Remote-controlled Bolts and Screws

Winter writes "SMT Magazine has an article on intelligent fasteners (screws, bolts...) that can fasten themselves or by remote control. Usage for this seems mainly to make sure normal people cannot change parts in their car themselves, and only allow for authorized parts and service. Of course, a hacker might also have fun and disassemble the neighbours car."

Comments

Bring 'em on

[Fux the Penguin]

I've been interested in these devices for a while now. As a design engineer, I don't see much how these new intelligent fasteners will differ much from today's dumb fasteners. Since they are mechanical fasteners, the joint strength considerations remain the same. All fasteners still have to transfer a force, and the concepts of tension, shear, and clamp load don't change with the addition of an embedded system. I suppose that any joint strength you can achieve with a traditional fastener, you can achieve with an intelligent fastener.

There will be differences, of course. On the plus side, they promise to provide additional design freedom. Tool access and assembly sequences often dictate the fastener locations as much as joint strength does. Now you can put a joint anywhere you want because of the built-in actuation, which can also eliminate some of the tolerance or orientation issues associated with assembly tools. Cross threading could be a thing of the past.

They also shouldn't present any packaging difficulties, despite their onboard electronics. These fasteners tap into a product's existing wiring and electronics. Digital commands take up far less space than a physical tool. I think that smart fasteners can attain much smaller sizes than conventional mechanical fasteners--in part because they overcome traditional spacing constraints and in part because smart materials will allow them to be smaller, perhaps even down to the nanotechnology scale. Cool stuff indeed.

Realistically...

[trainsnpep]

That isn't amazingly useful. Think back to your Physics class...Torque? Torque is cheap (when you have a big pole). You couldn't use it for anything significant to the operation of a car since most of the bolts there need to be torqued, usually to something more than 30+ ft/lbs. Big things are sometimes torqued to 500+ft/lbs. Lets work with 30ft/lbs.

Assuming the head of this thing has a whopping 1" radius from the center of the bolt, that's 360 lbs of force the fastner needs to apply. And the largest volume that this fastener will take up? 3.14 in^3? 6.28?

These screws will only be useful for detailing unless they can tap power magically from anywhere they want.