Penn Engineering & Manufacturing Corp.

Pem Management, Inc.

Harold D Ross

William P McDonough

Kenneth A Swanstrom

Craig G Link

Robert F Stotz, Jr

Peter A Vogel

A three-sided, progressively-formed threaded fastener is comprised of a plurality of planar longitudinal faces intersecting at comer areas. Shank tabs extend downward from the bottom of each of the faces at the base of the fastener. Threaded regions along the inside surface of the planar faces are coined indentations applied during the formation of the fastener. A plurality of wedge-shaped protrusions extend downward from the comer areas at the base of the fastener. The combination of shank tabs and wedge-shaped protrusions form a clinch profile along the bottom of the fastener so that it may can be affixed to a sheet of metal by clinch fit.

Progressively-formed clinch nut

A captive panel fastener includes a retractable screw having a thermal plastic cap molded around its head. The cap includes slotted skirt with resilient fingers. When the retractable screw is forced downward through the bore of the ferrule having divergent sides, the fingers of the cap spread apart by the wedging action against the outside surface of the ferrule, thus providing a biasing force urging the screw in an upward retracted direction. The ends of the cap fingers include inward facing ribs which fall into a circumferential groove around the outside surface of the ferrule adjacent its bottom end. The groove may further include plurality of radial extending teeth which engage inward facing protrusions located on the fingertip ribs to resist unwanted loosening of the screw.

Hybrid panel fastener

An insert for plastic sections is manufactured from a flat strip of metal by high-speed progressive die-stamping, which forms the strip into a threaded female insert. The metal strip is first cut into a flat blank and then thread regions are impressed on the face of the strip, providing a thread pitch profile. During the stamping operation, the strip is folded to form a triangular hollow tube with sharp-edged protrusions extending radially outward from each corner of the triangle. An interlocking side tab and interlocking cutout secure the abutting longitudinal side edges of the strip and ensures axial alignment of the thread regions. As a result of the folding and stamping process, the thread regions lie along the interior wall of the tubular construction and define a thread pitch diameter, which will accept the screw threaded into the center of the insert.

Threaded insert with flange tabs

Fastener

Right-angle fastener

Spring-loaded panel fastener design

A clinch-type fastener permits sheets to be joined at a right angle corner. The fastener includes a rectangular base with clinch-type undercut grooves along the sides. The base is connected to a partial cylindrical channel defining an axial bore for receiving a screw or pin. The axis of the channel is parallel to the undercuts and to a first sheet into which the base is clinched being received by a corresponding aperture in the base sheet. Tapered guides located on each side of the fastener directly above the undercuts facilitate placement of the insert into the sheet prior to clinching. The fastener is preferably formed by extruding metal to form a long length of material having this lateral profile. Individual fasteners can then be produced simply by cutting an elongate extrusion into small segments.

Perpendicular edge fastener

Panel fastener

Growing community of inventors

Chalfont, PA, United States of America

Harold D Ross