At Omni Fasteners, we thrive where standard solutions fall short. One such challenge came in the form of a request for custom dowel pins—non-standard in size, high in complexity, and critical in function. These weren’t your average fasteners. These were mission-critical components destined for some of the most demanding applications in the world: vehicle-mounted aerial lifts, bucket trucks, aircraft propellers, construction inspection platforms, state-of-the-art audio systems, and even military vehicles.
The Challenge: Customization Meets Compliance
The customer required more than just precision. These dowel pins had to meet an extensive list of specifications:
- Non-standard dimensions that couldn’t be sourced off the shelf
- DFARS-compliant domestic material
- Full traceability, including:
- Country of origin
- Material Test Reports (MTRs)
- Chemical composition and physical property verification
- Secondary processes, including heat treating for hardness and precision grinding for tight tolerances
Every detail mattered—both for regulatory compliance and for ensuring the pins would hold up under demanding real-world use.
The Solution: Swiss Precision in Action
We turned to our Swiss-style CNC machines—the ideal solution for tight-tolerance, high-precision work. Our experienced machinists programmed the Swiss lathes to turn each dowel pin with pinpoint accuracy, ensuring consistency across the entire batch.
Here’s how we delivered:
- Material Sourcing: We sourced DFARS-compliant domestic steel, backed by full material test reports. Every lot came with documentation that detailed itschemical and physical properties, traceable all the way back to the domestic mill of origin.
- Machining Process: Using our Swiss machines, we achieved the tight diametric tolerances and fine finishes required. Swiss turning allowed us to maintain exceptional consistency—critical for parts used in aerospace and military systems where even the slightest variation can lead to failure.
- Heat Treating: The dowel pins underwent controlled heat treatment to achieve the specified hardness and mechanical properties. This was performed at a NADCAP-accredited partner facility and included full certification of results.
- Grinding and Finishing: Post-heat treatment, the dowel pins were centerless ground to final size. This ensured a flawless surface finish and sub-thousandth accuracy. Each pin was then visually and dimensionally inspected before packaging.
- Certification and Traceability: Alongside the finished parts, we delivered acomplete documentation package including:
- Mill certs
- Heat treat certs
- Grinding and final inspection reports
- DFARS compliance statements
- Country of origin documentation
The Result: A Trusted, Traceable Component
These dowel pins are now hard at work in critical systems around the world—from the booms of bucket trucks keeping linemen safe, to the flight surfaces of aircraft, to the core of vibration-isolated audio components. Our ability to meet strict compliance requirements while delivering precision-machined components on time and to spec is what sets us apart.
At Omni Fasteners, we don’t just make parts—we make parts that perform in the field, in the air, and in the most demanding environments imaginable. Talk to our team about custom fastener solutions for your business.