Patent ID: 7514649

Claim:
A method of assembling a first part and a second part, the method comprising the steps of: a. providing a nut having a nut body portion; b. preparing a powder material solidifiable with a laser beam; c. loading the material into a tank; d. tracing a laser beam onto the material to solidify the material in a pattern; e. moving additional powder material above the solidified material; f. integrally forming the first part having a bolt hole defining a bolt hole axis and a nut retaining bracket having at least one side wall which protrudes outwardly from the first part generally parallel with the bolt hole axis by repeating steps e and d; g. engaging the nut to the at least one side wall of the nut retaining bracket while permitting limited displacement of the nut with respect to the at least one side wall of the nut retaining bracket; and h. engaging a mating bolt to the nut to assemble the first part to the second part.