Self-Clinching Nuts - Types JX-S, JX-CLS, JX-CLA, JX-SP

Material:

Stainless Steel: SUS302, SUS303, SUS316, SUS410, SUS420, SUS430, etc.

Stainless Steel Press-Fit Nuts for Sheet Metal: These nuts have good chemical resistance and may be mildly magnetic. Also known as clinch-style captive nuts, press them into a drilled or punched hole with an arbor press or similar pressure tool. Installation requires access to both sides of the panel. Knurls on the bottom of the nut hold them firmly in place.

Self-Clinching Nuts – Types S, SS, CLS, CLSS, SP

Type S, SS, CLS, and CLSS nuts provide load-bearing threads in thin sheets with high pushout and torque-out resistance.

Type SP, Self-clinching nuts provide strong load-bearing threads in stainless steel sheets as thin as .030".

Types S / SS are recommended for use in steel or aluminum sheets. HRB (Rockwell "B" scale) is 80 or less, and HB (Hardness Brinell) is 150 or less. Type SP is recommended for use in stainless steel sheets HRB (Rockwell "B" scale) 90 or less and HB (Hardness Brinell) 185 or less.

Threaded nuts can take on many different forms to solve various application challenges, but the general concept is pretty simple. A nut is any single threaded part that can accept a male thread (a screw, bolt, or stud) and is used to join two components together via torque. The most common nut geometry is a hexagonal body with internal threads, the length of which is typically shorter than the outer diameter. The hex body can be leveraged to apply torque for tightening or loosening.

Application

The general form of a nut is so widely applicable that it’s challenging to narrow the scope without discussing more unique variations such as floating nuts, blind nuts, or flush nuts. Typical applications are as simple as fastening a stop sign to an aluminum post, or as critical as bolting two pipes together in a sewer system. The range of applications that use the general form of a threaded nut will typically result in different material decisions rather than design decisions, such as using high tensile strength bolts or lightweight, plastic nuts.

Alternative Solutions

Common reasons for using loose nuts and bolts include the low cost per piece and easy assembly/disassembly. Many applications require only ‘finger-tight’ fastening, meaning no additional tools are needed. If minimizing part count benefits the application, the nut can be eliminated by tapping threads directly into the steel post or sewer pipe. However, this results in two disadvantages. Tapping the thin metal of an aluminum post creates softer and fewer threads, increasing the risk of failure. Additionally, much of the cost savings gained by eliminating the nut is lost from the labor required to tap the metal panel.

Common Attachment Technologies

General threaded nuts are loose parts that mate with a male thread. However, a wide range of specific applications use nearly every kind of attachment technology to put threads on a metal panel or PCB. Self-clinching nuts are standard enough to be called clinch nuts.