Hardware & Building Materials October 29, 2007
Posted by wenbi in : Special Issues , add a comment
Build your profits and develop new business |
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| LANGUAGE OF TEXT: English PUBLICATION DATE: Before 30th of every January. —————————————————————————- For those who are in search of quality conscious suppliers to deal with, it is an indispensable guide to source profitable and price-competitive products, or alternative suppliers. HERE’S WHAT IT GIVES YOU: |
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Fastener Industry Holds the World Together October 18, 2007
Posted by author in : Hardware , add a commentttnet.net - [2007/01/03]
Fastener demands are subject to the boom-bust cycle of global economic climate. Generally speaking, more industrialized, more fasteners needed. The demands will rise with increases in construction activity and manufacturing output, particularly in production of motor vehicles, aircrafts, electrical/electronics, appliances, furniture/office equipments and other equipment in which fasteners are essential components. Industrial fasteners are generally classified as standards, specials, or proprietary designs, in members fundamentally of bolts, screws, socket screws, cap screws, studs, nuts, washers, blind rivets, pins, inserts, tapping screws, machine screws, set screws, SEMS, and rivets and special industrial fasteners. Non-threaded standard fasteners continue to outsell other types in fastener family spurred by growth in global construction expenditures and backed by stepped-up spending for aircraft and military equipment in many areas. Nevertheless, the sales of application-specific fasteners soar at a faster pace than the standardized products and more OEMs replace non-specialized items with application-specific designs.
Recent innovations and improvement on fastener design spotlight on new generations of self-locking and self-sealing fasteners. The newest generation of self-locking fasteners threaded highlights a promising future for manufacturers seeking for the fasteners with greater strength and reliability, achieved by reduced product weight, heightened joint strength, better resistance to vibration, temperature extremes, axial-torsion loading and less material fatigue. Lately, there is a new look in fastener family called flexible fastener. It looks like a normal bolt or screw, except the shank is composed of a flexible material such as nylon or steel cable, which allows the bolt to bend or flex laterally, yet not stretch axially. The fastener can be used to secure surfaces various types of surfaces either non-parallel or non-aligned where compliance is needed, owing to production or construction errors. Market SnapshotsFasteners are big business. World fastener market scale is predicted to reach US$46 billion in 2006, up 4.8 % than the previous year, and to hit US$55 billion by 2010, boosted by forthcoming economic expansion within the developing nations of Asia Pacific Rim, Mideast, Latin American and Eastern European regions. Robust growth will also be seen in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Turkey and Russia. The growths in the above-mentioned areas tend to outpace those in the US, Western Europe and Japan. The price war of fasteners continued for several years, which made many industrial players struggle to live out. Recently, the price competition is somewhat eased, not as fierce as in the previous years. USAU.S. fastener industry operates nearly 350 manufacturing facilities with 40,000 employees. Every year, there are over 200 billion fasteners consumed mainly by the miscellaneous industries of automobile, aircraft, appliances, agricultural machinery and equipment, and the construction of commercial buildings and infrastructure. Among them, 26 billion pieces are used solely by the auto industry. In recent years, growth in fastener demand slow down as manufacturing output and construction spending moderate. However, U.S. is still the biggest buyer of fastener products. The country imports more than US$3 billions worth of fasteners from China, Taiwan and Japan annually. CHINAChina consumes 9% of world demands and surpasses Japan as the second largest fastener market in the world behind the US. At present, there are nearly 8,000 fastener enterprises in China. In the first half of 2006, the export value of China fasteners totaled 1.229 billion US dollars, or 40% of the national fastener output. Invariably, price maintains a crucial factor in decision-making. Buyers from the EU, the US and Australia prefer to buy more affordable fasteners made in China. Local enterprises are working on transfer the low-end bolts and nuts under the property class of 8.8 to the higher-ends of property class from 6.8 to 10.9. Since fastener technology has been relatively mature in China, the significance of differentiation has been constantly discussed. Recently, China government promotes local enterprises with “Made by China” program, namely by resorting to brand strategy, international standards such as GB, DIN, JIS and IFI, etc. and well-known certifications to overall upgrade the industry from labor-intensive low-ends to tech-based, value-added high-ends. ISO 9001 or ISO/TS 16949 is essential certification required to improve the quality, service and logistics. TAIWANTaiwan exports more than 90% of the fasteners it produces every year. Nowadays, Taiwan has shifted from mass production mode to customized service provider. Proprietary design fasteners are made to the patented designs, licensed to several manufacturers, for threads, drive types, head types, locking devices, points, etc. For industrial upgrading, the quality-uplifting financing program of US$875,000 was officially approved by the government, aiming to boost its exports of automotive fasteners to 40% of its total export from current 20% in two years. Meanwhile, the program hopes to increase retail price from about US$1.9 per kilogram on average, barely of 40% of the average price of Japan-made products to US$2.2 per kilogram in 2009 and US$2.87 in 2014.
Global Views on Hardware Headlines
Posted by author in : Hardware , add a commentttnet.net - [2006/08/07]
Fastener Industry Up 5% Per Year Through 2007
Industrial fastener demand, usually dancing with the pace of industrialization and business circle of the world, is predicted to climb no less than 5% every year through 2007 to over $11 billion. Generally speaking, the demand will be spurred by robust growth in durable goods production and building spending. Accelerating global economic growth will also contribute to help speed in aftermarket fastener demand, even though improvements in fastener quality will somewhat curb maintenance/ repair/operations sales growth. Building sector, electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing will enjoy the fastest growth in end-use markets for fasteners.
Standardized industrial fasteners will continue to govern overall product demand. However the sales of application-specific fasteners jump at a prompter pace than other standardized product types while more OEMs take the place of non-specialized items with application-specific designs. In the other hand, demand for aerospace-grade fasteners is predicted to soar at better-than-expected rate through 2007, fueled by new momentum in aircraft production as global economic climate bodes well military expenditures keep climbing. Recently, innovations and improvement on fastener design focus on new generations of self-locking and self-sealing fasteners, which can be installed without the use of tools and fasteners fabricated from advanced alloys, composites and plastic materials. As more reinforced plastics are successfully developed and launched, plastic fasteners will be widely applied in a growing number of settings.
Global Valve Demands to Rise 5.5% Through 2007
Global demand for industrial valves is predicted to climb 5.5% per year through 2007 to over US$60 billion. The growth momentum is specially attributed to the blooming macroeconomic growth in the developing regions of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The markets in the US, Japan and Western Europe, although not very prominent in performing, will also show slight improvement. Rising fixed investment levels will boost most valve consuming sectors and strengthen underdeveloped infrastructures in these regions.
Die-casting Hardware Boosted from Auto Sector
Die-casting is a process to form metal shapes from molten material, in most cases, typically nonferrous metals such as aluminum, magnesium, and zinc. Die-casting processes include sand casting, precision investment (lost wax) casting, and permanent mold casting. Generally speaking, the major market for die-casting is the automotive industry. Especially smaller electric motors calling for the application of die cast aluminum housings and end covers, further promote the usage of die-castings. Additionally, for further development of the die casting industry, production scale is of prime importance for industry players. However, the prerequisite for a large production size is large investment. The automotive industry is surely a strong support. In recent years, attention has been paid to the development of large capacity die casting machines, bringing up hot chamber machines accordingly.
Variety Uses of P/M, Powder Metallurgy
The basic P/M process uses pressure and heat to form precision metal parts and shapes. Powder is squeezed at room temperature by itself in a rigid precision die into an engineered shape like a gear. After the mass of powder is squeezed into a shape and ejected from the press, it is fed slowly through a special high-temperature controlled atmosphere furnace to bond the particles together. In contrast to other metal forming techniques, P/M parts are shaped directly from powders while castings are formed from metal that must be melted, and wrought parts are shaped by deformation of hot or cold metal, or by machining. P/M parts are used in a variety of end products such as lock hardware, garden tractors, snowmobiles, automobile engines and transmissions, auto brake and steering systems, etc. New Developments include improved manufacturing processes and commercialization such as metal injection molding: (MIM), rapid solidification, P/M forging, spray forming, high temperature vacuum sintering, warm compacting and both cold and hot isostatic pressing. The use of P/M hot forged connecting rods in automobiles and a P/M camshaft for automobile engines. The use of P/M composite camshafts in auto engines and main bearing caps, and stainless steel ABS sensor rings and exhaust system flanges. New submicron and nanophase powders for cutting tools and other specialized applications.
Bearings, Small Parts Big Use
Bearings belong to a major component in a machine to reduce friction and, simultaneously maintain the expected precision and stability while machine working. By statistics, the size of global bearing market approximates US$30 billion every year. Coming in over ten thousand kinds, bearings can be found everywhere in a gear from small drivers, motor cars, conveyors, electrical machinery to big ships. Fundamentally, bearings are composed of two parts: sliding bearings and rolling bearings. The most frequently-used bearings are linear bearings, connecting bearings, ball bearings, roller bearings, trust bearings and needle bearings. The precision quality of bearings depends on hardness, wear rate, mechanic strength and stability along with concentricity, sphericalness and roughness. In these years, the users of conventional ball bearings and roller bearings have been gradually upgraded to ball guide bars, linear bearings, connecting bearings and oil-less bushings. Some higher-level bearings should resort to the help of technicians. King-size bearings for steel-making or petrochemical industry are heavily installed and traced by technical suppliers. The popularity of NC/ CNC machine tools and automated warehouse systems provides a stable-growing background for bearings industry. The up-and-coming trends follow the advantages of high precision, high speed, compact size, lightweight, maintenance-free and durability.
A Quick Look on Fastener and Bearing Industries
Posted by author in : Hardware , add a commentttnet.net - [2006/01/23]
INDUSTRIAL FASTENERS are generally classified as standards, specials, or proprietary designs, in members fundamentally of metal bolts, nuts, screws, rivets, washers, formed and threaded wire goods and special industrial fasteners. Standard fasteners are mass-produced, and typically cold-headed threaded parts.
China is the fastest-growing supplying nation in this field thanks to the advantages of cheaper labors and raw materials, along with land acquisition. Special fasteners are usually based on standard designs, yet sometimes incorporate non-standard tolerances, pitch and diameter combinations, drives, lengths, etc. or made in assigned requirements on alloys or separate secondary operations including drilling and punching.
Taiwan has shifted from mass production mode to customized special fastener supplier. Proprietary design fasteners are made to the patented designs, licensed to several manufacturers, for threads, drive types, head types, locking devices, points and more.
Fasteners are big business. For instance, every year, U.S., the biggest buyer, consumes over 200 billion fasteners. And automobile industry alone uses 26 billion pieces in 2005. The booms of fastener industry in the Asian Pacific Rim, mainly Taiwan, Japan and China enable these countries to expand exporting territories to U.S., Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America. In 2004, the consumption of fasteners in U.S. reached $9,878 billion. Total imported value of $3,065 billion worth of fasteners was primarily from Taiwan (US$1,715 billion), Japan (US$501 billion), and from China (US$421 billion). Oncoming global consolidation and acquisitions make large companies even bigger. This enables them to devote to the development of highly engineered, technologically advanced fasteners and offering value-added customer services such as ¡§just in time¡¨ (JIT) delivery and customer-designed or specialized design/engineering services.
BEARINGS are basically used to ease friction between moving parts or to carry load in certain industries such as those that handle materials. They can be broadly categorized into two segments, bimetals and anti-friction bearings. There are four main types of bearings, including ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, taper roller bearings and needle roller bearings.
Bearings are generally regarded as a barometer of the country’s technical advancement since they function as the backbone of the national industrial future.
Bearings are largely used in automobile industry, followed by general engineering, electrical industries, heavy industry and railways industry. The materials used to manufacture bearings vary from conventional steel to ceramics, brass and plastics. The most common material used to produce bearing rings, balls and rollers is alloy steel conforming to specifications SAE 52100. Still, this standard material is also distinguished by if it can render prolonged life span and improved quality on purity and oxygen content.
In response to ever-changing market demands, industrial players focus on developing bearings with reinforced compactness, reduced weight and noise, greater speed capability, higher accuracy, longer life, and better performance such as on extremely low and high temperatures and vacuums. In addition, bearing suppliers are also ready to provide technical supports to customers from development to mass production in meet their specific needs throughout all stages.
