A New Mechanical Joining Technique for Steel Compared with Spot Welding

Two mechanical joining techniques were compared with spot welding in a number of plain carbon and high-strength steels with or without various metallic and painted coatings. Spot welds had higher static strength than mechanical joints, but the new button-type (crack-free) joint had equivalent fatigue strength at long lives. Relationships were developed to estimate the strength of the button-type mechanical joint given base metal strength properties and the geometry of the joint.