Self Clinch Fasteners - Cambridge Engineering Services Limited

Self Clinching Fasteners provide strong load bearing male or female threads in thin Steel and Aluminium panels.

Installation is neat and easy, simply locate the fastener into a punched or drilled hole and apply a parallel squeezing force to embed the fastener into the panel.

Self Clinching Fasteners work by utilizing a clinch ring which, when embedded into the panel is filled with metal by a cold flow process, thus effectively locking the fastener into the panel. The very nature of the clinch process gives high torque out and push out performance.

As previously mentioned a parallel squeezing force must be applied. Also equally important is the length of time the force is applied. Enough time must be allowed for the material to flow into the clinch feature (this is often referred to as the dwell time when installing on a hydraulic press) although only measured in 10ths of a second it is sufficiently long for the process to work.

This is why you CANNOT install Self Clinch Fasteners with a hammer blow as the force would only be applied for about a 100th of a second which is insufficient for the cold flow process to happen.