October 20 - 24th, 2025 M 1-6pm, Tu-Th 8am-4pm, Fr 8-11am, All times CST Fundamentals of Threaded Fasteners and Joint Design
Course Overview
This 5-day course equips engineers, designers, and technical professionals with the essential knowledge and hands-on tools to understand, specify, assemble, and troubleshoot threaded fasteners and bolted joints, with a focus on dynamically loaded mechanical bolted joints and preventing failures in real-world scenarios. It combines core engineering concepts with practical demonstrations and group problem-solving, diving deep into fastener terminology, technology, and in-class design calculations and strategies. Participants learn to design reliable joints through case studies, in-class exercises, and demonstrations of preload scatter and relaxation. Although the VDI-2230 standard will often be referenced, the course will not provide a detailed presentation of this standard. The class will conclude with a group capstone project, a realistic bolted joint that applies many of the concepts, methods, and calculations covered during the class.
Target Audience
This course was developed for engineers or technical staff tasked with the design, specification, procurement, quality, or assembly of threaded fastened joints.
Prerequisites
This is an intermediate technical level course that includes equations that need to be solved with algebra. Individuals with some prior experience with fasteners and bolted joint design may find this course easier, but there is something everyone can learn from it.
In-Person or Online Learning
Students may choose to attend in person or via a live online stream concurrent with the in-person training. The in-person session will be held in the training facilities at Matrix Engineering Consultants, 12986 Valley View Road, Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344.
Professional Development Hours (PDHs)
The five-day in-person and online learning event is worth 28 PDHs.
Course Instructors
Jon Ness
PE, PMP, NPDPJon is a Managing Governor and Principal Engineer at Matrix Engineering and has over 34 years of experience in business and engineering team leadership. His career has been focused on the development of off-highway equipment and powertrains. He has unique technical expertise in designing and validating dynamically loaded bolted joints. In his consulting role, Jon has led numerous joint failure investigations, including re-design efforts to mitigate risks to the system owners. He actively participates in ongoing research projects and has taught many classes related to Failure Modes and Effects Analysis and Bolted Joint Design and Validation. He received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from South Dakota State University. A licensed engineer in Minnesota, Jon is an active member of the UL2703 Standards Technical Panel, a contributor to the ASCE Manual of Practice for Solar PV Structures, and a Certified Fastener Specialist through the Fastener Training Institute.
Laurence Claus
Mr. Claus has over 35 years in the fastener industry. He spent the first 26 years with a fastener manufacturer, becoming an expert in threaded fasteners, especially those in the automotive and aerospace market segments. For the last 10 years, he has served the industry as both trainer and consultant, as the President of his company, NNi Training and Consulting Inc., and as the Industrial Fastener Institute’s Director of Training and Education. Additionally, Mr. Claus is the current Chairman of the SAE Fastener Committee, Vice Chairman of the ASTM Fastener Committee F16, Subcommittee Chairman of ASME B18.6 of the ASME Fastener Committee B18, and Subcommittee Chairman of ASTM F16.91 of ASTM Fastener Committee F16. For this course, Mr. Claus will share his expertise in topics such as the fundamentals of threads, fundamentals of bolts, screws, and nuts, fastener materials, metallurgy, and heat treatment, making sense of the various bolt strength classes, and fastener platings and coatings.