When I was setting up my 4WD Volvo, I asked advice from a wise 4WD journalist. He told me that no matter how new or well-prepared your vehicle was, you should expect about one breakdown per month. He was pretty well right. In one month we had a flat tyre, in the next month the bearing from the eccentric in the diaphragm water pump that worked the shower fell out, and this month the door handle had just fallen off. It would be no big deal to re-install the handle, but it set me thinking about fasteners.
Fasteners cover everything from nails to rivets and bolts.
A phone is held together with about 75 fasteners, a car with 3,500, and a jet plane with 1,500,000. The SR-71 Mach 3 spy plane is built of titanium, with titanium nuts and bolts. The sockets also have to be made from titanium, because the nickel in standard sockets corrodes the titanium bolts. In fact, I have titanium screws in my skull, but that's another story. In the USA, about 600 companies make fasteners.