Bryce Fasteners New Dip Spin Technique called BRYKOTE™
Sep 19, 2014
We made the plunge into dip spin coating our fasteners. We think it will be better for our customers. After a fastener failure that should've never happened and significant experimentation with coatings and processes, BryKote™ is a technique we now use similar to Dip Spin. Brian Hill, our Director of Marketing and Sales took on the project until he was satisfied our customers will like it.
What it cost me to buy a good coating system to pull this off? Well, I (Bryce) better look the other way on this one.
In the picture, Brian is baking up a batch of black coated fasteners. Up close you can see they are black and shiny. Yet this is only the first coat, another is to follow.
Why We Chose Dip Spin Coating
We deal in high alloy fasteners. If you black zinc the fastener, you make it susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s an insidious problem in plating, where hydrogen migrates into the lattices of alloy steel, making it brittle. To relieve it, the plater must bake the parts in an oven immediately after their coated. In our case, they didn’t. These brittle fasteners traveled to Roush Racing. When the head of a torqued socket cap screw popped off and hit the ceiling, we received a dreaded call. The whole batch was ruined. We frantically expedited manufacturing, heat treating, plating, testing, and delivery. That was the last straw. We went after the best new coating system out there. Normally it would be very expensive to institute. With some outside the box thinking we developed a cost efficient process that is now on line…thanks to Brian.
The result is a coating that works on stainless and alloy. It’s more anti-corrosive than most coatings and looks better than Black Zinc or Black Oxide. We also can get it out in 2 days, rather than waiting weeks from the plater.
We decided to name it BryKote™…although BrianKote would be more appropriate. My accountant buddy said all business decisions should make economic sense. Maybe this will someday, but right now it makes good customer sense.
