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Describes how Jaguar Cars in the UK is using robots to manufacture aluminium car bodies for its new XK sports car that is being built in the company's plant in Castle Bromwich, UK.

Describes the major production line techniques that are used in the manufacture of the body‐in‐white structure. These include self‐piercing rivets (SPRs), self‐tapping screws, MIG welding and adhesives.

The use of SPRs and self‐tapping screws are proving essential in the joining of aluminium components manufactured as extrusions, castings and pressings.

The introduction of SPRs and self‐tapping screws, adhesive bonding and MIG welding of cosmetic aluminium skin panels is the result of considerable research work on the part of Jaguar engineers and the company's suppliers, as well as Warwick University. Three of these techniques require the services of robots with their integrated controls. This work is likely to continue in order to reduce cycle times and improve overall product performance, both to the benefit of manufacturer and end‐user – the customer. This paper provides a unique insight into the development of a facility with islands of automation to produce aluminium body shells.

It is likely that arising out of development work into new techniques, processes and standards that will be used throughout the Ford organization, including other companies that form the Premier Automotive Group. Aston Martin, Land Rover and Volvo could all benefit from the technologies developed at Jaguar Cars.

This is the first time Jaguar Cars has used ABB robots in significant numbers to apply SPRs and self‐tapping screws to join aluminium components. ABB robots are also used for body shell inspection and MIG welding aluminum skin panels.

Describes how Jaguar Cars in the UK is assembling aluminium car bodies for its new XK sports car that will be manufactured with a production time of 12 hours.

Describes the major production line techniques that are used in the assembly of the body‐in‐white structure. These include adhesive bonding, self‐piercing rivets (SPRs) and self‐tapping screws.

The use of SPRs and self‐tapping screws is proving essential in the joining of aluminium components manufactured as extrusions, castings and pressings.

The introduction of adhesive bonding, SPRs and self‐tapping screws is the result of considerable research work on the part of Jaguar engineers and the company's suppliers. This work is likely to continue in order to reduce cycle times and improve overall product performance, both in terms of manufacture and for the user.

It is likely that arising out of development work into new assembly techniques that the technology will be used throughout the Ford organization, including other companies that form the Premier Automotive Group. Both Aston Martin and Volvo could benefit from the technologies developed at Jaguar Cars.

This is the first time that Jaguar Cars has used self‐tapping screws to join aluminium components although it has been used before within Lotus Group for the Elise sports car.

The Fasteners Corrosion Laboratory, opened last month in Birmingham, is run by Frederick Mountford (Birmingham) Ltd. and Ionic Plating Ltd. Its primary concern will be with the wide variety of corrosion problems encountered in the many industries served by the group. It is the only corrosion laboratory concerned with this aspect of industry.

In fire condition, the time to failure of a timber connection is mainly reliant on the wood charring rate, the strength of the residual wood section, and the limiting temperature of the steel connectors involved in the connection. The purpose of this study is to experimentally investigate the effects of loaded bolt end distance, number of bolt rows, and the existence of perpendicular-to-wood grain reinforcement on the structural fire behavior of semi-rigid glued-laminated timber (glulam) beam-to-column connections that used steel bolts and concealed steel plate connectors.

In total, 16 beam-to-column connections, which were fabricated in wood-steel-wood bolted connection configurations, in eight large-scale sub-frame test assemblies were exposed to elevated temperatures that followed CAN/ULC-S101 standard time-temperature curve, while being subjected to monotonic loading. The beam-to-column connections of four of the eight test assemblies were reinforced perpendicular to the wood grain using self-tapping screws (STS). Fire tests were terminated upon achieving the failure criterion, which predominantly was dependent on the connection’s maximum allowed rotation.

Experimental results revealed that increasing the number of bolt rows from two to three, each of two bolts, increased the connection’s time to failure by a greater time increment than that achieved by increasing the bolt end distance from four- to five-times the bolt diameter. Also, the use of STS reinforcement increased the connection’s time to failure by greater time increments than those achieved by increasing the number of bolt rows or the bolt end distance.

The invaluable experimental data obtained from this study can be effectively used to provide insight and better understanding on how mass-timber glulam bolted connections can behave in fire condition. This can also help in further improving the existing design guidelines for mass-timber structures. Currently, beam-to-column wood connections are designed mainly as axially loaded connections with no guidelines available for determining the fire resistance of timber connections exerting any degree of moment-resisting capability.

The fire resistance of timber structures is heavily dependent on the fire behaviour of the connections between its structural elements. The experimental study presented in this paper aimed to investigate the fire performance of glued-laminated timber beam connections reinforced perpendicular-to-wood grain with self-tapping screws (STS).

Two full-size fire experiments were conducted on glulam beam-end connections loaded in flexure bending. Two connection configurations, each utilizing four steel bolts arranged in two different patterns, were reinforced perpendicular to wood grain using STS. The bolt heads and nuts and the steel plate top and bottom edges were fire protected using wood plugs and strips, respectively. Each connection configuration was loaded to 100% of the ultimate design load of the weakest unreinforced configuration. The test assemblies were exposed to elevated temperatures that followed the CAN/ULC-S101 standard fire time–temperature curve.

The experimental results show that the influence of the STS was significant as it prevented the occurrence of wood splitting and row shear-out and as a result, increased the fire resistance time of the connections. The time to failure of both connection configurations exceeded the minimum fire resistance rating specified as 45 min for combustible construction in applicable building codes.

The experimental data show the effectiveness of a simple fire protection system (i.e. wood plugs and strips) along with the utilization of STS on the rotational behaviour, charring rate, fire resistance time and failure mode of the proposed hybrid mass timber beam-end connection configurations.

This first part of a comprehensive six‐part series of articles on integral attachment using snap‐fit features familiarizes the reader with the key terms relating to the subject. Every area of study and practice must have associated with it a language to express objects, actions, and ideas. To understand any subject, understanding the language is essential. Developing clear, concise, unambiguous definitions of key terms is a tedious but necessary and critical first step to promoting understanding by allowing effective and efficient communication. These terms and definitions have been carefully compiled and thoughtfully refined from a broad industrial base, published literature, and university‐based research. They are the beginning of a lexicon for the embryonic but promising technology of integral attachment using snap‐fit features.

This paper deals with the fire resistance of primary and secondary beam connections in timber structures.

This paper describes a series of unloaded and loaded furnace fire tests in different configurations of these types of connectors.

The main objective is the fire safety design of joist hangers and full thread screws.

Design recommendations are given.

ROLLS‐ROYCE AND HIDUMINIUM High Duty Alloys, Ltd., are responsible for a considerable portion of the material in Aluminium alloy used in the Rolls‐Royce Kestrel and Buzzard engines. They produce the Y‐alloy for the forgings from which the pistons are made, and also the material for castings for the cylinder blocks, of the production of which Mr. Handasyde speaks in such high terms of praise. This is an alloy known as Hiduminium R.R.

Two discharger units eliminate static interference problems in aircraft NAV‐COM systems and ensure clear in‐flight communication. Suitable for both private and commercial prop‐jet or propeller aircraft, they have close packed highly sensitive tungsten filaments, which continuously divide discharging energy into silent pulses, form the tip of the discharger unit. An outer Teflon cover, which will not crack or peel, protects the conductive core from exposure to corrosive fluids and atmospheric erosion and the unit‐which has a lightweight rigid fibreglass core support‐is virtually unbreakable. There are trailing edge and a wing tip type discharger which can be fixed quickly into existing mounting holes with the strong nickel coated aluminium bracket supplied.

The purpose of this study is to clarify both tensile and shear strength for self-drilling screws, which are manufactured from high-strength, martensitic-stainless and austenitic stainless-steel bars, and the load-bearing capacity of single overlapped screwed connections using steel sheets and self-drilling screws at elevated temperatures.

Tensile/shear loading tests for the self-drilling screw were conducted to obtain basic information on the tensile and shear strengths at elevated temperatures and examine the relationships between both. Shear loading tests for the screwed connections at elevated temperatures were conducted to examine the shear strength and transition of failure modes depending on the test temperature.

The tensile and shear strengths as well as the reduction factors at the elevated temperature for each steel grade of the self-drilling screw were quantified. Furthermore, either screw shear or sheet bearing failure mode depending on the test temperature was observed for the screwed connection.

The transition of the failure modes for the screwed connection could be explained using the calculation formulae for the shear strengths at elevated temperatures, which were proposed in this study.