Pack of 5 x M3 x 4.1mm Threaded Brass Inserts for Plastic

Product Information

If one of SPIROL's standard Threaded Inserts does not meet your needs, our Application Engineers will work with you to design a custom Insert to meet your unique requirements. In the next example below, this insert was set without using the plate-press technique. Notice that nasty “bulge” of excess material that beads up around the insert. That’s precisely the bulge that we can remove when we use the final plate-press technique. You can find inserts on McMaster-Carr (pn: 92160a115) or on Tindie. (I admit that I use the McMaster-Carr one for 4-40 and M2.5 inserts, but also with M3, M4, and M5 inserts without any issues!) If installation equipment is required, SPIROL also offers a standard comprehensive line of Insert Installation Equipment from manual to fully automatic modules, with or without out fixturing, to support your Threaded Insert assembly requirements. Molded-In Inserts are placed over core pins within the mold cavity as a part of the molding process. As the plastic is injected into the mold, it flows around the periphery of the Insert filling the knurls, barbs and undercuts of the Insert's external design providing torque and pull-out (tensile) resistance. Molded-In Inserts can be used in thermoplastics and thermosets.

The first portion of the hole will be threaded (to a depth of about Ø×2.5 ) or refer to MAX THREAD DEPTH in the table below).

Please note:

The brass heat-set threaded insert is placed on the insertion tip of the installation equipment and aligned with the 3D prints insert cavity. The insert is heated to the glass transition temperature of the 3D printed material before being pressed into the cavity with a downwards vertical force. The hot insert melts the thermoplastic material which flows around the insert as it is pressed down. When the insert reaches flush with the surface of the print, the installation equipment is removed. As the insert cools, the polymer solidifies around the left right helical grooves in the insert, securing it in place. + Can you 3D print threaded holes? External threads can be milled, this normally only works well for larger threads, as these will be milled using a ball end cutter (M4 is the absolute minimum, but ideally M12 and above). Your thread will have radii in the root, so might need cleaning up with a die. We can mill most custom threads or helical forms that you can model – on the lathe, 5-axis mill or 3-axis. External 3-axis milled threads are produced on the half diameter. The part is then rotated 180 degrees, re-referenced, and the other half milled. Heat/Ultrasonic Inserts are designed for post-mold installation in thermoplastics. Heat and ultrasonic installation of these Threaded Inserts yield outstanding performance results. Available in long and short variations, long for maximum torque and pull-out resistance; short for less stringent requirements with the benefits of lower cost and reduced installation time.

Today I’d like to share some tips on one of my favorite functional 3D-printing techniques: adding heat-set inserts. As someone who’s been installing them into plastic parts for years manually, I think many guides overlook some process details crucial to getting consistent results. Larger, oversized threads can be 3D printed from polymer materials, however, typically these components have high friction, poor tolerances and wear over time. Smaller, metric sized threads are generally too fine to 3D print. Metal alternatives for threads outperform thermoplastic materials used with 3D printing. Therefore, tapping or machining a thread after 3D printing is less durable than using a threaded insert. + Can you remove threaded inserts? SPIROL’s Inserts are designed to maximize and balance rotational torque and tensile (pull-out) performance. Attention to knurl and thread quality further enhances performance. SPIROL offers a comprehensive line of Threaded Inserts for Plastics to suit the installation method, plastic type and performance requirements of your specific application. We will also supply and fit a range of standard metric HELICOIL® inserts, with a thread length of 1 × thread diameter (D), 1.5D and 2D. If you require fitted inserts, let us know by using the special instructions button on your quote; please include insert length and location information.Both: the threads will each be a little less than ½ the depth of the hole: they will not meet in the middle. Thermoplastics are rigid and solid at normal temperatures, and at elevated temperatures they soften and melt. Some of the more common thermoplastics are ABS, polyamide (eg. Nylon 6-6), PVC and polycarbonate (PC). Press-In, Self-Tapping, Heat / Ultrasonic and Molded-In Inserts are suitable for plastics in this category.

First, we want to make sure that our installed insert is still “grabbing” onto material after we install it. An installed insert displaces material outwards during installation, so adding layers improves the odds that we haven’t melted through it upon installation.Threaded Inserts for Plastics provide reusable threads and preserve the bolted joint integrity for the life of the application. Since an Insert is generally twice the diameter of a screw, the shear surface is increased fourfold, thereby significantly enhancing the load carrying ability of the bolted plastic joint as compared to one without the use of a metal Threaded Insert. Threaded Inserts for Plastics also allow the appropriate installation torque to be applied to the screw without stripping the threads that would otherwise occur if the screw was installed directly into the plastic. In addition, the metal thread of an Insert provides permanent creep resistance for the entire load path of the thread to prevent loosening and maintain a durable tightly threaded connection. What is the minimum thread depth? Our software will recognise threadable holes that have a depth of at least 1.5 x thread pitch. To accommodate displaced material, I suggest increasing the hole depth by about 50% of the insert length. This change ensures that the displaced plastic has somewhere to go and doesn’t fill up the cavity where the insert should be. Heat-set inserts work by softening the surrounding material as they’re being installed. Once installed, removing the heat-source causes this molten plastic to re-solidify around the inserts’ knurled feature, holding it in place. Let’s consider thinking about this process in terms of heat transfer. Installation holes are smaller than the inserts themselves (they’re undersized), so we can’t install inserts by hand force. Rather, we first heat the insert and then conduct that heat into the surrounding material such that the hole deforms, accommodating the larger shape of the insert. The CAD file should then be submitted in a 3D file format other than STL; we accept most native CAD formats or a standard file formats such as IGES or STEP are also great.