The Development of Lightweight Self-Piercing Riveting Equipment

Self-piercing riveting is an attractive joining technique in the automotive industry, particularly for materials which are difficult to resistance spot weld. The process is suited to robotic applications but because of the high setting forces required, conventional long reach guns would require excessive robot carrying capacity. A lightweight, long reach C-frame riveting gun has, therefore, been developed. Together with associated equipment improvements, increased suitability of the self-piercing riveting process has been demonstrated for the volume production of automotive components and body assembly.