Taiwan Rep / Notes

27 Taiwan companies are on the US Fastener Quality Act register. Does your supplier need to be?

The USPTO's register of fastener head marks lists 311 insignia records, and 38 of them have Taiwan addresses, more than any country except the US. Plenty of Taiwan bolt makers aren't on it, and that isn't necessarily a problem. Here's which fasteners the Act covers, what it requires when it applies, and what to ask a Taiwan supplier.

Updated October 13, 2026. Register counts are from the USPTO's August 2026 edition of the register of active fastener insignia; law text from the US Code and the eCFR, read that day.

Buyers of grade-marked bolts for the US sometimes get one of two questions: from a customer, "is this FQA compliant?", or from a supplier, "our head mark is registered with the USPTO." Neither is a complete answer. The Fastener Quality Act was rewritten by amendments in 1999, and today most of what it requires depends on whether a part is covered at all. We read the Act, its regulations and the current register. This note covers what the register shows for Taiwan, which fasteners the Act covers, what it requires when it applies, and what to ask your supplier.

What the register shows

The USPTO keeps the Fastener Insignia Register under the Act's regulations (15 CFR 280, subpart D) and publishes it as a PDF. The edition we read is dated August 2026 and runs to 75 pages in three sections: alphanumeric codes the USPTO issues (01EC, 01WB and so on), trademarks recorded as images, and word marks. Large parts of it are scanned images rather than text, so we read every page. It lists 311 owner records, including one (01ZN) whose owner reads "n/a". We grouped them by the owner's listed address:

Two registrations, Chu Hua's UH mark and NEWFAST's NW mark, are each listed twice, once as an image and once as a word mark, so the 38 Taiwan records come to 36 distinct recordals held by 27 companies. Twenty-four of the 38 records have Kaohsiung addresses, many in Gangshan and Luzhu, 11 have Tainan addresses, and one each Hsinchu, Taichung and Taoyuan. Those are the owners' listed addresses, not necessarily where the parts are made. Thirteen show a recordal date in 2020 or later, the latest April 28, 2026.

Twenty-seven companies is a small number next to the industry. Our factory count found 366 plants in production, belonging to 308 business numbers, with fastener words in their registered names alone. The two counts use different units and can't be turned into a registration rate, and the gap doesn't mean anyone is breaking a rule. To see why, start with what the Act calls a fastener.

Which fasteners the Act covers

The definition in 15 U.S.C. 5402(6) is narrow. A "fastener" is a metallic screw, nut, bolt or stud with internal or external threads and a nominal diameter of 6 mm or more (¼ inch in inch sizes), or a load-indicating washer, that meets both of these:

• it is through-hardened, or represented as meeting a consensus standard that calls for through-hardening; and
• it is grade identification marked, or represented as meeting a consensus standard that requires grade marking.

The Act defines through-hardening as heating above the transformation temperature, then quenching and tempering, to get uniform hardness. Then it excludes several groups even if they meet the definition, including parts that are part of an assembly, spare and replacement parts unless sold in packages of more than 75 (or contained in an assembly kit), parts produced and marked as ASTM A 307 Grade A, parts made to ASTM F 432, aircraft fasteners whose quality has been approved by the FAA or a recognized foreign authority, and two broader exclusions:

• Fasteners manufactured under a fastener quality assurance system. The Act defines this as a system meeting ISO 9000, 9001, 9002 or TS 16949, QS 9000, VDA 6.1 or AS9000, "including revisions from time-to-time", or another manufacturing system aimed at preventing defects, with advance quality planning, process control, a comprehensive written control plan and retained records, that is either certified by an accredited third party or subject to regular or random assessment by the end users (5402(7)).
• Fasteners manufactured to a proprietary standard: a document describing the fastener, issued by a company that uses such fasteners in making, assembling or servicing its products, that resembles a consensus standard and bears the user's identification, even if it references a consensus standard.

So whether a heat-treated, grade-marked hex bolt is covered depends on the standard it's sold to, how it's represented, and how and for whom it was made, which is as much a question about the plant as about the bolt.

What the Act requires when it applies

For a covered fastener, three duties matter to a buyer:

• Accredited testing. If the fasteners are made solely to a consensus standard, any end-of-line testing that standard requires to verify the grade marking has to be done by an accredited laboratory (5403(d)). The lab must be accredited by a body that meets the relevant ISO/IEC requirements and has affirmed that to NIST, or by NIST's own NVLAP program (15 CFR 280.103).
• A recorded head mark. Unless the specifications provide otherwise, if the standard requires the fasteners to carry the manufacturer's insignia, they can't be offered or sold unless they bear it, applied as a readable permanent mark, and the manufacturer has recorded it with the USPTO (5407; 15 CFR 280.300). The insignia is separate from the grade marking. A recordal stays active for five years and has to be maintained within six months before each period ends (280.320).
• A record of conformance, kept for five years. Manufacturers and importers keep it for each lot, on paper or in a photographic or electronic form that allows its authenticity to be verified, and must make the information available on request to a distributor that bought the fasteners or to a buyer that uses them to produce a commercial product (5409).

The record of conformance is defined in detail (5402(13)): the manufacturer's name and address, the fastener type, the lot number, nominal dimensions, thread form and class of fit, the standard or specification with its revision, the chemistry and grade of the material, the coating and its standard, and the results, or a summary, of the tests that verify the grade marking.

Two definitions connect this to the papers our other notes ask for. A "lot" is fasteners of one part number made by the same process from the same coil or heat number of metal as provided by the metal manufacturer. The record also has to state the chemistry and grade of the material. So for a covered part, the mill certificate and heat-to-lot record behind a Section 232 melt-and-pour declaration can also support the FQA record, though the two rules ask different questions and one set of papers doesn't automatically satisfy both. A shipment that mixes several heats contains several lots in the Act's sense.

The Act also matters to you as a buyer in one specific way. It defines an "importer" as a distributor located in the US that contracts for the initial purchase of fasteners made abroad, and a distributor as someone who buys to resell at wholesale to unaffiliated persons. If you import bolts to resell, the five-year record duty is yours. If you import them to build into your own product, you may not be an "importer" in the Act's sense, but you are one of the buyers who can ask for the record (5409). The Act sets civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, a ceiling now adjusted for inflation to $59,114 (15 CFR 6.3). Knowingly certifying, marking, offering or selling a fastener in violation of the Act, or intentionally failing to keep records, can carry up to five years in prison, and negligent failure to keep records up to two (5408).

What to ask a Taiwan supplier

Back to the two questions at the start. "Is it FQA compliant?" is really a question about which route the parts take. Ask the supplier to state it in writing:

• If it relies on a quality system: which standard, and if certified, the certification body, certificate number, expiry and whether the plant that makes your parts is within its scope. If it relies on the end-user assessment route instead, evidence of the control plan, records and assessments.
• If the parts are made to your own or your customer's drawing: confirm that the specification meets the Act's definition of a proprietary standard; a drawing alone may not.
• If neither applies and the parts are covered: the recorded insignia (check it against the register by name and code), the accredited lab and its accreditation for each lot's tests, and a record of conformance with every element listed above, tied to a heat number.

"Our head mark is registered" answers only the second duty. The register records who owns a mark; it doesn't test parts or show which plant made a lot. For a supplier on the register, check that the company name on the register matches the manufacturer of your order. A certificate of recordal can't be transferred, and when a recorded mark changes hands the recordal goes inactive until the new owner applies (280.322 and 280.323).

Here's what's known and what isn't. Known: 27 companies with Taiwan addresses hold recordals on the August 2026 register, with addresses concentrated in Kaohsiung and Tainan. Unknown: how many Taiwan makers rely on the quality-system or proprietary-standard exclusions instead. The register can't show that, and we haven't found a public source that does. So absence from the register is a reason to ask which exclusion applies, not a finding in itself.

The 27 names on the register are the companies that have recorded a head mark. Whether your supplier needs to be one of them depends on the parts and the plant, and the paperwork that answers it is the same set this site keeps coming back to: the certificate, the heat number and the lot record.

The register is updated from time to time; counts are from the August 2026 edition. One record (01ZN) shows no owner and is counted separately. This is a practical guide for buyers, not legal advice; whether a part is covered depends on its standard, its manufacture and how it is sold.

Sources

• Fastener Quality Act Register of Active Fastener Insignia, USPTO, August 2026 edition (75 pages), read October 13, 2026
• 15 U.S.C. chapter 80, Fasteners, sections 5402 (definitions), 5403, 5407, 5408 and 5409
• 15 CFR Part 280, Fastener Quality, sections 280.103, 280.300 to 280.326, eCFR, read October 13, 2026
• 15 CFR 6.3, inflation-adjusted civil penalties, including 15 U.S.C. 5408(b)(1)
• Fastener Quality Act Amendments Act of 1999, Pub. L. 106-34