Self-Clinching Locking Floating Nuts - Series CFFS, CFFC
Captive Fastener brand of self clinching floating nuts provide an excellent design solution for applications where a mating misalignment is a possibility. The series is comprised of the CFAS, CFAC, CFFS, CFFC, CF4-AC, and CF4-FC types of floating and floating/ locking self clinching fasteners. The floating nuts allow for a misalignment of up to .030”/0.76mm in the assembly. For example if the design is a large electronic cabinet with a large door on the front, it is often beneficial to use the floating clinch nuts to allow for some minor misalignment of the holes in the cabinet and the door.
These fasteners are available in steel, stainless steel, and heat treated 400 series stainless steel material. The fasteners are made with an outer body with an inner nut that that floats to compensate for the misalignment and which allows for a successful assembly of the mating components.
Self Clinching Floating Nut Installation and Design Considerations
The proper installation of each series requires that the fasteners are harder than the panel into which it will be installed. For example the CFAS (steel) and CFAC (stainless ) floating clinch nuts can be installed into steel or aluminum panels with a maximum hardness of HRB 70. The CF4-AC and CF4-FC (400 series heat treated) floating clinch nuts can be installed into steel, stainless, or aluminum panels with a maximum hardness of HRB 88 or less. The CF4-AC and CF4-FC were specifically designed to be installed into stainless steel panels but they can also be installed into steel or aluminum panels. All of the series of floating clinch nuts are available in both inch and metric thread. They are also compliant to both REACH and RoHS specifications. The self clinching floating nuts provide strong reusable threads in panels as thin as .038” /.97mm.The fasteners are installed using a slow squeezing force which allows the parent metal to flow around the clinch profile of the fastener which captivates the part in the panel. After installation the floating clinch nuts retain their dimensional integrity as the fasteners, when properly installed do the deform and the parent metal flows around the clinch profile. The clinch fasteners allow for assembly and later servicing when required with no need to access both sides of the panel. The floating clinch nuts offer the additional benefit of eliminating loose hardware in the assembly which is especially important in electronic enclosures.
The proper hole sizes and minimum sheet thickness for each thread size is available in our catalog in the Dimensions & Specifications page. The installation and performance values are available in our catalog in the Installation & Performance Data section.