Category: Manufacturing

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Manufacturing

Stainless Steel Alloy

Stainless Steel 304
304 Cold Heading Quality Stainless Steel

What exactly is a stainless steel alloy?

Simply put, stainless steel is an iron and chromium alloy containing at least 10.5% chromium. Other common additives include:

  1. Nickel – Nickel containing grades make up 75% of stainless steel production. In fact, more than two thirds of global nickel produced is used in the production of stainless steel alloys because nickel improves the formability, weldability, and ductility of the material.
  2. Carbon – To be clear, steels that are typically referred to as “carbon” steels contain less than the 10.5% chromium required to be stainless. Stainless steels have less than 1.2% carbon.
  3. Manganese – High-manganese (200 series austenitic) have lower nickel content, making them more affordable in the current market.
  4. Molybdenum – This element improves the resistances to pitting corrosion of stainless.
  5. Nitrogen – Nitrogen is a strong austenite stabilizer, increasing the strength, hardness, and brittleness of stainless steels.
  6. Copper – Copper can improve corrosion resistance in stainless steels.

 

Stainless Steel Alloys

In addition to improving corrosion resistance, adding other elements to stainless steel alloy may also:

  • Improve high or low temperature resistance
  • Improve weldability or formability
  • Control magnetism

Different stainless steel grades will contain different additives in different amounts. When selecting a stainless steel, the forming process and end application should be considered.

At Fastco, we work primarily with 300 and 400 series stainless steels, as well as high-nickel alloy A286. Learn more on our materials pages.

Got a stainless steel fastener need? Send us an RFQ on this form or give us a call at 616-453-5428.

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Department Spotlight

Administrative Support Spotlight

Direct, In-House Administrative Support

The Finance/IT/HR department provides administrative support for the entire company. The primary function of this department is to support manufacturing by ensuring our network systems function smoothly, keeping our financials in order, and managing the employee life cycle.

The four members of the administrative support team
The four members of the administrative support team

These are functions that can be outsourced. However, having internal and direct support means quicker turnaround on tasks, less down time, and a more humanized approach to these processes.

Humans Helping Humans

I think it’s important that everyone at Fastco remembers that we are here to help you and make your jobs easier. But we are humans, too! We mess up from time to time and we don’t always have the answers, but we will always try to get them for you.

Cross-Training Improves Function

As a member of our department, I am really proud of how much cross training we have done. It makes it fairly smooth to ensure critical functions are still maintained whenever one of us needs time off. I’m also proud of how well we all get along with one another. We address any conflict right away and we don’t hold grudges.

by Kati Tap, HR Specialist

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Department Spotlight Manufacturing

Fastco’s Purchasing Department

Cold heading tooling in a shuttle in the purchasing department

Fastco’s Purchasing Department

Fastco’s Purchasing Department’s unofficial mantra is “What we need, when we need it, and what provides the best value to Fastco.”  We do this by keeping inventory levels accurate and appropriately stocked, predicting future demand for tooling, supplies, and similar items, and finding an appropriate level of quality while negotiating the best price/value balance to sustain ongoing operations.  As the gatekeeper of the discretionary spend, this mindset has driven quantifiable savings year over year for the company, and every dollar not spent is a dollar on the bottom line!  We can’t forget our decentralized buyers either, in maintenance and accounting, who have significantly reduced cost in the Maintenance Department and office supply categories.

In-House Tooling - inserts and punches

In addition to the purchasing function, our shuttle operators’ staging of jobs for the headers and watchful eye over inventory levels keeps us ahead of the game and limit tooling related downtime to a minimum.  Our two shuttle operators (Ginny Beld & Tracy Eno) have both been the backbone of our data collection and recording over the past few years which is critically important to ID requirements, and their participation in streamlining processes and standardizing our inventory will pay dividends well into the future.

Communication is critical, not only for the Purchasing Department, but to the entire company. We encourage all departments to ask for what they need and to notice discrepancies and/or and bring them to our attention.

Overall, I am extremely appreciative of my team’s self-motivation and task management.  It’s a good feeling to know we’re all working to move the Purchasing Department in the same direction with the same goals in mind.

by Aaron Headrick, Purchasing Manager

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Department Spotlight Manufacturing

Fastco’s Cold Heading Department

Inside a cold header open for maintenance in Fastco's Cold Heading Department

Fastco’s Cold Heading Department

The primary function of the cold heading process is to produce the “blanks” that are the start of the manufacturing operation at Fastco. Cold Heading is a high-pressure, high-speed progressive forming process that uses a series of dies and blows to form parts. At Fastco, our Cold Heading Department manufactures pins and rivets complete and can form the blanks for screws, bolts, and studs.

Cold Heading’s Goal

Our goal is to manufacture quality parts on time and as close to the manufacturing order quantity (or 10% over) as we can. This is critical to the company because any mistakes or missed goals (defects, late delivery, short order quantities) cause problems in downstream operations. This also has a negative financial impact on the company. Conversely, when we perform well we can positively contribute to the financial health of the company.

Pride in Our Work

Our department takes pride in what we do. That being said, Fastco’s process is a complex one. As such, it is the result of the hard work of many people in many departments. Fastco’s Cold Heading Department takes defects very seriously; scrap and cost of poor quality reduction are significant strategic priorities for our Cold Heading and Thread Rolling.

Given the progressive nature of the manufacturing process, a delay or defect in Cold Heading has significant downstream operation impact. When we recognize an issue, we do our best to correct it for future runs. We are continuously innovating process improvements to avoid defects at every level. These include regular part checks and scrap reduction huddles, among other strategies.

As a team leader, I am very proud that the cold heading team is flexible and open to new ideas. Many of our long-term employees (aka old-timers) have seen a lot of changes over the years. Each time the team is tasked to consider a new challenge, they try to embrace the change the best they can and learn from past missteps. We have learned a lot collectively about what works and what doesn’t. We are constantly trying to adapt and improve.

 

by Jim Wolters, Cold Heading Team Leader

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Department Spotlight Manufacturing

Engineering at Fastco

cold-forming-engineering-design-and-simulation-services

Engineering at Fastco

At Fastco, Engineering’s primary role is to develop new and improve on existing processes. The team is also responsible for the following functions:

  • Process print development
  • Tooling design
  • Sample development & simulation
  • Engineering Feasibility evaluation of potential new products
  • Develop all control plans
  • Create FEMA & PPAP
  • Troubleshooting support in all production areas (RRT)
  • Direct technical support to customers
  • ECR ownership and oversight
  • CAD Document control

Critical Department

What Engineering does is critical to Fastco’s success. Engineering is the only department that

  • Develops process prints, which is essential for producing parts.
  • Develops, designs, and makes tooling prints, which is essential for tooling up a new job.
  • Creates FEMAs, PPAPs, and control plans, which is essential for process control.

The Engineering team has various primary functions that are all equally important in their own way.  This means that they have to prioritize on a daily basis, multiple times a day, what is the most important to work on for Fastco as a whole.

Team Work

While the engineers may have disagreements or have strong differing opinions on something, the team works in a cohesive manner. Once a resolution has been come to, there is no subsequent drama.  Everyone in the department will pick up the slack when someone is gone, and not blink an eye at it.  They aren’t afraid of failing, but understand it’s not okay to just not try.  The team looks forward to doing “hard” things, like difficult samples, or developing a new process.  If they took the attitude of “let’s not do that because it’s too hard to do,” Fastco would only quote weld bolts, and would squeeze ourselves out of the industry.

by Josh Symon, Engineering Manager

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About Fastco Manufacturing

Sample Runs: Delivering Fasteners Fast

Sample Runs at Fastco

At Fastco, we deliver fasteners fast. Our sample lead times are industry-leading, due to our in-house tooling capabilities, engineering and cold heading expertise, and responsive customer service. In 2022, Fastco was awarded 65 new sample jobs. A few of these are pictured below.

APQP before Sample Runs

Every new part at Fastco goes through the APQP (Advance Product Quality Planning) process to ensure that we have a plan in place for design, development, and production of the part. An APQP is a requirement of the automotive industry. We use our background in quality management provided by our heavy involvement in the automotive industry to ensure that we provide top-quality to all customers, regardless of their industry.

The Sample Run Process Flow

Once a job is kicked off, our engineers will design the tooling and our sample tool room will create. This process typically takes about 3-4 weeks for a more standard part for which we can make all tooling in house. Ordering outside tooling can add up to another 8 weeks to the process. This is why one of our strategic priorities is to increase the capabilities of our tool room so that we can make as much tooling as possible in-house, delivering on our brand promise of rapid lead times.

After the tooling is made, parts will go into sample production. This is where a lot of the “bugs” get worked out. Cold heading is not a simple process. There is a lot of expertise involved in setting up the machines and getting them to produce parts to print. Each part presents its own unique challenges.

After parts run through cold heading, they may go on to wash or thread rolling, followed by outside processing. This includes processes such as heat treatment, plating, or patching. After that, we bring the parts back in-house for sorting in our state-of-the-art inspection department. There, parts are inspected for defects and/or mixed parts from outside processing. Finally, parts get boxed up and sent to our distribution center for shipping.

Quality Assurance

Throughout the process, we inspect and monitor parts for quality assurance. Team members perform extra part checks throughout the sample process to ensure that the parts we make meet all customer requirements.

Categories
Department Spotlight

Sales at Fastco

Sales at Fastco

At Fastco, the Sales team doesn’t just sell parts; we perform a wide variety of tasks, from marketing & advertising, to quoting new business, to managing the sample process, to handling price increases and general customer relationship management for established customers. Managing customer relationships is a broad and ongoing job. It requires us to work closely with numerous other departments.

 

As a customer-centered department, Sales has a high-level of visibility at Fastco and a big impact on the company’s success. Every person in Sales has to understand how their job affects the company as a whole, looking up and downstream to see how tasks fit into the big picture. We are constantly working to improve our processes and are all very self-critical and self-sufficient workers.

Hard Work, Team Work

In 2022, our team set an aggressive goal for new business awards and we blew it out of the water. Of course, it wasn’t just the Sales team that made this happen. Engineering, Customer Service, Manufacturing, Finance, and Purchasing all work to help Fastco win new work to varying degrees. And certainly, winning work and keeping customers happy depends  on the work of every single team member at Fastco.

That being said, Sales should be given a lot of credit for the ongoing success in new business awards. It speaks to a highly motivated team who doggedly pursues new work and does our best to keep our customer’s coming back for more parts.

Interested in learning more about what Fastco does and how our sales team can help you? Request a quote from us or give us call at 616-453-5428.

Categories
Department Spotlight Manufacturing

Thread Rolling Team at Fastco

MAThread / MATpoint up close

The Thread Rolling Team at Fastco is responsible for rolling threads, knurls, and/or fetters onto cold headed blanks.

 

What is Thread Rolling?

The threads form when dies press against cold headed blanks. The same process is used for knurling.

Thread rolling is the most efficient and cost effective for large production runs, since machine run rates are around one piece per second. Benefits of the rolling threads include:

  • No fine metal chips.
  • Material savings of 15-20% in the blank by weight.
  • Stronger, more accurate threads

MAThread® Supplier

Fastco is a licensed supplier of MAThread® and MATpoint®, so we can produce the following MAThread fasteners:

6 different MAThread types of thread rolling
Visit mathread.com for more information.

 

Rolling SEMS Parts

In addition, Fastco has a dedicated SEMS unit, enabling us to assemble SEMS bolt/washers. SEMS fasteners are pre-assembled washer/bolt combinations that are fast and easy to handle and fit into larger assemblies.

Our Thread Rolling Team

Made up of a combination of new and experienced team members, Fastco’s Thread Rolling team works hard to improve and problem solve solutions for customers. Currently, they are working hard on scrap reduction initiatives to improve profitability and reduce waste. As more of our junior members gain knowledge and experience, we look forward to seeing the torch pass to the next generation of manufacturing professionals.

Categories
Department Spotlight

Production Control

Hi Lo being driven by a material handler in production control department

Production Control at Fastco

The Production Control department’s primary role is to move product. Whether it is keeping the cold heading department supplied with raw material, moving bins of product to the next step, or taking product to and from the outside processors, our team makes it happen. Every team member in the Production Control (PC) department contributes to the company’s goals and helps get every dollar of sales out the door every month.

Not everything is controllable

While our job is to control product, many key factors that impact production are outside of the control of PC team members. The material handler cannot bring material to the header if we do not have it here. The truck drivers cannot bring product back in if it is not completed at the outside processor. Raw material, especially, has been a challenge for the last couple years. The PC department, like Fastco and many other companies, is at the mercy of the industry.

Production Control Fastco Semi-Truck

Controlling what we can

Despite this, the PC department works hard to improve the things they can control. I am proud that each member of the PC department knows their job and how to do it. The team members are always willing to help each other out. They do a lot behind the scenes of manufacturing that may not get the recognition it deserves.

Fastco is grateful for all the work put in by team members in the PC department, from the material handlers and parts washer to the truck drivers and the logistics support staff.

 

by Phil Kowalczyk, Logistics Manager

Categories
Department Spotlight

Quality at Fastco

Fastco team member in quality
A team member inspects parts for quality assurance.

The Quality at Fastco

The primary function of the Quality Department is ensure standards are met. This includes all required specifications, checks, processes, and procedures. Quality is critical to reducing costs and failures. We work to ensure that our customers are getting what they pay for by having parts within specification.

Everyone is on the Quality Team!

The Quality Department is here to help improve, correct, and ensure things are done properly. It is important to recognize that EVERYONE at Fastco is responsible for the quality of the parts we produce, even if they are not technically a member of the Quality Department. Everyone that touches a part, from cold heading to washing to sorting to entering orders, are part of the Quality Team, in a broader (and important) sense. At Fastco, we all contribute to the quality of our products. Following procedures and processes ensures there are no extra costs or dramatic losses due to a failure.

Quality Control Image

 

Thank you, Quality Team!

Thank you to the Quality Department for their efforts to keep our company IATF compliant and to deliver on our promises to customers. When there are quality concerns, members of the Quality Department are always the first to answer the call to assist. They will help with extra sorting & audits and generally help on the production floor. The team regularly goes above and beyond without complaint.

by Brian Kropp, Quality Team Leader