AMFast aerospace fastening systems

t.+44(0)1582 715150

For more than 60 years, AMFast has been a leading stockist & distributor of fastening systems, variously known now as aerospace fasteners and aircraft hardware.

AMFast offers the most comprehensive range of fastening systems available. Aerospace fasteners to British standards (A, AGS, AS, SP), European standards (DIN, LN), and American standards (AN, BAC, MS, NAS).

Aerospace pop rivets

The Company is a main distributor for Emhart Tucker fasteners known as aerospace pop rivets & Huck International fasteners, now part of Alcoa Fastening Systems, and carries extensive stocks for aerospace and industrial applications.

Rivets are small pin-type fasteners, used to fasten pieces of sheet metal together. Most aircraft rivets are made of aluminum alloy and are driven cold. The rivet is slipped through holes in the material being fastened, and a heavy steel bucking bar is held against the end of the shank. The head of the rivet is hammered with a rivet gun (an air hammer). The bucked head, or shop head, that is formed when the rivet is driven, is flat on top, and its sides are rounded.

Rivet cutters are aircraft mechanics hand tools. A special type of cutter used to cut aircraft solid rivets to the required length. The jaws of the cutter are ground so the cut end of the rivet shank is flat.

Rivet gages are The distances between rows of rivets in riveted aircraft structures.

Rivet guns are aircraft sheet metalworking tools. A handheld air hammer that drives a rivet set with a series of sharp blows. A rivet set, with a recess the shape and size of the head of the rivet being driven, is held in the rivet gun with a spring-type retainer. The rivet set is pressed against the head of the rivet, and a heavy polished-steel bucking bar is held against the end of the rivet shank. The blows on the head of the rivet upset the shank and cause it to swell out and form the bucked, or shop, head.

Rivet pitch is the distance between the centre of adjacent rivets in the same row in a riveted aircraft structure. A rivet set is a tool used to drive aircraft rivets. A rivet set is a piece of hardened steel with a recess the shape of the rivet head in one end. The other end of the rivet set fits into the rivet gun. The rivet gun vibrates the rivet set and hammers the rivet against a heavy steel bucking bar held against the end of the rivet shank. Rivnuts are patented fasteners used to install threads in thin sheet metal. Rivnuts are blind rivets with an internally threaded hollow shank. The Rivnut is slipped through a hole drilled in the thin sheet metal, and its shank is collapsed by pulling it with a special pulling tool screwed into the threads. Rivnuts were developed by the B.F. Goodrich Company to install deicer boots on airplane wings.

Traditionally, blind rivets were used on aircraft leading edges, trailing edges, and areas which are limited to access to one side of the structure. Current blind rivet usage has expanded to many additional areas of the aircraft in an effort to decrease labour costs and address the ergonomic issues of solid riveting. Blind Rivet technology allows for fastening from the front, and POP rivets have solved numerous problems since their creation.

For the A380 wing box, for example, Alcoa’s engineers developed a new fastener compatible with the composite and aluminum

materials it has to link, and the strength it has to provide. Alcoa will supply about a million fasteners of varying types for each A380, but new developments are always ongoing.

Fastener kitting services monthly call off and direct line feed.

AMFast's warehouse in Harpenden, Hertfordshire is close to the motorway network, with good access to all London airports. Same day despatch is achieved on stocked items.

AMFast Ltd., Clifton House, Southdown Industrial Estate, Southdown Road, Harpenden, Herts. AL5 1PW UK

Telephone: +44 (0)1592 715150 Facsimile: +44 (0)1582 712120 Website: www.am-fast.co.uk

AMFast is represented by qualified engineers who advise customers on design and cost-effective manufacturing solutions.

Quality systems conform to ISO 9002 & CAA regulations and items can be supplied with manufacturing certificates.

Approvals include:

British Aerospace approved fasteners, Hawker Raytheon Corporate Jets approved fasteners, Aerostructures Hamble, Telair International baggage and cargo handling systems.

Many other leading aerospace / defence OEM's and subcontractors (national & international)

They can supply by a number of flexible methods, offering as they do fastener kitting services, monthly call off and direct line feed.