1/4/2010
HEADLINES
Bickford, Barrett, Shieh, Saravanan, Agrawal, Weingruber & Bogatz Honored With 2009 FTI Technical Achievement Awards

Fastener Technology International magazine presented its 4th annual FTI Technical Achievement Awards to seven fastener industry leaders.

 • John Bickford, former vice president of Raymond Engineering Inc. and manager of its Bolting Products division, was recognized for authoring references for theory and application of bolted joints.

Bickford holds 15 U.S. and foreign patents and wrote the Handbook of Bolts & Bolted Joints, Gaskets & Gasketed Joints and An Introduction to the Design & Behavior of Bolted Joints. He is an ASME member and founder and chairman emeritus of the Bolting Technology Council. He received the 2005 Industrial Fasteners Institute Soaring Eagle Technology award.

• Richard Barrett was recognized for authoring the NASA RP1228 Fastener Design Manual as well as numerous articles and chapters. Barrett retired from the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1997.
He also was a consultant and lecturer through Barrett Engineering Consulting.  He died in 2007.

• Robert Shieh was recognized for promoting computer technology as president of Brighton-Best International.  In 18 months BrightonBest.com’s online sales grew from zero to 70% of total sales.

Shieh came to the U.S. in 1981 as a salesman for nut forming equipment for San Shing Fastech Corp.  In the mid-1980s he became a one-man company sleeping in a warehouse for two years while selling stainless steel cast fittings and other products from Taiwan.

Shieh convinced his family to turn their family farm into a stainless steel welded pipe factory and start Ta Chen Stainless Pipe Company which grew to a U.S.$1 billion in annual sales and 3,000 employees. In 2007 he acquired Brighton-Best.

• Subramanian Saravanan, deputy manager of strategic sourcing for India-based Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicle Pvt. Ltd., researched diesel engine fastener design and assembly tools to increase the standardization of fasteners and reduce the variety of fasteners by 50%.

• Atul Kumar Agrawal, general manager of design & development at India-based Sundram Fasteners Limited, developed a “Knurls forming” concept combining forging and knurling in a single operation. Agrawal also introduced the “Bi-Hex Forming” to improve raw material yield.

His work resulted in a cylinder head bolt eliminating the problem of cable lug snapping off during assembly and the Bi-Metal piston bolt using an angle method to overcome friction during tightening to ensure required torque.

His research also solved the banjo bolt fuel leakage problem with a split washer design.

• Fred Weingruber developed engineering standards for structural fasteners.

He was an ASTM member for 40 years and ASTM created the Weingruber Award to honor his contributions to the specifications committee for engineering and structural fasteners.

Weingruber established the Fred F. Weingruber Engineering Legacy Fund at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering where a classroom in Bendeum Hall is named for him.

• Larry Bogatz, chief design engineer and CEO of Sealtight Technology, is credited for designing thousands of fastener products and holds multiple patents for specialty self-sealing fasteners.

His interest in sealing and locking began with building model airplanes as a child.

Early in his fastener career while working daytime at a fastener plant, Bogatz would grind and stamp fastener heads during the evenings at home with primitive machinery to design better fastener heads.

He started B&B Hardware and received three patents for a fail-seal for high-tech applications. ©2010 GlobalFastenerNews.com