Innovative Mechanical Fastening Systems for New Materials: Today’s Situation and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The need for the best material behavior at any location within high performance component systems leads to diversified material combinations. One example is the material mixture in today’s vehicles: steel, aluminum, magnesium, plastics, fibers, glass and other solids. These combinations need new or modified fastening technologies, because traditional techniques like welding or bolting up to now are mainly focused on single material joints. Besides this, the loading level during operation of the components increases continuously, so the behavior of the involved fastening systems under operating conditions also has to be known. Fastening systems with light metals show a significant thermal induced change of clamping/preload. This paper gives an overview with some optimized exemplary fastening systems from the automotive sector which could be partly transferred to other industry branches. The paper also emphasizes that various details of designing fastening systems are decisive for reliability and stability.