam Pratt said.
We’re Open and Available for Essential Manufacturers |
Impact on Global Supply Chain and Mitigation Steps | Sherex Playing Big Role In Mitigating Spread of COVID-19 | Sherex Makes Quick Turnaround for COVID-19 Project
Sherex Fastening Solutions is there for essential businesses and manufactures during this difficult time.
Our manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and Akron, Ohio are open and producing product, and our sales and distribution centers in Buffalo, United Kingdom, and Mexico are operating within both the local and federal safety guidelines at this time.
For essential manufactures looking to keep their processes running with little delay, Sherex has large inventories of fasteners and installation tools that can be shipped IMMEDIATELY. We have outgoing shipments out of our Buffalo headquarters and new sales and distribution office in Burnley, UK every day.
Currently, a number of our parts are going into equipment that will directly impact COVID-19 patients. We have solutions for plants that are currently looking to make a different product to help with this relief effort.
For inquiries on our standard stock, please contact us.
Please stay safe, wash your hands, and practice social distancing during this time. And remember, if in need of critical fastening solutions during this time Sherex is open and available to help.
Please contact us: info@sherex.com | 866.474.3739
Impact on Global Supply Chain and Mitigation Steps
Official Statement: 3/18/2020 (PDF)
In response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation around the world and its impact on global supply chains, several customers have communicated their concerns about possible disruptions and asked us to address the supply of Sherex Fastening Solutions products.
Therefore, please be informed of the following:
Sherex Fastening Solutions is a global company with manufacturing in Akron, Ohio and Zhongli, Taiwan, with offices in El Pueblito, Mexico, Burnley, UK, and Tonawanda, NY.
So far, neither of our Sherex-owned manufacturing facilities nor any of our sub-contracted operations have been impacted. The Taiwanese government has taken extra precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from mainland China to the island of Taiwan. At this time we do not see an impact in deliveries or output from Taiwan.
Our Akron, Ohio facility continues to produce product, and we have asked employees to monitor their health and take the proper hygiene steps that will deter the spread of the virus. We have also restricted all visitors to that facility and are requiring those who have recently traveled to stay home and work remotely where possible.
At our global offices, we are mitigating risk by suspending work travel, allowing our non-essential office staff to work from home, and reminding all employees to practice frequent hand washing and frequent sanitation of high traffic areas.
Sherex is here and available for our customers whose supply chains have been disrupted.
We are taking every precaution possible to minimize the exposure to COVID-19. We continue to monitor the situation and if there are any changes we will share it as soon as we are advised.
If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Adam Pratt
President