The importance of quality certifications in the fastening systems industry

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Specialinsert® was a pioneer in realising the importance of quality certifications in the fastener industry. As early as 1997, in fact, we achieved ISO 9001 certification, the standard published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). The ISO standard defines the minimum requirements that an organisation’s Quality Management System must demonstrate to meet in order to guarantee the level of process, product and service quality it claims to possess, to achieve its performance objectives and to fully satisfy the demands of its customers and the market in general.

In Specialinsert®, quality is considered as a path of continuous and structured growth, which invests the company as a whole, in an integrated view, according to the Total Quality Management strategy. Over time, this approach has enabled the company to meet the requirements of the successive revisions of ISO 9001 up to the current ISO 9001: 2015 version, so that it can continue to be a management tool for the company’s top management, in order to adapt its operations to a rapidly changing context.

Specialinsert® quality finds expression, first and foremost, in the development of the products: the fastening systems offered are the result of careful design conducted by the in-house R&D Department and evaluated through accurate testing. As a result of this, in 2018 we achieved IATF 16949:2016 certification for the design and production of mechanical fastening components for the automotive industry.

IATF 16949:2016 certification is an automotive quality system and is applicable to any organisation that manufactures components, assemblies and parts for supply to the automotive industry. The technical specification comes from the group of automotive manufacturers and their respective trade associations united under the acronym IATF – International Automotive Task Force in order to provide superior quality products to automotive customers worldwide.

Other fastener-specific certifications are those issued by ASTM – American Society for Testing and Materials used to specify, test and evaluate the material, dimensional, mechanical and metallurgical properties of various types of fasteners.

The fulcrum of Specialinsert®‘s quality research process for its products is the Research & Development Department, which manages internally, and in close collaboration with the most prestigious Italian and foreign universities, every stage of product development.

Over time, this has enabled Specialinsert® to register numerous patents, 4 of which for inventions and 12 for utility models.