Zero defect
2008-07-29

  

A passenger plane of China Airlines from Taiwan goes up in flame after an explosion in Naha on Japan's southern island of Okinawa last year.  According to initial investigation, it is likely for the reason that a bolt on the right wing that pierced the tank of the ill-fate plane, resulting in a massive fuel leak.

This accident reminds us that a bolt on a machine is very important .The bolts are categorized as fasteners. A fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. A bolt is a metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body, partially or completely threaded, and a larger head.                                                                                                                       

Bolts are made in a wide range of materials, with steel being the  most common where great resistance to weather is required,   stainless steel, titanium, bronze, monel or silicon bronze may be used, or a coating such as brass, or chromium applied.

It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to the head, with a nut threaded on the other end. Bolts are usually in tension when properly fitted. In most applications they are not designed to bear large shear forces. There is no method to measure the tension of a bolt already in place other than to tighten it and identify at which point the bolt starts moving. An electronic torque wrench is used on the bolt under test, and the torque applied is constantly measured. When the bolt starts moving the torque briefly drops sharply - this drop-off point is considered the measure of tension. Bolt hangers and bolt runners are two main types of bolt placements. Bolt runners consist solely of a bolt placed with the bolt head sticking out slightly from the rockface .

 Under the background of economic globalization, the development of China fastener industry is very complex. In the early 1960s, a series of automobile factories appeared and China automotive industry took shape. The central governing  department of automobile set down to building fitting enterprises for the automotive factories. Later, it chose Wuhan Standard Parts Factory, one of the ten enterprises, and input investment to support it. The factory provided parts for all automotive factories . “Wuhan Automobile Standard Factory” emerged as the times required.

In 2006 China fastener output has exceeded 4 million tons. But there is no doubt that output is money and quality is life for fastener industry. Quality is life, the life of fastener enterprises. If we are only blindly in pursuit of output, we will waste time and money.

For the OEMs of automotive fastener in China  it is very important to strengthen the process test and online selection capacity,  to guarantee the quality of products  and  get rid of the human factors .

To sum up, the smooth run of car assembly line, the running safety and the good reputation are greatly relied on 100% non-defect fasteners. Under the background of economic globalization, Challenges and opportunities exist at the same time. A large number of multinational fastener companies flow into China. The local fastener companies have to build their own brands and to improve the quality, in order to assure a minor rate of nonconformity, as well as to reduce the rate from 1000-600PPM to less than 150PPM. In this way, to strive for zero defect is fastener industry's goal.

Zero defect  is the goal of fastener industry for the same reason that details determine success or failure. There are famous brands on catering, so with garment and fastener. We should change bolt's brand building strategy to make a worldwide fastener brand.