APIS MC: Made to Order Fasteners in Special Materials

Case Study:   Problem Solving

Technical Support and Global Sourcing expertise for Made to Order Fasteners in difficult to obtain material grades.

APIS MC Limited have recently been involved in several different projects which have required the manufacture and supply of made to order fasteners in some difficult to source material grades. These projects have been for OEM clients in the UK and European valve manufacturing industry. 

Hex Head Bolts and Nuts made from Alloy (Monel®) 400 – Hardened (2.4360)

A long-standing client had a legacy contract requirement for Fasteners made from Alloy 400 in the Hardened condition. There was a very short and precise ‘shutdown window’ for our OEM client to complete this project and the lack of material availability took them by surprise (to our knowledge this grade is not widely available in this condition).

Realising that our customer needed some help with this unusual requirement we came up with a solution to use some standard of Alloy 400 barstock material and convert it into the required condition, manage the post-hardening laboratory testing and produce the fasteners from the converted material.

Craig Evans, Technical Director, said “There was an element of risk involved with successfully converting this material, however by working with closely with our supply chain and our production teams, this project was successfully delivered ahead of our own schedule and in plenty of time for our client to supply their valves and avoid loss of production at the chemical production plant.”

Socket Head Cap Screws made from Titanium grade 19 (ASTM B348 R58640)

A new client asked if we could help to provide some Fasteners made from Titanium grade 19 material. Seemingly another supplier had let them down by supplying a different grade to what was ordered. We knew that this grade is very difficult to obtain, let alone in the small diameters required to competitively produce fasteners – meaning that we would have to use of knowledge of global sourcing options.

Matt Smith, Business Development Manager, said “I have previously lived and worked in Asia, so I had some ideas where to look using my experience of that market. Using an old contact, we were able to obtain an offer for the correct grade of material. Although this particular supplier is not a regular source, their niche is the supply of difficult to obtain grades.”

We submitted our offer and were able to confirm to the client that we could source the barstock material and in turn were able to supply the finished product. The client placed the Purchase Order, and we were able to import the material and complete the order on time.

Contact: Matt Smith, Tel: 07538 554663, E-mail: matt.smith@apismc.com.     

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