Hardware Insertion

Whether your part requires standoffs and captive screws for mounting a PCB, durable threads for securing adjacent parts, cable tie-mounts or floating captive screws, extensive experience installing all forms of hardware means that Service Metal can build to your specs at the greatest possible accuracy and efficiency.  We’re also available should you desire consultation on the vast universe of hardware options at your disposal, including some of the most common forms below.   

• Cable Tie-Mounts And Hooks For Sheet Metal
• Captive Panel Screws And Hardware
• Nuts For Sheet Metal
• Standoffs For Sheet Metal
• Studs and Pins For Sheet Metal
• Weld Nuts

Despite vast hardware options, to this day, we see high-volume assembly operations of some customers that underutilize or use no self-clinching hardware. Yet. their metal parts are still receiving components in assembly and attaching to other adjacent metalwork.  This unnecessarily burdens final product assembly with using loose hardware pieces—nuts and bolts, for example—to make these attachments and vital connections.  This costs valuable time in assembly houses.  It also introduces a greater possibility for assembly errors.  Pre-installed hardware can often serve as a roadmap for personnel when mounting various components and adjacencies.   

We would submit that time spent in electronics final assembly is far too valuable to waste.  After all, each day’s worth of inventory in electronic assembly carries the costly investment in valuable Integrated Circuits, Heat Sinks, sensors and PCB’s, to name a few. We see this operation as requiring the utmost efficiency and maximum throughput to get the most turns of those valuable stocks of sourced components. Instead of loose nuts and bolts, installed self-clinch hardware means that a stud already waits for its intended bracket in the correct location, or that nuts are already installed waiting on the side-opposite of an operator fastening a cover to a metal chassis via bolts. That’s the path to maximum throughput, not fumbling with loose hardware in hard-to-reach, tight spaces.

Precision Hardware Insertion to Avoid Costly Mistakes

At SMF, our operators are fully trained for complex hardware insertion projects. On a regular basis, our team works on projects that involve a large number of fastener components, often positioned in difficult to access locations. Variations in fastener sizes may also complicate the hardware insertion process. By utilizing decades of combined hardware insertion experience, our workforce is not only able to properly install each and every component, we are also able to complete the service quickly, keeping your costs lower than competing options.

Beyond Precision Hardware Insertion: Delivery You Can Count On

Just as SMF’s hardware insertion service is used to save our customers’ time, we also provide quick delivery service to ensure downtime is eliminated.  Because SMF is vertically integrated down to operating our own fleet of delivery trucks, our customers’ orders are handled with the utmost care. Our company is proud to provide free delivery within 200 miles of our 56,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Williamsburg, Va.