subject: General idea about the rivets [print this page] General idea about the rivets General idea about the rivets
Considering of the fasteners, people would pick up in mind with bolts, nuts and screws as it is common in our daily life. There are many more other ways of fastening, among which is rivet. Without the development of welding techniques and bolted joints a long time ago, the riveting is popular and necessary in the construction of metal framed buildings and structures like the Eiffel Tower, as well as in the fields of automobile classis and aircrafts. You may wonder how it works, I suppose. Today, a deep look at the rivet is introduced here.
Generally speaking, a rivet is made up of a smooth cylindrical shaft and a head which is called the factory head on one end. And the end opposite the head is called the buck-tail or shop head. In order to hold the rivet in place, the buck-tail is about 1.5 times the shaft diameter. They are installed by the aid of a hammer of such kind of things. In this process, the force is needed to push the factory head to insert the rivet into the hole. It is true that rivet tends to fill the hole tightly. As a result, it is difficult or impossible to obtain such a tight fit with other fasteners.
Definitely, both the diameters and lengths of rivets vary with a wide range according to the sizes of holes. And it is certain that there are many types of rivets with different specifications. They mainly include solid rivets, semi-tubular rivets, blind rivets, drive rivets, flush rivet, friction-lock rivet and self-pierce rivets. Solid rivets are picked out to be introduced in details.
Solid rivets are one of the oldest and most reliable types of fasteners. It is installed with a hammer to deform the head to insert the shaft like the common ones. They are widely used in the structural parts of aircraft. It is counted that hundreds of thousands of solid rivets are used to assemble the frame of a modern aircraft to enable the reliability and safety count. They are typically made from aluminum alloys, titanium, and nickel-based alloys and designed in rounded (universal) or 100 countersunk heads. Furthermore, the rivets made of steel are mostly used in static structures such as bridges, cranes, and building frames.
