Last Updated on January 12, 2023 by Marsh Fasteners
Whether your business conducts major refurbishments on boats or offers niche marine solutions such as re-bedding services, it’s important to make sure you have the right fasteners.
“Marine fasteners” is a broad term that can include everything from screws, nuts and bolts to hanger bolts, rivets, togglers, and nails. The primary goal of any type of fastener is to clamp two materials to one another. Marine fasteners, however, come in a variety of thicknesses, lengths, and shapes. Therefore, it is important to understand the terminology around fasteners to make sure you are specifying the right one.
Some fasteners, such as hex bolts and flat head screws, are well-known in the industry and the name makes it easy to envision what they look like and what role they fulfill in boat building. Other fasteners, such as carriage bolts or cheese head screws, still have outdated names that make it tough to understand.
Stainless steel is often regarded as the best material to use when selecting fasteners for boat building. Other materials, such as bronze and zinc plated, have their merits and appropriate applications, but most boaters agree that stainless steel is the most durable (with the added benefit of being resistant to corrosion). When choosing the grade of stainless steel that you need, it is often better to go with higher grades as the higher the grade, the more corrosion resistance the fastener will offer. Fasteners usually come in three grades of stainless steel namely:
- 18-8,
- 304, and
- 316
It will, therefore, be best to choose stainless steel in grade 316 for boat building projects.
Many times, there will be more than one suitable fastener for a boat building project. The fastener you choose will depend on the functionality and aesthetics that you require. Get in touch with Marsh Fasteners to learn more about boat building fasteners today.
