Fasteners for Chassis and Frames
As the leading global industrial fastener distributor and service provider, Optimas has over 100 years’ experience supplying fasteners and components to the automotive industry, and is a major manufacturer and supplier to automotive OEMs, including automotive chassis and frame manufacturers.
Electric vehicles are fuelling the growth of the chassis and frame markets. With EV sales up by 55% in 2022 in comparison to the previous year, OEMs and automotive manufacturers are catering to an increasingly environmentally conscious consumer market. The last couple of years have also seen an increase in popularity of SUVs, especially electric ones, leaving manufacturers with a wide range of design requirements to satisfy.
Automotive chassis and frames provide the foundation for the whole vehicle, and work to counter static and dynamic loads and forces acting on the car. It’s crucial, then, that these key components are fastened together with reliable, durable parts. In the case of electric vehicles, chassis and frames may also require bespoke and engineered fastening solutions to maintain and enhance vehicle performance and passenger safety.
Fasteners for Chassis and Frames: Key Considerations
1. Enhanced Performance
Chassis and frame manufacturing is only becoming more advanced in the face of electric technologies. As EVs tend to be much heavier than their petrol or diesel counterparts due to their batteries, using lightweight materials at every opportunity is crucial to lessen emission and heighten vehicle performance.
Optimas manufacture and supply chassis fasteners in a wide range of lightweight materials, including aluminium, to contribute to improved vehicle acceleration and fuel efficiency.
2. Strength & Durability
Alongside disributing quality parts, our manufacturing division manufactures fasteners using cold-forming, which maximises a material’s metallurgical properties and structural integrity, prioritising a part’s strength and durability.
Fasteners need to meet high tolerance and vibration demands, bearing loads between 65-90% of their yield strength so they don’t loosen in their application, or worse, break.
Because of the way they are manufactured, Barton’s chassis fasteners ensure a very high level of safety and reliability for all cars by guaranteeing the integrity of the vehicle’s main structure.
3. Corrosion Resistance
Chassis and frames make up a large external portion of a vehicle, and often encounter moisture, cleaning chemicals and salt from gritted roads. The fasteners that hold this structure together therefore need to be highly corrosion resistant.
Alongside providing excellent yield strength, aluminium is highly corrosion resistant, so it is well suited for all automotive and EV applications.
4. Improved Battery Life
Using lightweight chassis fasteners can also achieve improved battery life. Lighter vehicles place significantly less strain on an EV battery, allowing for heightened vehicle range and enhanced vehicle performance.
5. Thermal Conductivity and Insulation
Electric vehicles can generate a significant amount of heat during operations. If the vehicle’s fasteners and components aren’t optimised for use, this heat can transfer to critical components, risking low battery life and poor vehicle performance.
Aluminium fasteners in particular can effectively transfer heat away from critical components, maintaining optimal operating temperatures and prolonging the lifespan of various vehicle systems.
6. Energy Efficiency
Whether an EV, diesel or petrol vehicle, lighter vehicles require considerably less energy to operate, leading to increased energy efficiency and lowered emissions.
In any automotive build, incorporating aluminium, titanium or magnesium fasteners allows manufacturers to optimise their vehicles for better energy consumption, ultimately enhancing the overall sustainability of the vehicle.
7. Sustainability
Evidently the popularity of electric vehicles and electric SUVs is driven by their eco-friendliness, so it’s important OEMs source their fasteners from an eco-friendly manufacturer. Optimas has a firm and tangible commitment to sustainability, and our manufacturing division is no exception. Before a part is manufactured, any additive waste produced by prototyping is recycled.
As Barton’s parts are formed in their near-net state, cold-forming is also a highly sustainable production process, resulting in very minimal material waste. Barton’s plant is also fully powered by renewable energy.
The team at Barton have recently embarked on a tree planting campaign, through which the business will donate funds to the National Forest.
Fastener Engineering
Alongside manufacturing and distributing a range of standard and specialised components and fasteners for chassis and frames, our in-house design engineers offer bespoke support for chassis and frame manufacturers.
With decades of experience working within the automotive industry, our engineers can work with you on a project basis or on-site to support you in product development, assembly and testing.
Offering 3D-printing and bar-turning capabilities, we also offer rapid prototyping for our partners, making sure to find the optimum fit for any chassis and frame application. Optimas is also a Global Centre of Excellence, specialising in rapid approvals for PPAPs (Production Part Approval Processes), minimising manufacturers’ time to market.
High Quality Fasteners for Chassis and Frames
Alongside catering for more specialised applications, we provide a wide range of standard fasteners for chassis and frames, including but not limited to:
- Lockbolts
- Shock Bolts and Nuts
- Wheel Bearings
- Transmission Studs
- Wishbone Bolts
- Pushrods
Services
Alongside manufacturing and distributing fasteners for chassis and frames, it’s our supply chain solutions, engineering services and quality labs that set us apart.
While manufacturing chassis and frames using quality parts is key, to get these parts to a production line it’s crucial manufacturers maintain a streamlined supply chain.
Enhancing Operations
Our experts can conduct line walks with you and identify opportunities for increased efficiency throughout each stage of your production process, finding ways to remove non-value activities and drive continuous cost savings.
Optimising Inventory
Our OptiTech inventory management solutions ensure products are delivered to the right place at the right time through improved data visibility. This results in improved productivity, cost reduction, streamlined production, and lowered Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Improving Quality
We believe that quality in, is quality out. Evidenced by our range of industry certifications, like ISO 14001 and ISO 9001, Optimas operates its facilities to the most rigorous standards to make sure fasteners for chassis and frames are optimised for use, every time.
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