Fastners as they are regularly misspelt are available in many materials including plastic, spring 
steel, stainless steel and brass, and are used in most products that are manufactured today.
The automotive industry is a big user of Fastners, as is the aerospace, domestic appliance, white goods and brown goods sectors, the marine industry usually use stainless steel Fastners in grades 304 or 316 stainless steel and some applications require Fastners to be manufactured in Duplex or Super Duples Stainless steel.
Spring Steel Fastners are finished with oil or plated with a coating to give them protection to the desired salt spray resistance. Plastic Fastners are usually manufactured in nylon although polycarbonates Fastners are also used in the signage, shop fitting or display sectors.
Of course the correct spelling of Fastners is Fasteners but as so many people miss one of the ‘e’s out of Fasteners it is important to recognise this.
About ten years ago Fastenex used to be the main exhibition in the UK where all of the main players in the industry such as TFC or the Fastener Centre as they are also know used to be joined by Heyco, Moss Plastics or the Plastic Parts Centre and Jet Press; companies like Richco who are now owned by Essentra Components who also now own Moss Plastics also used to attend this show as did Bulte and Speciality Fasteners.
FAST Exhibition is now the event where designers, buyers and key specifiers from manufactures and design houses attend to get update with new Fastner products, you don’t tend to see students that are after free samples at this event as all visitors are pre-registered and must be from within the industry.
Specialist adhesives, tapes and hardware such as locks, ball bearing slides, handles, knobs and hinges are now promoted in FAST Magazine and at the FAST Exhibitions.
Mark Newby has for a long time been involved with FAST, now the sales director, of what is one of the best Fastner or Fastener magazines available in the UK.
Mansfield base company Hall-Fast have been supplying specialist Fastners since for coming up to ten years now, but owner Malcolm Hall MBE has been within the Fastener industry for over twenty years; Hall-Fast boast a standard range of 29,000 Fastners from leading brands such as bighead Bonding Fasteners and A Raymond Fasteners, plastic, spring steel, nylon and rubber Fastners are within their core range, as are quarter turns and they also sell Oddie Fasners. Hall-Fast diversified their product range at the height of the UK recession back in January 2009; they now supply 200,000 industrial products to a growing customer base of 18,000 in 90 overseas markets.
