A joining component, for axial joining to a workpiece, comprises a base body composed of thermoplastic material and including a holding section and a flange section, with a joining surface including both a portion of the flange section and a metal section which can be heated inductively. During feeding, once the approximate maximum feeding speed of the drive wheels is achieved, one of the drive wheels is shifted to a free-wheeling condition, allowing the maximum feed speed to increase. The gain of each sensor signal is adapted, individually, based on a correlation of each given sensor signal to the position error signal. In some embodiments, the bottom region comprises a synthetic fabric and the top region comprises a polymeric material. The portable access unit is used by a sales representative when visiting a potential customer to access selected products of the database to display them and to enable direct ordering.