In recent years, the Automotive Industry has shifted its preference from round fir trees and arrow fasteners to oval. The main benefit of the oval shaped feature is that it aids in preventing the rotation of the fastener, keeping the wires more accurately controlled between all the routing points of the harness.
Another key reason is because it has increased contact area between the feature and the panel. The additional latching contact area increases the extraction force of the fastener, making the solution more secure over the life of the vehicle. The increasing of this contact area can also become problematic as the greater force to pull the fastener from its hole may have adverse effects on the insertion forces. If the forces to apply the fastener are too great, operators may experience decreased ergonomics and thus occupational health problems (i.e carpal tunnel and or other muscle related injuries) . But thanks to our patented Low Insertion Fir Tree (LIFT™) technology we are able to design oval features with insertion forces well below 10lbf/44.5N industry standard. In fact the average insertion force for the non-offset fir tree ovals is below 5lbf/22N and for the fir tree offsets is below 4lbf/18N. The beauty of the LIFT technology is that even though cable ties have very low insertion forces, we do not compromise on extraction force with an average of 58lbf/258N for non offsets fir trees and 64lbf/285N for the offsets.
Some additional benefits of the Avery Dennison oval product portfolio is availability of multiple materials. The engineered fastening solutions come in three different types of nylon 6/6; heat stabilized, impact modified heat stabilized and high heat. Our high heat material meets and surpasses its equivalent, Nylon 46 but at a significantly lower cost.
We should also mention that OEMs and Tiers can reduce the number of parts used in an assembly by choosing one of the slotted fir trees from Avery Dennison. This is due to the large range of compatible oval sizes, 6.2-7.0mm by 12-13mm and panel thickness from 0.6mm to 7.0mm. With one solution meeting an array of applications, this can reduce the complexity and time for both engineers and procurement.
If you would like to get more information or samples, visit our selector and complete the sample request form. If you'd like assistance in finding the best oval solution for your application, complete our contact form.
