Helicoil

Helicoil is the brand name for a coil thread insert.

In automobile and aerospace sectors as well as electrical, mechanical and plastics industries, lightweight materials have been increasingly used for the manufacturing of machines in order to reduce weight, avoid corrosion and guarantee heat resistance. This, however, often affects the stability of the components. Originally developed for the repair of defective threads, coil thread inserts have recently been applied more often to ensure the necessary stability of screw connections or allow their repeated loosening and tightening.

Hitherto the insertion of coil threads was quite complex due to the required precision and the number of individual steps in the process. It was thus usually done manually or with semi-automated tools. As the fastening elements had to be fed via loading magazines, these tools were often inflexible and difficult to handle.

STÖGER AUTOMATION GmbH has developed the first fully automatic screwdriver for inserting coil thread inserts without feeding the fastening elements from a magazine or reel but individually from an automatic feed unit. As the fasteners are fed through a tube, a loading magazine is no longer required. The appeal of the STÖGER unit lies in its slim design, enabling screwdriving processes in a horizontal, vertical or any other orientation, even for difficult-to-access screw locations and for installation in robots or positioning axes.

A control unit controls torque, rotation angle and depth of insertion. The quality of the connection is ensured by monitoring these parameters, thus optimising overall process efficiency. The development of the STÖGER screwdriver for coil thread inserts with automated individual feeding is a highly convenient and time saving alternative to manual assembly notably in serial production.

Advantages at one glance:
  • developed for serial production
  • high cycle times possible
  • slim design, therefore also suitable for screw assembly positions with difficult access
  • optimised overall process efficiency by controlling torque, rotation angle and depth of insertion