Fasteners are mechanical hardware devices that are used to connect two surfaces to make a secure joint between two objects. It plays a very important role in the production process of automobiles, enabling a secure mechanism while building precisely engineered components, ensuring quality control, and safeguarding the structural capabilities across the automobile-making industry.
In this modern framework of automobile industries, the use of plastic automotive fasteners has begun to make its way into mainstream production lines due to the requirement of reducing weights and enhancing corrosion resistance to enable a sustainable vehicle design without compromising its structural integrity.
Types of Plastic Automotive Fasteners Used in Vehicles
Here’s the list of Plastic Automotive Fasteners:-
- Bumper Spacers & Gap Hiders: Bumper Spacers are placed just behind the rear and front bumper in automobiles to provide equal spacing between the body panels.
- Bus Bars: Bus bars are solid metal bars used to carry current, typically made of copper or aluminum. However, the combination of metal, specialized coatings, and plastic encapsulations makes it a multi-faceted and advanced engineered product for the automotive industry.
- Interior/Exterior Clips: An ideal part for automotive trim applications providing secure, durable, and resistant fasteners for panels, moldings, and accessories.
- Fluid routing: The system which transports fluids all over the vehicles which mainly includes coolant, oil, or fuels. Fluid routing components are made from plastics making them lightweight and corrosion resistant.
- Wire Harness Clips: The combination of electric cables or assembly of wires that connect all the electronic components in automotive vehicles.
Meanwhile, there are more plastic-made fasteners such as push rivets, snap-clips, and quarter-turn fasteners that are not mentioned in the above-mentioned points, but are important and play a crucial role in automotive industries. Using metal fasteners may lead to an increase in the weight of the vehicle, and a threat of corrosion and metal degradation over time may affect the long-term durability and performance. Plastic-made fasteners are lightweight and corrosion-resistant alternatives, reducing the maintenance cost and improving the longevity of the vehicles.
Importance of plastic automotive fasteners
- No rust and corrosion resistance.
- Nonconductive to heat and electricity.
- Less expensive than metal-made fasteners.
- More versatile than other materials.
- Cost-effective.
- Gives better design flexibility.
- Less noise and vibration in a real-time environment.
Key Takeaways
The use of plastic-made fasteners in automotive industries has major advantages including reduced vehicle weight and wholesome improvement in vehicles. Typically metal fasteners corrode and develop rust over time, especially when exposed to moisture or salty conditions. However, using plastic-based fasteners will not only reduce the corrosion effect but also increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles. Plastic costs less than metals, which would reduce the manufacturing cost, enabling a customer-centric budget-friendly manufacturing process of vehicles. Due to its versatile nature and resistance to UV rays, plastic can be molded easily in any shape and size. You can make plastic fasteners in any shape you want. So using plastic automotive fasteners is going to boost the production process in the automotive sector shortly.