From the Wild West to the Midwest, Austin Hardware® knows a thing or two about horse trailers, and we work with some of the top horse trailer manufacturers in the business. Your horse and your trailer are both major investments for you, and you want to be sure you can enjoy your invested dollars while keeping your horse safe and comfortable during transport. Horse trailers come in various options, sizes, and investment levels. There are many different options, and Austin Hardware® works with suppliers to some of the top trailer manufacturers in the U.S., providing top-quality hardware, products, and services. 

Traveling by RV is a great way to see the country and an economical choice that allows travelers to go at their own pace. What's more, is that now more than ever, RV sales are on the rise. You might be considering one as well. Traveling by RV, like any other travel method, has its benefits and things to look out for. That's why both seasoned and new road-trippers need to ensure that safety is at the top of your list before hitting the road. Before your next vacation in your camper or other recreational vehicle, it is good to make sure you have checked off a list of essential things for your trip to be safe and fun. Austin Hardware® has created a checklist for RV travelers to make sure your trip is safe and fun.  

Lock washers work on the fastener's nut side, supplying added tension to an assembly to help prevent nuts and bolts from turning, slipping, and coming loose due to vibration and torque. Thus, their use is common in the transportation industry and on commercial products such as washing machines, where vibration is a significant factor.

You rely on your pick-up truck to haul all sorts of things. Whether it’s for work or play, you use your truck hard and want it to last a long, long time. You also know that the cargo you’re hauling around can scratch, gouge, dent, and ding your pick-up’s bed, reducing its useful life.  

To protect the bed from damage and rust, you can install a bed-liner. The two most common types of bed-liners are drop-in and spray-on.  

Drop-in liners are typically hard plastic or rubber and are “dropped in” to the back of the truck. Unfortunately, unless the drop-in liner is specifically designed for your truck’s make and model, this may not be the best option.  

One of the best parts of partnering with Austin Hardware® is that we are a complete one-stop shop. With Austin Hardware®, you get it all, a convenient solution for both our new and our existing customers. We not only have the parts in stock; our engineering team can work with you to custom design parts for your specific applications. We can also reduce the links in your supply chain with our expert sourcing capabilities, and vendor-managed inventory capabilities. It may sound too good to be true, but for the last 60 years, we’ve learned a thing or two about businesses just like yours. 

E-Clips are a radially assembled tapered section retaining ring. With three points of contact they provide a larger surface for retaining, and yield a higher thrust load capacity than other types of external rings. 

As discussed in a previous post, retaining rings are designed to restrict the movement of mating components and keep them securely in place during operation. By creating a shoulder to retain the assembly, retaining rings are a cost-effective solution, reducing the need for threaded fasteners or machining shoulders on to components. They can be used to replace cotter pins or other traditional fasteners in a number of applications. 

Composed of thin metal, retaining rings are generally either stamped, machined, or made from coiled wire.

They function by being fitted into a machined groove, either on the inside of a bore, or the outside of a shaft. Once in place they reduce vibration, maintain placement of two parts of an assembly, and withstand axial loading.  

Next time you log on to our website to find your hardware needs, you might see a surprise. Austin Hardware® has a new and improved website that has been completely renovated and redesigned with you in mind. You still get access to the same great hardware and service you love, but now our site has been streamlined with easy to find updates that make the user experience more friendly and easier to navigate. Already a loyal Austin Hardware® customer? No worries, If you are an existing Austin customer, your account has been securely transferred to the new site, and your previous order history and important account details are available on the new site. We are excited to launch our new website in our 60th year of business and to provide even better ways to view our diverse line of solutions for your business.

A grooved pin is a solid pin, similar to a dowel, except with swaged grooves (or flutes) that run vertically. Ordinarily, there are three grooves that can vary in length. They can run the entire way down the pin to as little as just one-third the length.

Applications:

• Locking collars
• Linkage or Hinge Pin
• Valve T-handle
• Spring anchor
• Roller and Stop pins
•  

Typically, sizes range from 1/16” to ½” in diameter, with lengths up to 3-3/4”. Grooved pins generally are used in friction fit holes, creating a connection that is almost as strong as a dowel with the added benefit of excellent vibration resistance.

The primary functional difference between a grooved pin and a dowel is that, while displaced material of the swaged grooves increases the pin’s diameter, the grooves close when pressed into a hole. This makes grooved pins appreciably more pliable than dowels, resulting in pins that can be used in holes that may not be formed to an exact size or circular shape. Tolerances for a dowel are considerably tighter. Grooved pins can also be removed and reused more easily because of their enhanced pliability.

Who We Are 

At Austin Hardware®, we serve over 8,500 customers whom we like to consider as partners and have thousands of hardware parts in stock. With 9 U.S. Locations, five regional call centers, and dozens of product experts, we have built Austin Hardware® for the customer needs of today. For the last 60 years, we have focused on quality service, quality hardware, and both product and industry expertise to assist our partners in reaching their goals. From vendor management to custom engineering, we provide value-added services that make a difference for our partners.  

In a previous post, we discussed in broad terms the basics of self-clinching fasteners. We noted that self-clinching fasteners are typically used for metal assemblies that may be too thin for tapping or in applications where it’s not feasible to employ stamped or extruded threads. They’re found in everything from household appliances and electronics to medical, telecom, and automotive equipment.

The three primary forms of self-clinching fasteners are Nuts, Studs, and Standoffs. Standoffs are used most often in Printed Circuit Boards and electrical assemblies to protect the circuitry. Studs present a threaded fastener into the product allowing for the mounting of essential components. We’ll dive deeper into those two specific self-clinching fasteners in future posts.

This blog is going to take a little closer look at self-clinching nuts. 

Self-clinching nuts provide strong, load-bearing threads to accept bolts and screws in thin sheet metal applications. They’re typically pressed into the metal using a manual or hydraulic press and swage the surrounding metal, which makes them a strong and permanently affixed component.