DIN - Deutsches Institut Normung (German Institute for Standards)

The vast majority of metric fasteners are presently manufactured to this standard which was created long before ISO standards. There are DIN standards for just about everything. DIN standards are currently being revised to more closely match ISO standards.
For ordering fasteners all you need is:

1. The DIN( which defines the style of the fastener)
2. The material desired (i.e. 8.8 Steel, 316 Stainless, Hastelloy C276)
3. The coating or plating (if any)

ISO - International Standard Organization

Founded in 1946 this organization publishes standards which individual countries have to vote on and are asked to apply. Currently ISO is comprised of more than 90 member countries. ISO standards for metric fasteners are rapidly gaining more recognition and in the years to come will probably become the world standard.

ANSI - American National Standard Institute

A US organization that has developed standards which are essentially in agreement with ISO standards.

JIS - Japanese Industrial Standard

Although mainly based on DIN some standards have been modified based on the needs of the Japanese market. Fasteners used in most electronic equipment manufactured in Japan fall under the JIS standard.

All of the standards listed above detail an items?dimensional specifications and material content. These standards are accepted worldwide and ensure you that any items that are ordered according to a particular standard will meet the specifications in compliance to the listed standards regardless of the manufacturer. Although there are many different standards for metric they are all manufactured to the same thread. The DIN spec may call for a certain head dimension and ANSI spec another but a 10x1.25 ANSI hex bolt will always thread into a DIN 10x1.25 hex nut and vice versa.

Metric screw threads are identified by the capital letter M, followed by the nominal diameter which can be further defined by the thread pitch. If no thread pitch is specified the thread is assumed to be coarse thread.

The pitch is the distance from one crest of the thread to the crest of the next thread.

Please see our Technical Information section for thread pitch identification charts.

For metric fasteners there are usually 2 pieces of information.

1. A manufacturer marking which simply indicated the company that manufactured the fastener.
2. The strength class which consists of two numbers separated by a decimal point. Common classes are 4.8, 8.8, 10.9, and 12.9. The number of the left indicates 1% of the tensile strength in MPa, or N/mm2. The number on the right indicates the proportion of the yield strength in relation to the tensile strength.

Fuller Metric Parts Ltd. is not ISO certified at this time. We are working towards certification but this will not be available in the very near future. As a distributor, we have always taken great care in purchasing to ensure that our vendors supply goods which conform to quality standards. The following steps are in place to ensure a quality product:

1. Almost all of our current vendors (over 90%) are currently ISO certified. As we do not modify the products in any way the vendor? certification remains intact for these items.
2. Head markings are required for tracing according to the DIN/ISO specifications, these markings can easily be traced back to the manufacturer.
3. Lot number tracking is maintained throughout our system and certificates are online internally.
4. Material and mechanical tests are controlled according to the standards when the goods are manufactured.
5. Only vendors with good quality records are maintained. We do not change vendors solely on pricing but assure that all quality aspects are met before we purchase any products.
6. Our quality control system is fully documented and records are kept on all internal testing. The level of testing is determined by our acceptance of the manufacturers own quality control procedures and our historical test data. Full test certificates are maintained in our hands or the manufacturers. We have two sets of No-Go Gauges, two hardness-testing machines and calipers that allow us to verify thread, dimensional and hardness tolerances.
7. We have constant training sessions to insure our staff is well trained.
8. Shipping mistakes by our staff are tracked and corrective action is taken immediately. We are running at 1-2 mistakes per 1000 line items pulled. This includes any mistakes throughout the whole process.
9. We have switched to a new computer system WDSII by Next Trend Software that will give us 100% traceability throughout our system with bar code labeling.
10. We insure that all lot traceability is maintained if we repackage products.

We have supplied fasteners for over twenty-five years to customers that have tested and measured our products and the rate of rejection has been extremely low. By insuring the quality of the products when we purchase them and training our staff to identify defects we have been able to virtually eliminate any problems with quality. Our intention is to take this vision further and comply with ISO 9000.