New Joining Concepts for Self-Pierce Riveting

This paper is focused on innovative self-pierce riveting concepts to produce invisible joints in sheet-sheet and tube-sheet connections. The common element to these two different types of joints is the use of tubular rivets with chamfered ends, which are accessories in the case of sheet-sheet joints and constitutive (structural) elements in the case of tube-sheet joints. The presentation draws from the deformation mechanics of double-sided self-pierce riveting for producing lap joints in overlapped sheets to the development of self-pierce riveting of tubes to sheets, which is a new joining by forming process capable of attaching a sheet to the end of a tube, at room temperature. Aluminum sheets, carbon and stainless-steel tubes are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new self-pierce riveting concepts and finite element modelling using an in-house computer program gives support to the overall presentation. Destructive tests are carried out to evaluate the destructive strength that the joints are capable to withstand without failure.