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Amazon's Amazing Part Finder: Shoot a Fastener With Your Phone, It Identifies it, Provides Sizing/Buying Options
WHY DOES MCMASTER NOT HAVE THIS
Everything-in-the-world parts supplier McMaster-Carr is awesome…if you know the name of the part you're looking for. Years ago I had a small, racetrack-shaped piece of flat metal symmetrically pierced with two threaded holes, and I needed more of them. It took a lot of oddly-worded Google queries to figure out that it was called a "weld nut," and then I could finally figure out where to buy it.
Amazon has rolled out a new feature on their mobile app that aims to solve problems like these. Called Part Finder, it has you photograph a fastener with your phone (next to a penny for scale), then figures out what it is, how big it is, and offers up some buying and sizing options:
Thus far they can identify roughly 100 different types of fasteners.
What I'd love to see next: The system able to tell the difference between 10-24 and 10-32 threading, or a 5/8 hex head versus a 16mm.
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"Nuts" are at the very top of the McMaster-Carr splash page--well above the fold on any screen. You click there and then you get pictures of numerous different kinds of nuts, including weld nuts. This takes 2-3 seconds on a bad day. Staging that photo, doing the final identification yourself because the app isn't smart enough, then ordering and returning things repeatedly because you guessed wrong takes quite a while longer. That's probably why McMaster doesn't have it.
I've often said: If McMaster doesn't have it, you don't need it anyway.
I happen to drop by while in search of job related article and believe me i spend almost 15 minutes just to convince myself that amazon actually does provide such information in this form. Amazon is taking technology to next level.
Jobrino.com
Marketing Analyst
Never heard of McMaster-Carr. OMG! Fun site!
Hmmm. COuldn't make it work. Maybe I need to update my app. It thought it was a shoe.
First, they'll need an option to buy a roll of pennies because I can't remember the last time I had one in my house.
Finally someone has come up with a good use for pennies!