OptiFlow™ is the latest flow-drilling fastening technology capable of hole-forming and self-threading into target mating materials.

Flow drill fasteners utilize a pointed tip and frictional heat to soften substrate materials, allowing a hole to be “flowed” through them before forming threads into the created hole.

OptiFlow™ was developed to improve traditional flow drill fastener designs, such as FDS®. Traditional flow drill fastener designs are over 25 years old and have several limitations, reducing their utilization in modern manufacturing. Some limitations include the inability to penetrate thick or high-strength materials, lack of leak resistance, downtime due to clearance hole collisions, poor bushing formation in castings, and debris generation.

OptiFlow™ takes an innovative modular approach to flow drill fasteners. OptiFlow™ comprises various design innovations to traditional flow drill fasteners. Each design innovation solves a limitation of traditional flow drill fastening, and the designs can be combined to optimize the fastener for each application or range of applications.

Benefits

• Fastening into up to 10mm thick aluminum without clearance holes
• Eliminating clearance hole collisions with high-strength top layers
• Resisting joint leaks with or without clearance holes
• Reducing installation time
• Suppressing debris through improved point geometry
• Improving material flow in brittle casting materials

The OptiFlow™ fastener's modularity allows the designer to build their custom solution by selecting different head, thread, and tip design features to optimize required installation and joint performance.

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