Welding, joining and fastening
Earthing was the first challenge and Profil
developed an earthing stud, with a pre-assem-
bled nut, for this application. Once the nut
is disassembled, the surface is open for the
mounting of cable. The nut and the stud have
several functions - bridging one layer to the
next, creating a clean surface after the paint-
ing process etc. Profil also developed another
special fastener for Mercedes, on the firewall,
which is grasped by the robot to position the
sheet metal part accurately during the assem-
bly process.
Hubert
Rautenstrauch
demonstrates
fastener locations
and fixings
Below left and above: The sheet metal
firewall, with fastening points, for the
Mercedes A-Class
Profil supplies fastening solutions directly
to OEMs, Tier One suppliers, small jobshops,
toolmakers and prototype shops.
“We supply all the European OEMs – we
have applications in Ferraris, Aston Martin,
Lamborghini, Maserati, Bentley, Rolls Royce,
Ford etc.,” Michael Vieth told ISMR. “There
are, of course, some car models which are
manufactured in small quantities that do not
carry our fasteners but all other mass produc-
tion cars in Europe carry our fasteners. When
a new car is developed, we get in contact
with the OEM. Because they subcontract out
most of their press-shop work, these jobs tend
to go to small sheet metal part producers all
over Europe so our customer base is multi-
plied.”
Profil has developed several new products
in the last couple of months i.e. a ball pin
fastener with the flange (for Mercedes-Benz).
It launched a new URN nut, at the last
EuroBLECH exhibition in Hanover, which
18 May/June 2007 International Sheet Metal Review
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