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A Complete Guide to Aerospace Fasteners: Types, Materials & Standards | SMS
Created on 06.25
Aerospace fasteners are the most critical structural hardware in modern aviation, military aircraft, jet engines, ballistic missiles, and space rockets. Unlike ordinary industrial fasteners, aircraft fasteners operate under extreme conditions including high altitude pressure, dramatic temperature changes, strong vibration, and oxidative atmospheric environments. Even a tiny fastener failure can lead to catastrophic flight risks.
With the continuous upgrading of aerospace manufacturing technology, modern aircraft and spacecraft require lighter, stronger, and more durable fastening solutions. As a professional precision manufacturing supplier, SMS presents a full technical guide to aerospace fasteners, covering core characteristics, industry standards, common and special fastener types, premium materials, and surface coating solutions. This article helps aerospace engineers and procurement teams select qualified aircraft fasteners accurately.
What Are Aerospace Fasteners?
Aerospace fasteners are high-precision, high-reliability mechanical components specially designed for aircraft aerostructure assembly. Aircraft structural parts are usually produced in separate workshops and finally assembled into a complete fuselage, wings, nacelles, pylons, empennage, and flight control surfaces through standardized fasteners.
Due to the extremely strict safety standards of the aviation industry, aerospace fasteners must meet ultra-high precision, fatigue resistance, and lightweight requirements. They not only fix aircraft components stably but also maintain overall structural rigidity, aerodynamic appearance, and long-term flight safety for commercial airplanes and military aviation equipment.
Core Characteristics of High-Quality Aerospace Fasteners
Aviation fasteners are completely different from ordinary hardware parts. Their performance directly determines aircraft safety and service life. Qualified aerospace fasteners must have the following core properties:
- Extreme environmental adaptability
: Stable performance under ultra-high temperature, ultra-low temperature, high pressure, and high-altitude oxidation environments
- Super mechanical strength
: Excellent tensile strength, shear resistance, and fatigue resistance to withstand long-term vibration and dynamic load
- Self-locking & self-sealing functions
: Effectively prevent loosening caused by high-frequency vibration during flight
- Strong corrosion & oxidation resistance
: Resist atmospheric corrosion and metal aging in high-altitude harsh environments
- Ultra-lightweight design
: Reduce overall aircraft weight while ensuring structural strength to improve flight efficiency and save fuel consumption
Strict Aerospace Fastener Industry Standards
The aerospace industry has zero tolerance for unqualified parts. All aircraft fasteners must pass standardized quality certification to be put into service. The most widely recognized global aviation quality management systems are AS9100, BS9100, EN9100 (for design and manufacturing enterprises) and AS9120, BS9120, EN9120 (for parts distributors and suppliers).
These unified standards regulate the precision tolerance, material composition, surface treatment, mechanical testing, and batch consistency of aerospace fasteners, ensuring 100% reliability of aviation hardware.
Common Standard Aerospace Fastener Types
Standard aircraft fasteners are widely used in commercial aviation and conventional military equipment. They follow AN, MS, and NAS aviation specifications and are the most basic components of aircraft assembly.
1. Aircraft Bolts
Aircraft bolts are core load-bearing fasteners, made of corrosion-resistant steel, zinc-plated steel, cadmium-plated alloy, or anodized aluminum alloy. Common types include MS bolts, close-tolerance bolts, NAS internal wrenching bolts, and AN standard bolts. They are mainly used for fixed structural joints that require high shear strength and assembly precision.
2. Aircraft Nuts
Matching with aircraft bolts, aviation nuts are made of cadmium-plated carbon steel, stainless steel, or 2024T aluminum alloy. They are divided into non-locking nuts and self-locking nuts. Self-locking nuts are widely used in vibrating parts to avoid loosening and falling off during long-term flight.
3. Aircraft Screws
Aircraft screws are the most common threaded fasteners with external helical threads. Compared with bolts, they use relatively lower-strength materials and loose-fit threads, suitable for fixing non-major load-bearing auxiliary parts and decorative structural components.
4. Aircraft Rivets
Rivets are permanent aerospace fasteners, consisting of a smooth cylindrical shaft and a fixed head. During assembly, the rivet shank passes through the aligned holes of two or more metal plates, and the tail is upset to form a second locking head. Rivets are widely used for fuselage skin, wing panel, and closed structural assembly due to their high stability and non-loosening advantages.
5. Aerospace Lock Bolt Collars
Supporting lock bolt rivets, alloy collars tightly lock rivet pins to enhance joint rigidity. They are essential accessories for high-strength aviation locking structures and improve the overall anti-vibration ability of aircraft components.
Special High-Strength Aerospace Fasteners
For high-load aviation structures, light sport aircraft (LSA), and high-vibration key parts, standard AN/MS fasteners cannot meet the requirements. The industry adopts customized special fasteners with higher strength, lighter weight, and stronger locking performance.
1. Taper-Lok Fasteners
Taper-Lok is one of the strongest special aircraft fasteners. Its unique tapered structure produces uniform radial compression and vertical extrusion force on the hole wall during installation. Different from ordinary rivets, it fills the hole tightly without shank deformation. Matched with washer head nuts, it forms ultra-high structural stability and is widely used in key load-bearing aviation structures.
2. Hi-Tigue Fasteners
Hi-Tigue fasteners feature a circular bead at the bottom of the shank. During installation, the bead preloads the hole wall to generate radial stress, strengthening the surrounding material structure. This preloading design avoids cyclic vibration fatigue failure. Hi-Tigue fasteners are available in aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium alloy materials, with sealing and non-sealing collars for different aviation scenarios.
3. Turnlock Fasteners (Dzus / Camloc / Airloc)
Turnlock fasteners are quick-release aviation hardware, specially used for aircraft inspection plates, maintenance doors, and removable panels. They support fast opening and locking, greatly improving aircraft daily maintenance efficiency. The three mainstream brands are Dzus, Camloc, and Airloc.
Dzus Fastener Structure: Composed of studs, grommets, springs, and receptacles. The cadmium-plated spring provides stable locking force, while steel studs adopt wing, flush, and oval head designs for different installation surfaces.
Best Materials for Manufacturing Aerospace Fasteners
Material performance determines the ultimate strength, weight, and service life of aircraft fasteners. SMS selects aviation-grade raw materials strictly according to working conditions to ensure compliance with aerospace safety standards.
1. Aluminum Alloys
Aluminum is the most classic lightweight aviation material, cost-effective and easy to process. Al7075 is the mainstream aerospace aluminum alloy for fasteners, with excellent tensile strength and fatigue resistance. It is widely used for aircraft rivets and lightweight structural fasteners after cold forming and strengthening treatment.
2. Steel & Stainless Steel
Steel has three times the strength of aluminum and is suitable for high-load parts such as landing gear and exterior structural bolts. Aerospace-grade alloy steel and stainless steel feature high hardness and impact resistance, meeting the extreme load requirements of key aviation components.
3. Titanium Alloys
Titanium alloy is the upgraded alternative to aluminum and steel aviation fasteners. It has steel-level strength, lighter weight, and excellent high and low-temperature resistance. It is the preferred material for modern high-end aircraft and spacecraft precision fasteners.
4. High-Performance Super Alloys
Superalloys are specially used for extreme aerospace environments such as engine combustion chambers and exhaust systems. Common aviation superalloys include:
- Hastelloy
: Ultra-high corrosion resistance for engine exhaust components
- Inconel 780
: Super tensile strength for high-load bolts and nuts
- A286
: Excellent oxidation and corrosion resistance for long-term high-temperature aviation parts
Aerospace Fastener Surface Coatings
To further improve durability and environmental adaptability, all aviation fasteners require professional surface coating treatment. Common protective coatings include cadmium, zinc, silver, nickel, phosphate, and black oxide. These coatings effectively isolate air oxidation, prevent metal corrosion, and extend the service life of aircraft fasteners under high-altitude working conditions.
Structural vs Non-Structural Aircraft Fasteners
According to load-bearing functions, aerospace fasteners are divided into two categories:
- Structural Fasteners
: Bear the main flight load, including Huck lock bolts and CherryMax fasteners, with ultra-high strength and anti-fatigue performance
- Non-Structural Fasteners
: Fix auxiliary non-load-bearing parts for decoration and auxiliary assembly
In addition, blind fasteners such as blind rivets are specially designed for inaccessible narrow spaces (trailing edges, internal closed structures), solving the assembly difficulty of hidden aircraft parts.
Why Choose SMS for Custom Aerospace Fastener Manufacturing
Aerospace fastener manufacturing is a high-threshold precision industry that requires strict standard compliance, stable material quality, and mature processing technology. As a professional aviation hardware manufacturing supplier, SMS provides one-stop customized aerospace fastener solutions for global aviation, military, and aerospace clients.
SMS Core Advantages:
- Strictly follow AS9100 aviation quality standards for production
- Full material support: aluminum alloy, stainless steel, titanium alloy, and superalloy fasteners
- Custom standard & special fastener processing (Taper-Lok, Hi-Tigue, Dzus turnlock fasteners)
- Professional surface coating treatment for anti-corrosion and anti-oxidation
- Free DFM analysis, fast lead time, and full dimensional inspection reports
FAQ About Aerospace Fasteners
Q1: Why are aerospace fasteners so important for aircraft?
Aerospace fasteners connect all aircraft structural components. They ensure overall structural rigidity, flight safety, and convenient disassembly and maintenance of worn parts. Any fastener failure may cause major aviation safety accidents.
Q2: What is the difference between structural and non-structural aircraft fasteners?
Structural fasteners bear main flight loads with ultra-high strength; non-structural fasteners are used for auxiliary component fixing without bearing major structural pressure.
Q3: What are blind fasteners used for in aviation?
Blind fasteners (blind rivets) are used for inaccessible and closed narrow areas of aircraft, realizing safe and stable connection of hidden structural parts.
Q4: What materials are best for aerospace fasteners?
Aluminum alloy for lightweight conventional parts, stainless steel and alloy steel for high-load structures, titanium alloy for high-end lightweight aviation parts, and superalloys for extreme high-temperature engine components.
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