Screw Fit vs Press Fit Tail lamp assembly

Sometime ago you have read about how trouser manufacturers adopted few simple strategies to ensure higher sales of trousers. [link]In this post we’ll see a similar change in Auto industry.

Screw Fit
Traditionally, the tail lamp assembly of a vehicle used to be screw fit, i.e. several individual components (casing, bulbs, cover lens) assembled and held together with a screw. See image. This type of assembly has a unique advantage- it is very easy and inexpensive to replace a damaged component. (if a particular lens , say of reverse light indicator, is broken, only that component can be replaced with a new one- you can just buy that particular lens, remove the old one and add new one, just using a screw driver.

Now have a look at the latest trend-The currently adopted technology for tail lamp assembly is called Press Fit.

It involves thermally fusing various components of the assembly using heat and pressure. The press fit assembly looks cute, trendy and attractive. Manufacturers are able to launch new versions of a model by just changing tail lamp combination and not having to invest in a new die. However there’s one major disadvantage here- it is not possible to replace individual components of the assembly- if something is broken, you need to change the whole set, which costs few thousand rupees.I can’t really blame auto makers for this, but nevertheless felt this small observation is worth bringing to the notice of the public. Hence this post.