Fasteners play a critical role in holding your assembly together and can affect many aspects of your product lifecycle. Joint strength, manufacturability, performance in various environments and even maintenance over the assemblies lifespan are all factors directly impacted by fasteners. Unfortunately, fastener performance is affected by its quality of raw material, manufacturing and even plating. To that end, many manufacturers rely on fastener certs and proof of compliance to ensure a fastener defect does not become a defect of your whole assembly.
Importance of Fastener Certification and Validation
The following fastener conformance, tests and reports can be requested to ensure quality of your manufacturing and enforce standards.
The Fastener Quality Act
(FQA) in the United States makes it illegal to falsely represent fasteners’ chemical and mechanical properties by misrepresenting or altering certificates of conformance, material test reports, inspection reports, and all records attesting to a fastener’s characteristics and performance. Originally meant as a sweeping reform to combat an influx of inferior, mis-marked and counterfeit parts during the 1980’s, the act is now limited to hardened and grade-marked high strength fasteners.
Restriction of Hazardous Substances
Commonly known as RoHS – is a European directive adopted in 2003 that prohibits using hazardous heavy metals in manufacturing components for industrial and commercial use. These include metals such as mercury, lead, hexavalent chromium, and cadmium, in addition to thermoplastic resins like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), phthalates (DEHP), and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), etc.
The Registration Evaluation Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals
(REACH) regulation is another European initiative launched in 2006 with the aim of restriction certain chemicals and substances in manufacturing. This regulation was enacted to protect the environment and everyday consumers from harmful substances and noxious chemicals.
CoC – Certificate of Conformance (or Compliance)
The fastener manufacturer provides a CoC to ensure the fastener meets industry or customer specifications.
MTR – Material Test Report (also known as – Inspection Report, Test Report, Chem-Phys Report)
A Material Test Report – often referred to simply as a “Mill” Test – is a document that attests to a given material’s mechanical and chemical properties. It is viewed as a quality document or certified record that the material and part meet the required specifications.
Plating Certification
A plating certification – or plating cert – states that the plating process successfully applied a coating or layer of metal to a given surface, helping to protect it against corrosion, scratches, and extreme environments.
ISIR – Initial Sample Inspection Report
An ISIR report is a critical part of following established initial sampling processes. These processes are sometimes required by customers and are used to validate the fastener’s quality and use in production.
PPAP – Production Part Approval Process
A standard requirement in the automotive and aerospace industry, the Production Part Approval Process is a procedure listing 18 steps to ensure repeatability, conformity, and consistency in fastener manufacturing.
DFARS Compliance: The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement
DFARS compliance is an absolute must for defense contractors. Compliance provides guidelines and restrictions governing raw material selection to minimize dependence on foreign material sources.
Going beyond the standard – Full-Service Quality Solutions From Bossard
In addition to providing fastener certs and manufacturer declarations, Bossard can provide customized quality assurance with our Expert Test Services.
Dedicated towards the testing of mechanical fasteners, our ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test laboratories are staffed with qualified engineers and state-of-the-art test equipment. If you require failure analysis or independent confirmation of product quality, Bossard Expert Test Services can provide you with a sound basis for making informed decisions regarding your fasteners and ensure high quality products.
What to Know About Fastener Certification and Compliance by Bossard
