Self-piercing riveting-a review

© The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com.Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is a cold mechanical joining process used to join two or more sheets of materials by driving a rivet piercing through the top sheet or the top and middle sheets and subsequently lock into the bottom sheet under the guidance of a suitable die. SPR is currently the main joining method for aluminium and mixed-material lightweight automotive structures. SPR was originated half century ago, but it only had significant progress in the last 25 years due to the requirement of joining lightweight materials, such as aluminium alloy structures, aluminium-steel structures and other mixed-material structures, from the automotive industry. Compared with other conventional joining methods, SPR has many advantages including no pre-drilled holes required, no fume, no spark and low noise, no surface treatment required, ability to join multi-layer materials and mixed materials and ability to produce joints with high static and fatigue strengths. In this paper, research investigations that have been conducted on self-piercing riveting will be extensively reviewed. The current state and development of SPR process is reviewed and the influence of the key process parameters on joint quality is discussed. The mechanical properties of SPR joints, the corrosion behaviour of SPR joints, the distortion of SPR joints and the simulation of SPR process and joint performance are reviewed. Developing reliable simulation methods for SPR process and joint performance to reduce the need of physical testing has been identified as one of the main challenges.Peer reviewe

Recent development in finite element analysis of self-piercing riveted joints

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is a high-speed mechanical fastening technique which is suitable for point-joining advanced lightweight sheet materials that are dissimilar, coated, and hard to weld. Major advances have been made in recent years in SPR technique. Latest literature relating to finite element analysis (FEA) of SPR joints is reviewed in this paper. The recent development in FEA of SPR joints are described with particular reference to three major factors that influence the success of SPR technique: SPR process, failure mechanism, and mechanical behavior of SPR joints. The main FE methods used in FEA of SPR joints are discussed and illustrated with brief case studies from the literature. Areas where further useful progress can be made are also identified