AFTE Store - A Plant Engineer’s Guide to Powder-Actuated Fastenings

Tools that shoot a fastener into the workpiece are not new. Powderactuation,as it is called, was used t make emergency repairs to naval vessles before the First World War. During the Second World War it was used in the construction of Liberty Ships, and its use has been increasing ever since. The increase was slow at first; but it has now become-please pardon the work-almost explosive. A powder-actuated fastening tool can be defined as one that uses the expanding gases from a charge of gunpowder to drive a fastener. Most-but not all-of these use crimped, cased power loads (often called boosters) of .25 caliber or less.