Spring-Fast wire protection grommet edging continues to grow dramatically.
Sales have doubled from 2023 to 2025 –> 104%- driven by significant aircraft interiors & seating growth. Seating OEMs are switching because Spring-Fast is significantly better than using nylon grommets & the required adhesive. It installs fast without adhesive, yielding a 9.5x productivity increase, at least 49% cost savings & best-in-class performance with no failures in over 30 years.
What Products Have Grown?
This growth has been driven by two closely related products: the M22529 and the SL Series.
The M22529 MilSpec series was expanded in 2023 with a third FAA/EASA Approved MilSpec grommet, M22529/3. It provides multi-axis flexibility for edges on roll-formed and flanged penetrations which are common in many older -and frequently retrofitted- aircraft. M22529/3 complements Spring-Fast® M22529/1 and M22529/2, which are for edges that need only 2-axis flexibility.
The SL Series is growing in popularity. It is constructed using the same materials as the M22529/3; however, the major difference is that it is 100% encapsulated in a FAR 25-compliant flame-retardant TPE.
Impressive Client List
DTi has cultivated relationships with many of the top seating companies: Collins, Thomson, Adient, TSI, Recaro, Safran, Encore, Acro, Zim, and has proposals in play with Expliseat, Mirus, AliceBlue, Stelia and several others. These collaborative relationships contributed significantly to the 104% volume increase.
Why Does It Work So Well?
The success is predicated on the product's performance and its core benefits: snap-on installation without adhesive boosts productivity by 9.5X – nylon grommets require an adhesive; no adhesive means OEMs save at least 49% on total install costs, and it still yields best-in-class performance with no failures in over 35 years.
Grommets provide important chafe & abrasion protection for the EWIS and IFE/seating wiring. Chafe at even low levels can cause equipment discrepancies, maintenance delays, and poor passenger experiences.
Traditionally, aerospace has used nylon grommets (MS21266/ BACG20Z), which require an adhesive to stay on the edge and to do their job of preventing wiring chafe. Unfortunately, nylon grommets have a costly, labor-intensive, and multi-step process that ranges from edge prep to fixturing & special handling for solvents and adhesives, with added delays for curing. Worse still, nylon has a relatively high incidence of disbonding, which creates rework – increasing the cost of poor quality.
Spring-Fast was designed to solve all those problems. The polymer-encapsulated lightweight CRES substrate has castles that angle into the edge and create the MilSpec level edge retention without adhesive. The retention has been tested on 3-axis 20G static load tests. There are no weight issues as the M22529 series weighs less than a nylon grommet and its required adhesive. The SL series weighs the same.
“Everyone is looking for productivity growth and savings coupled with performance,” says Simon Jones, DTi Site Director, “Once OEMs see the 49% savings, 9.5X productivity increase and no failures in 35 years, they begin to wonder why they ever used nylon”.
Operationally, Spring-Fast offers other incremental benefits. Its finger-pressure install is ideal for tight access locations. It can easily be removed & refit without loss of performance. No fixturing or cure time delays means techs can immediately hang wire harnesses. It minimizes the FOD footprint as techs carry on far fewer shop consumables -gloves, tape, glue, solvent, etc. Less consumables reduces purchasing overhead. No adhesives or solvents and their related VOCs improve the safe work environment. It also reduces hazmat handling and disposal.
Interiors and seating OEMs as well as MROs and airlines are seeing the benefits of Spring-Fast and switching away from the old legacy glued nylon grommets. Free samples can be requested onsite.
Go here for more info: Spring-Fast Mil Spec grommets
Of note for the aero, defense, and security sectors, DTi has hit a high 74.17 JOSCAR score. JOSCAR is the supplier accreditation system used by top aero, defense, & security OEMs to assess supplier capability, quality, stability, cybersecurity, & supply chain assurance. 74.17 will give customers even greater confidence in choosing DTi.
