Technology

What is Joinlox?

Joinlox is a simple and cost-effective method of joining and locking things together, including objects like electrical boxes, enclosures and pipes, and can greatly reduce costs of handling, transport and storage.

It can also be used in much larger objects like industrial pipes and fittings, vehicle shells, walls and bridges. Joinlox technology is an alternative, and can be complementary, to traditional joining methods such as nuts, bolts, screws, rivets, welding and adhesives.

A Joinlox join is essentially a spring-loaded joint. It is formed by wedging together two or more parts that have intermeshing, castellated edge hooks. These are then made fast with a matching castellated Joinlox key. The castellations of the key fit the castellations of the parts to be joined.

In simple terms, the Joinlox key flexes slightly as it is wedged into place to pre-stress the parts to counteract the anticipation loads imposed on the joint. This spring-tensioning force is a crucial part of the Joinlox technology and distinguishes it from a normal hinge, which it superficially resembles (in a hinge, the pin experiences only shear force at the junctions of the hinge castellations, rather than a flexural force.)

In addition to being able to join compatible materials, Joinlox technology can also join traditionally incompatible materials, as well as objects that have complex curved edges.

The advantages of Joinlox technology include: cost-savings, strength, compactness, environmental, technical superiority and ease of assembly and servicing.

Joinlox cuts costs in: manufacturing; materials; transport (products can be made in parts, flat-packed for transport and then assembled on-site by low-skilled labour); servicing (products can be disassembled, repaired and re-assembled on-site); and recycling.

A Joinlox join is straightforward to produce using existing mass production techniques, such as injection moulding, forging, pressing, casting, compression moulding, extrusion, roll forming, punching and laser cutting.

Joint Details

There are three main components in a simple Joinlox join:

1. A series of intermeshing castellated hooks

These are formed along the face of the parts to be joined. Where extra strong joints are required, the joining hooks can be formed on both sides of the joint faces and locked with two separate Joinlox keys.

2. A Joinlox key

Joinlox keys can be linear, curved or flexible and are castellated so that they match the castellations in the parts to be joined. Joinlox keys are inserted laterally into the castellated keyways formed when the castellated hooks mesh from the two parts to be joined. The non-castellated parts of the key are made to have a clearance fit between the alternate hooks. The alternately spaced castellated lobes of the key, however, are designed to give an interference fit between the lobes on the key and the contact surface under the hooks. As the key is pushed, or drawn, a short distance along the keyway (the pitch of the castellations), it wedges the two rows of hooks apart and tightly locks the surfaces of the two parts. As the tensile strength of the locks is normally higher than the flexural modulus of the key, the residual tension and the amount of ‘spring’ in the locked joint is largely predetermined by the physical properties, and in particular, the flexural modulus of the material from which the key is made.

3. A joint face, or series of faces

Products that require sealing – including those made of plastic, metal and fabric – can be joined easily with Joinlox. The two or more adjacent (joining) faces incorporate a seal groove behind the hooks. This can be moulded, fabricated or mechanically applied to the part, much the same as a gasket seal. The method of sealing be can modified or changed to suit the end application, including those requiring high pressure, low pressure or a vacuum.