About Us

The Tappex office

Tappex Thread Inserts Limited is a UK-based company and is part of the privately owned Tappex group of companies established for over 60+ years serving both UK and International manufacturing supply chains and OEM customers alike, from their Stratford upon Avon HQ. Tappex has wholly-owned subsidiaries located in the UK, Sweden (Tappex Sweden) & Finland (Tappex Finland); Tappex also has a well-established global network of independent technical distribution-partners & sales agents since 1980’s.

We are specialists in the manufacture of threaded inserts for plastics, woods, light metal alloys & composite materials and provide high level technical advice and exceptional customer service. Our in house applications engineers and technically qualified field-sales staff are here to help our customers achieve cost effective solutions for thread insert applications across a wide range of industries, helping customers solve fastening problems by design, quality and service.

Products

Thread inserts for plastics

Tappex® offers a broad range of threaded inserts for plastics to suit mould-in and post-mould installation dependant on the customer’s application requirements as well as their in-house manufacturing process
considerations.

Thread inserts for metals

Tappex® have thread inserts designed for critical applications in light-metal alloys such as: Aluminium, Zinc & Magnesium when they are subsequently manufactured as castings, extrusions, machined or fabricated parts.

Thread inserts for woods & composites

Tappex®, as a fastenings technical-leader,  has identified bespoke requirements for mechanical joining of contemporary materials such as glass-reinforced plastics (GRP), combinations of metal alloys / plastics, structural foams / woods / paper-based sandwich constructions and increasingly carbon / kevlar-fibre laminated constructions.

Thread inserts for special applications

For applications where stress-prone or brittle, glass-filled thermoplastics are specified, Tappex have developed special-variant threaded inserts to suit these more demanding materials. Such threaded inserts can be supplied either in either brass or steel material(s) for post-mould ‘self-threading’ and/or ‘press-in’ installation. Typical applications are either machined or moulded plastic(s) applications at ambient temperature or installed with heat applied.

Installation tooling for thread inserts

The Tappex range of installation tools includes: FlexiArm® (035 series) , Production drivers (029), Hand tools (030/031 series) and a 3rd generation heat installation machine to be introduced early November 2019. Our installation tools enable the installation of threaded inserts by either heat press-in or self-tapping (threading) methods.

Tappex Products - Future Developments

Samples

Tappex can supply samples to suit your application and / or initial assessment needs. To request samples, please choose a product then configure it to your specification using our product selector, then choose Order sample /quotation form details. If the part nos are in stock then we typically will despatch in 1-2 working days upon receipt of your request.

Order Sample

Latest News

How Tappex helped save the smooth production of 1500 luxury SUVs per week

Discover how Tappex’s Technical Advisory Service can prevent small issues from becoming big multi-million-pound problems… In the world of automotive engineering design, it’s sometimes the smallest components that can cause the biggest headaches. This exact issue was experienced by a leading global automotive manufacturer when a seemingly insignificant part threatened to jeopardise the quality of […]

The Rise of Reshoring: Why Bringing Manufacturing Back to the UK Makes Sense

The past few years have been a wake-up call for global supply chains. Disruptions caused by geopolitical events, pandemics, and natural disasters have exposed the vulnerabilities of relying solely on overseas manufacturing, often termed “offshoring.” As a result, a new trend is emerging: reshoring, the process of bringing production back to the UK. Why Did Offshoring […]

Unlocking the Potential: Enhancing 3D Printed products with Threaded Inserts

The advent of 3D printing has revolutionised the manufacturing landscape, enabling the creation of intricate and customised designs with unprecedented ease. While 3D printing offers remarkable flexibility, there are limitations when it comes to creating robust threaded connections directly within printed parts. Enter threaded inserts, the unsung heroes of 3D printed applications. In this blog […]

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What Others Say

Charlie Woodsman

Designer

While inserts from other companies have damaged the materials I work with, Tappex identified a product which meets my technical needs perfectly. The Tappex staff were knowledgeable, courteous and extremely helpful.
BW

MechanicalDesigner

Your whole team has been nothing but kind, helpful and cheerful, and it has really helped to reduce the amount of panic at this end.
R.Keyte

CEng FIMMM Engineering Consultant.

I would like to recommend the services both technical and sales support I have received from Tappex.
I received concise answers to my questions regarding installation tolerances they also suppled CAD data which saved me further time.
After all the support they were still happy to quote for the small quantities involved with my current design work.

A first rate job by all involved, thank you.

Simon

Snr. Designer, Technical-Injection Moulding Co., UK

A great range of performance products with the added benefit of an excellent technical-support service.