Patent Grant
11969840
The present invention relates to fasteners, and methods of installing, that can be fastened to very thin sheet material. In one preferred embodiment, the fastener is a concealed head standoff fastener that is installed with a rotary punch.
There are many fastening applications that require installation of a threaded fastener in a blind hole. For example, this installation method is often used for assembling components of a waterproof apparatus. However, more often than not, this installation method is used when the cosmetic appearance of the apparatus is important and no blemish can be visible on the surface after assembly.
Known self-clinching fasteners have a displacer and an undercut at the bottom of the fastener. The depth of the blind hole, and thus the material thickness of the sheet or component, must be large enough to accept the full height of the displacer, undercut and shank. Furthermore, there must be additional material thickness below the hole to disperse installation stresses, and to eliminate or reduce marking during installation to a point where any blemish can be removed in a secondary finishing operation. Therefore, many known self-clinching fasteners can only be installed in relatively thick sheets or components.
On the other hand, many applications, such as consumer electronics, require the assembly of relatively thin sheets or components. In one known assembly method, consumer electronic components are initially formed from a thick material. Then, to reduce the component's overall weight and stature, material is machined away everywhere except the fastening locations on the component, which retain the original (greater) thickness of the component. This process is costly and wasteful. Other methods of assembling thin sheets or components, such as laser welding or adhesives, are impractical or not feasible in production due to material burn through or long cure times. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a more efficient method of assembling thin sheets or components. Since self-clinching fasteners are a preferred fastener type, it would be desirable to provide an improved fastener and installation method having the advantages of self-clinching fasteners but can be fastened in very thin sheets.
In one preferred embodiment, the present invention provides clinch-in fasteners that can be installed by clinch-in fastening in holes of very thin workpieces, such as metal sheets, using novel tooling and installation methods. For example, the fasteners can be clinched in a blind hole as shallow as 0.014 inches deep. The clinch-in fastener is preferably used with an installation tool that displaces sheet material against and over structural features of the fastener that resist axial pull-out and torque. Moreover, the inventive fastener and installation minimize and/or eliminate marking or blemishes on the opposite side of the panel during installation.
Usually, self-clinching fasteners for thin panels require very tight tolerances. To ease this requirement, preferred embodiments of the fastener have a lead installation shank that has a chamfered lead surface and an outer diameter that interferes slightly with the side of the hole.
In preferred embodiments, the shank is not actively pressed on by the tool during installation. Instead, a force is initially applied to the top of the fastener to insert the fastener in the hole by overcoming the shank/hole interference. The force also holds the fastener in the hole during clinching. In one preferred embodiment, the force is applied by a spring-loaded plate within an installation tool. Then, the installation tool rotationally presses material surrounding the hole and deforms it onto a top surface of the shank to clinch the fastener to the workpiece.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the fastener has a cylindrical body with a top, a bottom, side walls, and an internal axial bore. The bore may extend entirely through the body. A single shank is fixed to and extends radially from the side walls near the bottom of the body. The shank has a top surface, side surface and chamfer. The top surface preferably lies in a plane that is orthogonal to the central axis of the body. The side surface is preferably co-axial with the central axis. The chamfer extends from the side surface at an angle that is skew to the central axis. The chamfer tapers downwardly-inwardly from the side surface towards the bottom of the body. The top surface of the shank is constructed and arranged to receive the cold flow of workpiece material surrounding a hole in a workpiece.
In another preferred embodiment, the shank includes a plurality of peripheral notches. At least one of the notches is preferably formed in an outermost edge of said shank. At least one notch may extend through the top surface of the shank, the side surface, the chamfer, or a combination of those surfaces.
Another preferred embodiment of the invention comprises an assembly of the clinch fastener described above affixed in a blind hole of a workpiece. The workpiece may preferably be a planar sheet of aluminum. The fastener is affixed to the workpiece by displacing material surrounding the hole onto at least the top surface of the shank. The displaced material may also fill one or more of the notches in the fastener shank. In one embodiment, at least one of the internal threads of the fastener is covered with material displaced from a central raised area of workpiece material in the receiving hole.
The fastener may have a variety of shapes and functionality. For example, in one embodiment, the fastener may be a concealed head standoff. In another preferred embodiment, the fastener may comprise a two-part fastener arrangement for connecting cooperating panels. In this embodiment, for example, one fastener may be a floating-pin retainer while the other may be a magnetic release gripper. In this latter embodiment, the fasteners interconnect to join the cooperating panels together such as the casing of a laptop computer.
In another preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a fastener installation system having an installation tool adapted for affixation to an element of an industrial machine that rotates and translates. Preferably, the industrial machine is CNC milling machine, which applies simultaneous rotational and translational motion, especially vertically-downward motion, to the tool as the fastener is installed into the workpiece.
The tool has a spindle at its top end, which can be removably affixed to the industrial machine. At its bottom end, the tool has a tip with a distal end face (relative to the spin. At least one displacer is fixed to the distal end face, which is constructed and arranged to deform the workpiece as the tip rotates and is pressed against the workpiece. An axial bore in the tip holds the fastener to be installed by the tool. Preferably, the distal end face is orthogonal to the axial bore.
In preferred embodiments, the displacer is vertically and radially tapered along an arcuate ridge centered around the axial bore in the tip. An inside edge of the displacer is chamfered from the ridge to the axial bore and chamfered from the displacer ridge to an outer edge of the displacer. The displacer is preferably vertically tapered along the arcuate ridge. The taper extends from a first end of greatest height down to a second end of zero height. The displacer blends into the end face of the tool at the second end. The width of the displacer is also tapered such that one end of the displacer(s) intersects the end face at a point.
In one embodiment, the tool has two identical displacers located 180 degrees apart. In one preferred embodiment, the length of each displacer is defined by approximately 90 radial degrees of extension from the first end to the second end.
The tool may have fluid communication means extending from the spindle to the tip. The fluid communication means preferably comprises fluid flow channels that connect a vacuum source to the tip. The vacuum created at the tip holds the fastener within the tip bore while the tool rotates.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a method of rigidly affixing a fastener, such as described above, to the workpiece by displacing workpiece material against the fastener. After the fastener is pressed into the blind receiving hole, material surrounding or proximate the hole is displaced against the fastener by simultaneously pressing the tool against the workpiece and rotating the tool. Preferably, the material is displaced onto the top surface of the fastener shank. The fastener and workpiece should be supported by a hard surface such as an anvil. In another embodiment, the material is displaced into at least some of the threads of the internal bore of the fastener.
In a further preferred embodiment, the invention provides method of clinch-in fastening a fastener in a blind hole of workpiece. The method includes the initial steps of providing a fastener and inserting the fastener in the blind hole. Then, workpiece material surrounding the blind hole is displaced against the fastener by: (a) applying a localized force to a segment of the workpiece material proximate the perimeter of the hole. The localized force has force components in both the parallel and perpendicular direction relative to the plane of the workpiece; (b) increasing the localized force until it induces the yield stress in the workpiece and workpiece material deforms radially toward the fastener; (c) radially advancing the localized force around the hole perimeter to a new segment; and, (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) until the localized force has been applied to the entire perimeter of the hole. Preferably steps (a)-(d) are repeated until a sufficient amount of workpiece material has been deformed into contact with the fastener to clinch the fastener in the hole.
In a preferred embodiment, the localized force is applied to the workpiece with a rotatable tool having displacer adapted for deforming the workpiece. Due to its shape, the displacer applies both components (perpendicular and parallel to the plane of the workpiece) of the localized force when the displacer is driven normally into the surface of the workpiece. In another preferred embodiment, the displacer applies both components of the localized force when the displacer is driven normally into the surface of the workpiece and is simultaneously rotated around the perimeter of the hole.
These methods are preferably used with the clinch-in fasteners described above. Workpiece material is deformed onto the top surface of the shank, and optionally into at least one of the threads of the internal bore. The fastener is initially pressed into the blind hole by the spring-biased pusher of the above-described tool.
The inventive fastener, tooling and installation methods provide many advantages over the prior art. For example, embodiments of the invention provide one or more of the following features and advantages.
The displacer is eliminated from the fastener. Instead, it is incorporated into the installation tool. As a result, the minimum hole depth in the workpiece is reduced. This construction also effectively eliminates the undercut in prior art self-clinching fasteners.
Prior art self-clinching fasteners usually include a feature on the displacer that prevents rotation. In embodiments of the present invention, the anti-rotation feature is incorporated into the fastener shank.
The very thin panels of consumer electronic products, and the very small fasteners used to assemble panels, require a very tight tolerance. To account for this small tolerance, the inventive fastener has a chamfered lead installation edge on a shank that will interfere slightly with the diameter of the hole.
The fastener is not actively pressed on during installation. Instead, only a small force is initially needed to press the fastener through the interference between the shank and the hole, and then stabilize the fastener in the hole. The tool includes a spring loaded punch, which is capable of exerting this small initial force. The tool can also exert a much larger force directly on the workpiece to cold deform the workpiece onto the fastener.
The cross section of the displacer is wedge shaped to deform (plows) metal inwardly and onto the top of the fastener shank. Unlike on the fastener, this geometry may be readily formed on the installation tool.
The axial component of the high installation force on prior art self-clinching fasteners can cause excess stress and be carried through to the cosmetic face. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the amount of axial force needed to cold deform the workpiece is reduced by using a rotating wedge. Torque is employed to plow metal over the fastener shank. The amount of axial force is reduced by reducing the cross-sectional area of material being pressed into the panel, by redirecting the axial force into the horizontal orientation with the displacers, and deforming material radially toward the fastener.
Because the installation will require both torque and axial force for installation, equipment must be employed that has this capability. CNC milling machines are used to cut the shallow, flat bottomed installation holes. According to the invention, the same machine, in the same operation, then changes tools automatically and installs a fastener into the hole that was just created. This method eliminates the need for separate installation equipment and the need to handle parts through two operations. This method creates a great economic benefit for the assembly of small consumer electronics.
“Self-clinching fastener” means any device, usually threaded, that, when pressed into ductile metal, displaces the host material around the mounting hole, causing it to cold flow into a specially designed annular recess in the shank or pilot of the fastener.” “Clinch-in” fastener means any device, usually threaded, that, can be mechanically fastened in a blind receiving hole of a metal workpiece by cold deforming the metal surrounding the hole into contact with the device. “Clinch-in fastening” as used with reference to a fastener and metal workpiece is used in its broadest send to mean the process of joining the fastener to the workpiece (without additional components) using a tool to plastically deform the workpiece into contact with the fastener to form a mechanical interlock between the fastener and the workpiece.
A fastener in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in
At the bottom 13c of the body 13, a shank 15 protrudes radially from the side walls 13b. The shank has a top surface 17, a side surface 18, a chamfer 14, and a bottom surface 16. In a preferred embodiment, the top surface 17 of the shank 15 is flat, annular and lies in a plane that is orthogonal to the central axis of the body, and parallel to the top 13a and bottom 13c of the fastener body 13. Preferably, the side surface 18 is cylindrical, and co-axial with and parallel to the side walls 13b of the body 13. Preferably the chamfer surface 14 extends at an angle that is skew to the central axis of the body, and tapers downwardly-inwardly from the side surface 18 towards the bottom 13c of the body 13.
In one preferred embodiment, the bottom surface 16 of the shank 15 is flat, annular and lies in a plane that is orthogonal to the central axis of the body 13, and parallel to the top 13a and bottom 13c of the body 13. In a preferred embodiment, the bottom surface 16 is continuous and co-planar with the bottom 13c of the body 13. By locating the shank at the very bottom of the body, the minimum thickness of the workpiece can be minimized. In other embodiments, the chamfer may blend directly into the bottom of the body, thereby eliminating the bottom surface of the shank.
In the embodiment shown in
In one preferred embodiment, the top 17 surface, side surface 18, chamfer 14 and bottom surface 16 are illustrated and described as planar. However, one or more of those surfaces may be curved, tapered, or have an irregular shape in other preferred embodiments.
The top surface 17 of the shank 15 is adapted to receive the cold flow of material surrounding a blind hole in a workpiece 21 such as seen in
In the embodiment shown in
The working end or tip 40 of the installation tool 20 of
In this embodiment, the two displacers 27 are located approximately 180 degrees apart. The displacers 27 are identical and the length of each displacer 27 measures approximately 90 radial degrees about the tool central axis from the one end 33 to the other end 34. Compared to prior art flat-faced displacers having a rectangular cross-section, the wedge displacers 27 of the invention push some metal radially inward as they move downwardly into the workpiece.
Referring to
Referring to
Once inserted in the hole, the pusher 22 continues to steady and support the fastener in its upright position. Next, the tool translates further downwardly until the displacers 27 contact the workpiece. When the force of the displacer on the workpiece induces the yield stress into the workpiece material, rotation of the tool is preferably initiated. As the tool rotates, the displacers 27 cold deform inwardly the material surrounding the blind hole 23 onto the top surface 17 of the shank 13 and preferably into one or more of the notches 19. As deformation occurs and material is pushed radially, the yield stress on the workpiece gradually reduces if the displacers are not pressed further into the workpiece. Therefore, as rotation and radial deformation occurs, the tool translates continuously downward to maintain a steady force in the workpiece in excess of the yield stress. This process continues until a sufficient amount of material has been displaced onto the top of the fastener flange 15 to lock the fastener 11 in the workpiece 21.
The amount of force on the fastener and workpiece, and the amount of work, required to install a fastener 11 in accordance with preferred embodiments of this invention is less than the prior art methods using a displacer with a flat face. In prior art self-clinching fasteners, the displacer has a rectangular cross section, which deforms (pushes) all material in a downward direction and causes material to bulge into an undercut. In contrast, the wedge-shaped displacers 27 deform (push) some metal material radially inwardly as they move downwardly. Since the narrow apex or arcuate ridge 31 of the displacer 27 first contacts the workpiece, the force on the workpiece at the beginning of the displacement is very low. Then, for every increment of downward vertical displacement, the force on the workpiece increases until the displacer 27 is fully embedded. While this force gradually increases, this force is always lower than force exerted by a comparable, prior art, flat-faced displacer having a base and height equal to the base and height of the tapered displacer 27. Once the tapered displacer 27 is fully-embedded, the respective forces are nearly equal. This comparison of forces is graphically illustrated in
Furthermore, since the amount of work is the product of force and distance, the amount of work exerted by the tapered displacer is much lower than its prior art counterpart. The reduction in work to deform an equal amount of material compared to the prior art is also illustrated in the graph of
In preferred embodiments, the tool is rotated counterclockwise with respect to the embodiment shown in
The aforementioned force reduction permits clinch-in attachment of the fastener 11 into a very thin workpiece 21 such as an electronics panel. Even when applied into a blind hole as shown in
The above-described force reduction also is achieved in part because the displacers 27 are located on the installation tool 20 and not on the fastener 11, and because the displacers 27 are wedge shaped and not rectangular with a flat bottom working surface. This tool construction can therefore be used with a fastener having a very shallow shank. As a result, the fastener and workpiece have a strong attachment but have minimal displacement of the workpiece material.
The tool shown in
The cross sectional area of the displacer of
Of the two preferred embodiments shown in
A tool 120 and method of installing a clinch fastener in a thin workpiece in accordance with another preferred embodiment is illustrated in
The tool 120 has a construction similar to the tool 20 described with reference to
The tool 120 is used to install a fastener 11 in the same manner, and using the same steps, as described with respect to the first tool 20. The fastener 11 is held in position against the panel 21 by the pusher 122. The spring-biased pusher 122 supports the fastener in the blind hole 123 as the displacer 127 cold deforms material surrounding the outer perimeter of the hole 123 onto the top 17 of fastener shank 15. However, in addition, as the tool 120 moves downwardly, the center punch 145 cold deforms the knob 143 outwardly and into at least one of the threads of the fastener 11 at the same time that the displacers 127 cold deform material around the perimeter of the hole 123 inwardly and onto the top surface 17 of the shank 15. The cold deformation of the knob 43 preferably occurs at the same time as deformation at the outer perimeter of the hole 123. This construction creates a more secure connection between the fastener 11 and the workpiece 21.
An installation tool in accordance with an additional embodiment of the invention is shown in
Within the bore 230 of the casing 248, the tool 220 has a compression spring 225 seated between two thrust bearings 242. At the upper end, the spring 225 is connected to the thrust bearing by a coupler 243. At the lower end, the spring 225 is seated against one side of the pusher 222. The other side of the pusher 222 is seated in another thrust bearing 242. The pusher 222 preferably has a shape and size that compliments the shape and size of the central bore 230 and permits the pusher 222 to freely reciprocate within the bore 230. The compression spring 225 controls the magnitude of the installation force of the pusher 222 on the fastener 11, thereby reducing the possibility of inadvertently making pressure marks on the back side of the panel. The force of the spring 225 should preferably be great enough to push the shank 15 of the fastener 11 through the interference zone of the hole 23. In a preferred embodiment, the compression spring 225 comprises a die spring.
Once the fastener 11 bottoms out in the receiving hole 23, the tool 220 is further advanced downwardly and simultaneously rotated to enable the displacer(s) 227 to deform and push metal radially-inwardly over the top surface 17 of the fastener flange 15, which attaches the fastener 11 to the workpiece as seen in
In a preferred embodiment, the pusher 222 has axial bores 244 that extend from one end of the pusher 222 to the other. The bores 244 create a fluid communication channel extending from the distal tip 240 of the tool 220, through the casing 248, through the spindle 241, and to a vacuum source “V”. The vacuum source “V” creates suction at the tip 240 of the tool to pick up and/or secure the fastener in the bore during crimping.
Because CNC control allows for variable speed and downward feed, discreet installation values for various workpiece materials can be developed. The tool can be spun and advanced either simultaneously or separately. For example, in a preliminary installation step the tool can be spun so that the tip 240 makes incidental contact with the workpiece. The friction from this incidental contact will heat the area surrounding the receiving hole and soften the workpiece material and thereby lower the rotational and compressive forces needed to install the fastener.
An installation tool in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention is shown in
Similar to the embodiment shown in
In the embodiments described above, the fastener 11 has a construction similar to an internally-threaded nut or standoff. However, it should be appreciated that fasteners in accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention may have a construction similar to other known fasteners while incorporating the novel features described above. For example, a two-part fastener arrangement is shown in the embodiment of
Each fastener 411a, 411b of the two part arrangement comprises a body 413a, 413b, respectively, having an axial bore. The bottom of each body 413a, 413b includes a radially-protruding shank 415a, 415b, respectively, having a construction similar to the shank 15 of the fastener 11 described above with respect to
A fastener in accordance with yet a further preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in
In contrast to the notches 19 of the embodiment shown in
From the foregoing it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that the objects of the invention have been achieved. Furthermore, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that there are many variations and adaptations of the embodiments disclosed all of which fall within the scope and spirit of the invention which shall be determined only by the claims and their legal equivalents.
This application is a divisional of non-provisional patent application patent application Ser. No. 16/307,133 entitled “Fastener and Installation Method for Very Thin Sheets” filed Dec. 4, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference and priority from which is hereby claimed.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3820579 | Barry | Jun 1974 | A |
| 6527489 | Kando | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 8366364 | Maloney | Feb 2013 | B2 |
| 20060159545 | Humpert | Jul 2006 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20230052007 A1 | Feb 2023 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16307133 | US | |
| Child | 17978341 | US |
