Application Technology

ARaymond Automotive works together with its customers to provide fastening solutions for automotive applications. Recently, the company was approached by a customer to design a newly improved C-clip as part of a truck’s diesel exhaust fluid system.

C-clips are a type of retaining ring used to hold an assembly together consisting of a semi-flexible ring or clamp with open ends that can be snapped into place. A customer typically relies on this C-clip to retain certain tubes and wires as part of a truck’s diesel exhaust fluid systems. For the most part, this works fine but there was room for improvement as the original C-clip could hold only two tubes together.

“The customer wanted to know if we could design a clip that could retain multiple tubes,” says Jason Reznar, senior development engineer at ARaymond. “They wanted to turn this original clip into a quad clip for their application, which could hold up to four tubes. It’s quite rewarding to problem solve and develop or redesign products that quite simply work more effectively for our customers.”

“It’s critical to start such a project with as much information about the application as possible. For example, this customer had specific criteria we had to meet because the exhaust system is quite a complicated area, with only so much space and certain attachment and mounting requirements.”

Part of this criteria comprised of the tube dimensions and features including length, diameter size, material, as well as the location of other parts. “There are multiple things that we must factor in when it comes to tube or wire management. For this project, it was important to keep the tubes separated from one another, as opposed to using a tie strap. So, this meant designing a new clip, as well as properly orienting its placement in relation to the other tubes.”

Fortunately, the prototypes were fairly simple for ARaymond to create, thanks to its additive manufacturing capabilities, which helped expedite the process. Also referred to as rapid prototyping or 3D printing, the additive manufacturing process uses successive layers of material to create 3D objects. This capability allowed ARaymond to create a quick and cost-effective model of the quad-clip once designed and ship it to the client for testing before committing to the final product.