Zipbolt UT connectors are a program of gear driven connectors with the advantage of being able to be driven in at a right angle. This means where there is restricted access to turn a nut or bolt, the connectors allow the user to tension the fastener with speed and ease. The UT Railbolt and UT Angled Railbolt both have a wood screw thread which anchors into a newel post or the end grain of an handrail. Then the mating member is bored to take the gear housing. After this, it is simply assembled, achieving an angled or right angled joint.
The two products were developed primarily due to the demand of the US stair industry, which was looking for ease and increased efficiency. The original Zipbolt was first displayed in the US at the Atlanta IWFS trade fair three years ago. During the fair the company had numerous enquiries from the stair industry which pointed out they were in need of better connectors, says Milan Pilja, manager at Zipbolt.
The company heeded the demand for a new product and designed the UT Railbolt and UT Angled Railbolt. Other applications for the connectors are in joinery and shopfitting applications where sections of wood mouldings need to be joined at any angle. For example, in hotel bars or reception counter shop fronts.
The unique feature of the products is the way the connectors can be tightened using an Allen key or hex bit at 90 degrees to the shaft, allowing total freedom for rotation. The integrated gears are heat treated so they can produce a high torque level while they are rotating in the glass/nylon housing. Zipbolt's inward facing gears allow them to be arranged in a small housing space and upon tensioning, the gears can only draw closer together, ensuring constant engagement. The connectors are also hidden from view underneath the handrail and are then plugged with a wood plug.
“The design is new because no one else has ever commercially manufactured [a product like it] and made available a hex key gear driven connector. All connectors are simple nuts and bolts that have to be conventionally tightened,” Pilja says. “The shaft on the Railbolt features an external hex so that the shaft can be screwed into the material with a spanner, compared to using vice grips, as is done at the moment.”
Pilja says new products in the fastening industry are innovative and manufacturing technology and the building boom in China has had a large impact on the fixings industry. “Firstly in price. Difficult and traditionally expensive methods of manufacture have become inexpensive so it has been possible to experiment with more complicated designs,” Pilja says. “A range of methods in metallurgy has allowed the manufacture of complicated parts in a mass production sense, for example, metal powder cintering and metal injection moulding. I am sure with the advent of new materials, development will allow further variations to traditional design practices, and with these changes are born new fixings.”
Into the future, Pilja says changes to fastenings and fixings will always be governed by the manufacturing requirements of individual industries and trends. “For example, at the moment, an environmentally friendly hollow core board is on the market with the advantages of being lightweight and robust looking, so the challenge now is to design and manufacture a range of fasteners/connectors for this side of the furniture industry.”
The Zipbolt connectors are currently in the process of being patented in Australia.
