Tip: Click Bond Headset Hangers

[bsacks05]

Here is a product some of you may be familiar with.

http://www.clickbond.com/

While attending an advanced composites class for a week at Abaris Training in Griffin, Ga. a Click Bond rep gave a presentation to our class which included some free samples.
Click Bond makes fastening products such as nutplates, wire standoffs, etc.. which are bonded to the aircraft structure with their adhesive system. This eliminates the need for so many rivet holes. Click Bond products are used on the F-22, V-22, C-17, B787, and many others.

Here is a picture of their sample package. The orange "gummy worms" attached to the nutplates help hold it in place until the adhesive cures which takes about 10 minutes. You can also see a couple clear plastic fixtures which hold larger items in place until cured.



I used a couple of the items from the kit to make a pair of headset hangers. You can see from the picture that I bonded the circular pad which has a threaded rod onto the skin of the plane. The bead of adhesive around the disk is the excess. Between the skin and the disk is about .001 inch of adhesive which has lots of tension and torsional strength yet can be easily removed by lightly tapping a screwdriver with a hammer at the edge of the disk or nutplate.



I then made a pair of aluminum brackets to slip onto the rods with a washer and nut to hold it all together.



My son and I did a .5 hour ops check. Upon landing, we stowed the headsets on the new hangers and called the project a success!

Click Bond products are available through ACS. I just never paid much attention to them while looking through the ACS catalog. I would have loved to use their nutplates for my wingtip mounting. Sure would have been better than drilling all those little rivet holes.

[ww2planes]

I have a friend with a 4 that works at Clickbond. I am using their products on my wingtips and the rest of the tips that I can screw on. Their factory is right here on our field and they are very nice people to visit.

They will be at Osh with sample tips with their fasteners on them. Saves a lot of time and effort.

[Ironflight]

A certain "Space Agency" (not to be named) use the click-bond fasteners in the emergency hull patch kit aboard a certain "space station" (also not to be named) - this might give one confidence in the engineering and testing behind the system....

[MCA]

I used a bunch of them in my -7 and as long as the surface is prepped properly they work great. The Click Bond nutplates are great for retrofit work.

[Steve Ashby]

I have used Click-Bond nutplates on my Cessna and they are the bomb for retrofit applications. If they were not so expensive, I would use them for every nutplate in the RV. They are very easy to set, and I have never had one break loose. Again, my only reservation is their healthy cost.

[jarhead]

Little late to this party, but we (well, our Avionics shop...) use Click-Bonds a LOT for avi installs in helicopters. Good product.