Dowels are commonly used in many industries including automotive, aerospace, agriculture and transportation. They act as axles or hinges, holding and aligning assembled parts in place—if you're a manufacturer working with components of any kind, chances are you're already familiar with precision dowels. But if you want to learn more about these simple yet highly effective fasteners, read on:
Dowel pins are manufactured as solid cylindrical metal pins of precise diameter and length. They are available in a variety of sizes, styles and materials.
Locating pin size:
Standard dowel sizes include metric sizes from M1 to M20 diameters - or 1/16" to 1" diameters in imperial sizes - with different length options. We specialize in custom small diameter Precision Dowels ranging in diameter from 0.80mm to 6.00mm and lengths up to 150mm, and can provide non-standard sizes when 'off the shelf' options do not meet the needs of specialized applications.
Radius or Chamfer - What's the Difference?
There are many options to consider when selecting a dowel. Precision pins are produced with double chamfers or rounded corners, or with a chamfer on one end and a rounded corner on the other.
Both finishes are designed to remove sharp edges and facilitate dowel insertion. Radii are designed to be rounded at the ends, while chamfers are sloped finishes created at corners.
Threaded and Tapered Dowels
Threaded pins are useful if at any point after installation the pin needs to be removed from the blind hole. In this case, a pin can be tapped with an internal thread, then quickly removed with a dowel pin extraction tool, and the pin can then be reused.
Tapered dowels have a slightly larger diameter end, typically 1 in 50 on metric sizes and 1 in 48 on imperial sizes. They are commonly used for low torque positioning and locking in many types of mechanical assemblies.
Installing Precision Locating Pins
Dowel pin installation is designed for quick and easy installation; simply press the pin in for best results - do not force the pin into the hole. The simplicity of these types of pins means that no complex or secondary operations are required, which means faster production times.
