POP® Avdel® – Riveting Giants Join Forces

STANLEY Engineered Fastening, a Stanley Black & Decker company, has announced that it is joining two of the most famous brands in blind fastening, POP and Avdel, into a single entity. The new brand, which will be known as POP Avdel from this point forward, is now the largest in the market and will produce the broadest line of specialty engineered structural and non-structural blind fastening systems in the world.

These iconic brands are the largest and the oldest in blind fastening dating as far back as 1933 for POP and 1936 for Avdel. This union is designed to create an integrated product line with combined experience of almost 160 years. The merger promises to lead to even more innovative fastening solutions in the future as well as a consolidation and streamlining of existing product lines to help manufactures build more structurally-sound products.

Industries that stand to benefit most from this consolidation globally include aviation, automotive, ground transportation, recreational equipment, appliances, electronics, energy, medical equipment, HVAC, and steel constructions.

POP brand rivets are one-sided fastening devices that offer superior assembly performance over screws when joining two or more components that can be made of different materials.  The rivet is inserted into a pre-drilled hole through the parts to be joined. Then a specially designed tool is used to draw the center pin (stem) into the rivet body.  In doing so, the blind end of the rivet expands to create a secondary “closing” head to clamp the workpieces together.  At an engineered, predetermined breaking point, the stem snaps off.  The joined parts are then held firmly in place.

Within the industrial world, Avdel has wielded significant influence in its own right with its broad line of fasteners and tooling solutions which include: Speed Fastening® systems; breakstem and lockbolt systems; blind threaded inserts; Self Pierce rivet fastening systems; sealing plugs; as well as installation equipment and assembly stations.

Historically famous innovators

The consolidation of POP Avdel brings together two industrial giants that literally created the blind riveting industry, from the earliest days of the 20^th century.

The earliest concept of the POP rivet as a method for one-sided “blind” fastening was patented in 1916 by Major H.V. Wylie while working for British aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth. Later, between 1928 and 1934, the George Tucker Eyelet Company, a subsidiary of United Shoe Manufacturing Company, fully developed the blind POP brand rivet.

In the 1930s, the aviation industry began transitioning from wood to metal structures. The joining of these metal parts called for a new generation of fasteners and accompanying tools to replace conventional rivets, which required access to both sides of the part. Blind rivets provided the ideal solution because the installer only needed to access one side of the two parts being joined.

The effectiveness of the POP riveting system was evidenced by the production of 3 billion rivets between 1939 and 1945. Countless British and American aircraft were assembled and repaired with blind rivets during World War II. After the war, blind rivets became a commercial success as a fastener for sheet metal and plastics used in the automotive, appliance manufacturing and building sectors.

In close parallel with POP’s success, Aviation Developments Limited was founded in 1936 to manufacturer a range of “speed” fasteners, specifically for the burgeoning aviation industry. Soon afterward, the company shortened its official name to Avdel.

Avdel quickly introduced its Chobert Speed Fastening system. Employed during the war on many new aircraft, especially fighter planes such as the famous Spitfire, the system still enjoys wide use throughout the world today.

In recent years the trend towards new assembly materials such as composites, high-strength thin gauge steels, and die-cast magnesium presented new challenges. Avdel has been at the forefront of product development to meet these new requirements by launching solutions like NeoSpeed, Versa-Nut threaded inserts, Maxlok lockbolts, Rivscrew PL, and Klamp-Tite.

With the joining of POP Avdel and other strategic acquisitions, STANLEY Engineered Fastening has emerged as one of the world’s leading fastener manufacturers.  The company currently employs more than 5,000 employees in 27 operating facilities along with a worldwide network of authorized distributors in over forty countries. 

In addition to POP Avdel, the fastener brand portfolio includes such globally recognized names as HeliCoil, Tucker, Dodge, Gripco, Spiralock, Assembly Technologies, Warren, Nippon POP Rivet (NPR), and Masterfix.  

For more information, contact STANLEY Engineered Fastening, 4 Corporate Drive, Shelton, Connecticut; Phone: (203) 925-2260; Fax: (203) 925-2279; or www.StanleyEngineeredFastening.com.