Integral attachment using snap‐fit features: a key to assembly automation. Part 1 ‐ introduction to integral attachment using snap‐fit features

Abstract

This first part of a comprehensive six‐part series of articles on integral attachment using snap‐fit features familiarizes the reader with the key terms relating to the subject. Every area of study and practice must have associated with it a language to express objects, actions, and ideas. To understand any subject, understanding the language is essential. Developing clear, concise, unambiguous definitions of key terms is a tedious but necessary and critical first step to promoting understanding by allowing effective and efficient communication. These terms and definitions have been carefully compiled and thoughtfully refined from a broad industrial base, published literature, and university‐based research. They are the beginning of a lexicon for the embryonic but promising technology of integral attachment using snap‐fit features.