R.W. Rundle Associates September 2015 Newsletter

home principals territory why us contact

In This Issue

We will be exhibiting Driv-Lok at the 5th NEFDA Table Top Show , tomorrow Wednesday, Sept 16th from 1pm to 5:30pm at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket, CT. Please stop by and learn more about Driv-Lok!

When people ask me how long I've been with my company, my answer usually is "since I was five".

In late 1974, my father resigned from his job as National Sales Manager of the Nylok Division of USM Corp and started R.W. Rundle Associates, Inc. Dad's first principal was Driv-Lok, Inc., a Sycamore, IL based manufacturer of press fit fasteners.

My earliest memory of his job (aside from him bringing home a portable calculator one night and not being allowed to go anywhere near it - but that's a story for another newsletter), was when Driv-Lok would ship us their catalogs, price books and discount sheets. I couldn't wait until Dad would bring them home so I could spread out the piles on the bed and put them all together for him.

Fast forward 40 years later and while I don't have to collate catalogs anymore, we still have the privilege of representing Driv-Lok, who is celebrating their 75th year in business.

From our family to theirs - Happy Anniversary Driv-Lok!!

Sincerely,

Rob

ps- As always, please use the "contact" button above to reach our office should you have any questions or applications. Thank you for taking the time to read the newsletter. If you have any suggestions on how to improve it, please let me know.

Driv-Lok

Our featured principal this newsletter is Driv-Lok, Inc.

Over the last 75 years, Driv-Lok has become the preeminent supplier of press fit fastener in the United States. Driv-Lok parts are found in many applications across a wide variety of industries: Industrial, Military, Aerospace, Automotive, Medical and Sports & Recreation.

Like most great American success stories though, Driv-Lok's beginnings were much humbler. In 1939, Pete Hilstrom and his wife traveled East from Iowa to visit friends from his time as an engineer at General Electric in Connecticut. A chance encounter with a old co-worker lead to Pete meeting with Ernst Von Mertens, who with one machine was trying to produce a grooved pin fastener for the Connecticut clock industry. Things weren't going as well as he hoped, and Von Mertens was selling the machine and moving on. Pete saw an opportunity, bought the machine, and moved his wife and young daughter out East. What is now known as Driv-Lok, Inc. was born in a corner of the second floor of the A.H. Nilson Machine Company (who had lent him the space) in Bridgeport Connecticut.

From man with one machine (and one customer) in 1940, Driv-Lok has grown to a company with over 90 employees (with over 1200 combined years of experience) who have shipped parts to over 40 countries around the world.

Please see the description of Driv-Lok product categories below. The company continues to grow. In 2014 they shipped over 200 million parts to over 700 customers!

Press Fit & Interference Fasteners

Grooved Pins & Studs

Grooved pins are non-threaded press fit fasteners - a fastener that is pressed into an appropriate sized hole, providing the proper interference fit to lock the fastener in place.

------------------------------------------------------------
Knurled Pins & Studs
These are similar to grooved pins in that they have serrations around the diameter. However, knurled pins feature many more serrations. They are press fit fasteners that, when compressed into a hole, extrude radial forces to hold the fastener in place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barb-Lok & Ferroll Pins & Studs

The specially designed barbs on BARB-LOK and Ferrol pins and studs provide positive fastening and replacement of conventional screws, barbed nails and other fasteners.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Slotted and Coiled

Slotted & Coiled Spring or hollow pins are economical, universally used shear-type fasteners that are self-locking. They're manufactured to an oversize dimension so that when the pin is inserted into a hole, radial forces are exerted that hold the spring pin in place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Split & Seamless Hollow Dowels

This is an excellent cost-saving option not widely offered by other manufacturers. As a result of using less material and eliminating reaming and finishing, the Split Hollow Dowel can save you between 30-40%.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Custom & Precision Solid Dowel Pins

Solid Dowels are cylindrical pins with a centerless ground finish that provide total precision tolerances. They are used in t he same manner as Grooved Pins when highly accurate location is required.

Enginomics

EngiNomics® is DRIV-LOK's systematic approach to saving you time and money while maintaining or enhancing the design integrity and performance of your end product.

This systematic approach for examining fastening design, production and assembly to reduce cost and enhance end-product has reduced customer costs by more than $750,000 in one year alone.

More than almost any other industry, manufacturing is driven by cost. Driv-Lok engineers have the most comprehensive understanding of press-fit assembly alternatives to identify and provide our OEM and VMI distributor customers the most economical solutions for their unique needs.

Driv-Lok also continues to build or acquire machines to add new capabilities, making sure our parts are run in the most cost effective manner.

By having the broadest range of manufacturing capability in both hollow dowel and solid press-fit fasteners, Driv-Lok can be completely objective in evaluating and recommending the best fastener to fit any custom assembly requirements.

Through its commitment to quality, innovation and service, DRIV-LOK stands alone as the leader in fastening solutions and strategies, helping companies repeatedly succeed with Smarter Fastening Through EngiNomics®.

To schedule a free consultation about strategic fastening solutions for your needs, Contact DRIV-LOK here.

Thank you for reading this newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions about Unicorp or any of our other principals.

Most Sincerely,
Rob Rundle - President
R.W. Rundle Associates Inc