page_title: Rivet
section_title: Blind rivets
hierarchical_section_title: Rivet / Types / Blind rivets
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Poppnieten, von rechts nach links: 1/8", 3/32", 1/16" English: Three blind rivets. From left to right: 1/8", 3/32", 1/16" Français&#160;: Trois rivets aveugles. De gauche à droite: 1/8", 3/32", 1/16" Italiano: Tre rivetti. Da sinistra a destra: 1/8", 3/32", 1/16"
context_page_description: A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the tail. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched or drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked, so that it expands to about 1.5 times the original shaft diameter, holding the rivet in place. In other words, the pounding or pulling creates a new "head" on the other end by smashing the "tail" material flatter, resulting in a rivet that is roughly a dumbbell shape. To distinguish between the two ends of the rivet, the original head is called the factory head and the deformed end is called the shop head or buck-tail.
  Because there is effectively a head on each end of an installed rivet, it can support tension loads. However, it is much more capable of supporting shear loads.
  Fastenings used in traditional wooden boat building, such as copper nails and clinch bolts, work on the same principle as the rivet but were in use long before the term rivet was introduced and, where they are remembered, are usually classified among nails and bolts respectively.
context_section_description: Blind rivets, commonly referred to as "pop" rivets (POP is the brand name of the original manufacturer, now owned by Stanley Engineered Fastening, a division of Stanley Black & Decker) are tubular and are supplied with a nail-like mandrel through the center which has a "necked" or weakened area near the head. The rivet assembly is inserted into a hole drilled through the parts to be joined and a specially designed tool is used to draw the mandrel through the rivet. The compression force between the head of the mandrel and the tool expands the diameter of the tube throughout its length, locking the sheets being fastened if the hole was the correct size. The head of the mandrel also expands the blind end of the rivet to a diameter greater  than that of the drilled hole, compressing the fastened sheets between the head of the rivet and the head of the mandrel. At a predetermined tension, the mandrel breaks at the necked location. With open tubular rivets, the head of the mandrel may or may not remain embedded in the expanded portion of the rivet, and can come loose at a later time. More expensive closed-end tubular rivets are formed around the mandrel so the head of the mandrel is always retained inside the blind end after installation. "Pop" rivets can be fully installed with access to only one side of a part or structure.
  Prior to the invention of blind rivets, installation of a rivet typically required access to both sides of the assembly: a rivet hammer on one side and a bucking bar on the other side. In 1916, Royal Navy reservist and engineer Hamilton Neil Wylie filed a patent for an "improved means of closing tubular rivets" (granted May 1917). In 1922 Wylie joined the British aircraft manufacturer Armstrong-Whitworth Ltd to advise on metal construction techniques; here he continued to develop his rivet design with a further 1927 patent that incorporated the pull-through mandrel, and allowed the rivet to be used blind. By 1928, the George Tucker Eyelet company, of Birmingham, England, produced a "cup" rivet based on the design. It required a separate GKN mandrel and the rivet body to be hand assembled prior to use for the building of the Siskin III aircraft. Together with Armstrong-Whitworth, the Geo. Tucker Co. further modified the rivet design to produce a one-piece unit incorporating mandrel and rivet. This product was later developed in aluminium and trademarked as the "POP" rivet. The United Shoe Machinery Co. produced the design in the U.S. as inventors such as Carl Cherry and Lou Huck experimented with other techniques for expanding solid rivets.
  They are available in flat head, countersunk head, and modified flush head with standard diameters of 1/8, 5/32 and 3/16 inch.  Blind rivets are made from soft aluminum alloy, steel (including stainless steel), copper, and Monel.
  There are also structural blind rivets, which are designed to take shear and tensile loads.
  The rivet body is normally manufactured using one of three methods:
  There is a vast array of specialty blind rivets that are suited for high strength or plastic applications. Typical types include:
  Internally and externally locked structural blind rivets can be used in aircraft applications because, unlike other types of blind rivets, the locked mandrels cannot fall out and are watertight. Since the mandrel is locked into place, they have the same or greater shear-load-carrying capacity as solid rivets and may be used to replace solid rivets on all but the most critical stressed aircraft structures.
  The typical assembly process requires the operator to install the rivet in the nose of the tool by hand and then actuate the tool. However, in recent years automated riveting systems have become popular in an effort to reduce assembly costs and repetitive disorders. The cost of such tools range from US$1,500 for autofeed pneumatics to US$50,000 for fully robotic systems.
  While structural blind rivets using a locked mandrel are common, there are also aircraft applications using "non-structural" blind rivets where the reduced, but still predictable, strength o
caption: Three aluminium blind rivets: 1/8", 3/32", and 1/16"
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