In the fastening systems sector too, standard catalogue products generally meet the majority of applications. When materials change, geometries become more complex, and operating conditions grow increasingly varied, the fastening system is not chosen — it is designed.
The range of materials used in contemporary industry has expanded radically. Alongside traditional ferrous materials and metal alloys — steel, aluminium, titanium — designers now work with carbon fibre composites, technical polymers, natural and engineered stone, solid surfaces, sandwich panels, structural glass, and advanced ceramics. Each of these materials has specific mechanical behaviour: different hardness, different brittleness, different response to dynamic stress, different compatibility with traditional fastening processes.
Added to this, is the increasing complexity of design geometries — minimum thicknesses, hollow sections, hybrid structures combining materials with very different thermal expansion coefficients — and the multiplication of application constraints: corrosive environments, extreme temperatures, repeated load and unload cycles, aesthetic requirements that do not allow any visible elements on the surface.
In this context, the catalogue still covers the majority of applications. But it is that growing segment of projects where the standard product does not exist, does not perform adequately, or simply does not fit within the available geometry, that defines the real quality of a design process. In those cases, the designer has two options: adapt the project to the available fastener — with all the compromises that entails — or design the fastener alongside the product.
The second option has a precise name: co-engineering.
What co-engineering means in practice
Co-engineering is not an additional commercial service. It is a structured technical process that begins long before product selection and ends long after the first proposed solution.
The starting point is a comprehensive analysis of the application: the material and its mechanical properties, the expected static and dynamic loads, the environmental operating conditions, the installation process and its constraints, the aesthetic and dimensional requirements, the applicable standards. Only from this analysis is it possible to define the specifications for a fastening solution that is not a compromise, but an engineering response to the actual problem.
The next includes prototyping and testing. A co-engineered solution is not proposed on the basis of theoretical calculations alone: it is prototyped, installed under real or simulated application conditions, and subjected to test protocols that measure actual performance — tensile strength, torsional resistance, fatigue behaviour, corrosion resistance, installation repeatability. The designer does not receive a proposal: they receive validated data.
The end result is a solution that originates from the application and returns to it — not an adapted catalogue product, but a fastening system designed for that material, that geometry, those operating conditions, that production process.
The sectors where co-engineering makes the difference
Co-engineering is not reserved for the most extreme applications. It is relevant whenever a project requires dedicated fastening solutions that the market offers only in standard form. In some sectors, it has become the norm rather than the exception.
Automotive and supercar
In the automotive sector — and even more so in the production of supercars and hypercars — every component is subject to intensive weight-to-performance optimisation. Substrates are often carbon fibre composites or lightweight alloys with minimum thicknesses. Tolerances are tight. Dynamic loads are high and thermal cycles are significant. In this context, an insert that has not been specifically designed for that component, in that material, with that geometry, is a weak point in the entire structural chain.
Marine
Naval structures combine very different materials — fibreglass, carbon, aluminium, engineered wood — in some of the most corrosively aggressive environments. Continuous vibration, saltwater exposure and thermal cycles impose requirements that go well beyond static mechanical resistance. Co-engineering in the marine sector often means developing solutions that simultaneously account for galvanic compatibility between materials, long-term corrosion resistance, and installability in constrained spaces.
Rail and aviation
Rail and aerospace are the sectors with the most stringent regulatory requirements. Every fastening system must be certified, traceable, and capable of maintaining its performance over maintenance cycles defined in years. Co-engineering in these sectors is not only about product performance, but about the entire qualification and validation process.
Interior design and architecture
In high-end interior design — kitchens, wall claddings, architectural elements in natural stone, continuous surfaces in composite materials or HPL — the primary constraint is often aesthetic: the fastening must not be visible, must not compromise the surface, must not require machining that alters a precious material. The substrates — marble, granite, Corian, glass, ceramic — do not behave like traditional industrial materials and require solutions specifically designed for their mechanical characteristics and inherent fragility.
Additive manufacturing
Finally, industrial 3D printing has introduced a new class of materials — reinforced composites, high-performance engineering polymers, ceramic-based materials — and new geometric freedoms that traditional fastening systems were not designed to handle. 3D-printed components can have minimum wall thicknesses, complex internal geometries, and anisotropic mechanical properties that require a deep understanding of material behaviour before a reliable fastening solution can be defined.
A methodological example: the collaboration with 3NTR
The case history developed together with 3NTR — an Italian company specialising in the production of industrial 3D printers — is a concrete example of how co-engineering produces results that cannot be achieved through catalogue selection.
The starting point was a real and widespread problem: 3D-printed components require reliable threaded seats, but the available fastening systems had been designed for materials with very different mechanical behaviour from the polymers and composites used in additive manufacturing. The lack of validated data meant that every choice was an approximation.
The solution was a joint test protocol on two materials with opposing properties: Carbon+ — a carbon fibre reinforced composite with high mechanical strength and structural rigidity — and ABS, a flexible and impact-resistant thermoplastic polymer, one of the most widely used in 3D printing. Two Specialinsert® systems were tested on these materials: Insert-Plast®, an expansion threaded insert designed for high tensile and torsional loads, and Ensat® 307, a self-threading bush for low-resistance materials such as plastics and composites.
The tests measured tensile strength, torsional resistance and ease of installation, producing reliable and repeatable data that designers can use directly in their specifications. This is not a sales pitch: is a technical contribution to the professional additive manufacturing community.
This is co-engineering: two companies with different areas of expertise, a real problem, a rigorous method, published data.
When to start the conversation
The wrong time to involve the fastening partner is when the project is already finalised — when the material has been chosen, the geometry is set, the production process is planned. At that point, the options have already been narrowed down significantly, and the only available solution is often a compromise.
The right time is earlier: when the material is still under discussion, when the geometry is still open, when the assembly process has not yet been formalised. It is at that stage that fastening expertise can influence upstream choices — suggesting a more compatible material, anticipating a geometric constraint, identifying an installation requirement that will change the production sequence.
Co-engineering is not a service for extreme cases. It is an approach that applies whenever a project pushes beyond the boundaries of the catalogue — and those boundaries, in contemporary industry, are reached more and more often.
For designers and R&D teams operating in that territory, Specialinsert® is available to carry out a technical assessment of the application: the starting point is not a catalogue, but a conversation about the real problem.
Would you like to find out more about how Specialinsert® tackles the co-engineering challenges? Contact us.
