All fasteners come with certain markings on their head which will help you identify their make, material and dimension. Fastener manufacturers are accountable for ensuring that customers know what they purchase. Here is a handy guide which will help you navigate through identifying the fasteners with the markings present on them.

Manufacturer Head Markings

Every fastener that is being manufactured by a company requires their unique marker to be engraved on them. This could simply be the initials of the company’s name. This practice was brought to compulsion by the Faster Quality Act to instil a sense of confidence in the buyers that they are purchasing from the manufacturer they trust. At ITA Fasteners, you can rest assured that our products come with the stamp of high quality that we guarantee.

Fastener Standards

Several companies from around the world have often come together in an attempt to make fasteners easy to identify with a pre-defined standard. These standards cover material composition, dimensions, dimensional tolerance, and coatings as well. This sums up everything that you need to know about a fastener.

The American Society for Mechanical Engineers provides the public with an ASME B1.1 document which provides the requirements for unified inch screw threads. ASME is a universally used standard since several companies use it.

A few other standards create grades for fasteners based on the material and physical requirement it delivers. For example, SAE J429 is standard which lays out the requirements for Grade 2, Grade 5 and Grade 8 fasteners. If you know what grade a fastener belongs to, you can know what material it is made out of, its hardness range and electromechanical properties or if it belongs to the inch or metric standard.

Let us consider the examples of SAE J429 Grade 2, Grade 5 and Grade 8

The Society of Automotive Engineers has a standard called SAE J429 Mechanical and Material Requirements for Mechanical Fasteners. This standard dictates the mechanical and material property requirements for inch bolts, screws, studs, sems and U-bolts and covers dimensions up to 1-½” in diameter. The increase in the Grade of the fastener indicates an increased tensile strength. These are simply denoted by radial lines across the head of the fastener.

Please note that Grade 2 of SAE J429 will not come with any markings. Also, note that the manufacturer markings can be moved around the head of the fastener in order to accommodate the grade representation.

The topic of markers on fasteners is vast and we at ITA Fasteners aim to educate as many of our users as possible regarding the same. We will look to cover other important standards in further blog posts to ensure that you are aware of what you buy - accountability is why we have succeeded. To know more about fastener markings, get in touch with us now.

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