The customer manufactures and distributes quality kitchen utensils. The lemon-lime juicer they make is composed of two enamel covered zinc die castings that are pinned together. The original design utilized a semi-tubular aluminum Rivet as the hinge pin.
The aluminum Rivet is softer than the housing material and wears during normal use of the juicer. Radial grooves are cut into the aluminum Rivet at the point of contact with the host material. These grooves weaken the strength of the Rivet. The aluminum Rivet wore really quickly if the holes in the die castings were not aligned. The wear and/or hole misalignment resulted in a premature failure during use of the juicer, and actually failed while in the consumer’s hand. These quality failures negatively impacted the quality image under which this customer markets it products.
Another quality issue with the use of a Rivet in this soft assembly was a result of the fact that Rivets require secondary operations to head (or "clinch") the parts in order to hold the assembly together. At times, the juicer assembly was bent, chipped or otherwise damaged during this "clinching" process. The cost associated with the secondary clinching operation and scrap resulted in lower profits.
