The three reasons are well-known to OEMs: Productivity, Cost, & Performance.
First, understand what your techs must do to install a nylon grommet with an adhesive.
Nylon MS21266 grommets need an adhesive to work because they have no inherent grip & will tend to pull away from edges due to nylon’s stiffness, & coil set.
Applying the adhesive takes many steps: cleaning, application, fixturing, inspection, & clean up. This is a time, cost, & efficiency sinkhole made worse by the need to let the adhesive cure before running new wiring harnesses.
So with that process in mind, performance, productivity, and cost are the 3 reasons why you should drop nylon grommets.
Productivity
The slowness of the nylon grommet and adhesive process is perhaps the perfect example of the saying “Time is money”. Each nylon grommet eats away at your productivity and margins.
In contrast, Spring-Fast will yield a 9.5X productivity gain because it installs fast by finger pressure—no adhesive is required.
The 9.5X is from a model based on client feedback comparing the time needed to install nylon and Spring-Fast. The bottom line is that a nylon grommet takes ~70 minutes to install, while spring-fast takes 7.4 minutes. That is a 9.5X productivity gain.
Nylon includes a conservative 45 minutes of labor downtime for adhesive curing. Techs leave and return to complete the installation. The 45 minutes are at zero cost, as techs charge their time to other jobs.
Operationally its encapsulated steel design means it can be removed & repositioned easily.
Cost
The slowness and time taken in the nylon and adhesive application process means that your costs are inflated unnecessarily.
In contrast: Spring-Fast will save OEMs AT LEAST 49% of their install costs because it installs fast by finger pressure –without glue.
Using the same model that generated the 9.5X productivity gain, we simply applied a shop labor rate to calculate the costs.
The model uses a $30 shop labor rate. If your labor rate is higher then your savings will be higher.
Performance
Nylon grommets often need rework when the bonding does not pass inspection. In addition, the two components can react differently to stressors like heat, moisture, and vibration making them more susceptible to failure over time.
In contrast, Spring-Fast grommets have had no known failures in over 30+ years. It installs with finger pressure -without adhesive and the encapsulated metal castles grip the edge. Spring-Fast easily passes aerospace standards for edge retention.
What OEMs Are Doing Now
Some OEMs are switching because Spring-Fast is a finished product in its own right. It needs nothing else to perform. However, the majority are switching because they are searching for cost reductions and margin protection/improvement.
In contrast, nylon needs adhesive to do the job it is supposed to be. A recent comment was made that using nylon grommets with adhesive was like buying a car without wheels. They want a car with wheels!
Conclusion
Do these three reasons make sense to you?
Want to find out more? Contact the person who reached out to you.
Order free samples to see for yourself click here.
Good general article about grommet edging here
