Blind rivet

A blind rivet consists of the rivet body and the setting device or the mandrel (sometimes called the nail or stem).

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The rivet body is normally manufactured from one of three methods:-

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• Wire, the most common method
• Tube, common in longer lengths, not normally as strong as wire
• Sheet, least popular and generally the weakest option.

Blind rivets are mainly used when access to the joint is only available from one side. The rivet is placed in a pre-drilled hole and is set by pulling the mandrel head into the rivet body, expanding the rivet body and causing it to flare against the reverse side. As the head of the mandrel reaches the face of the blind side material, the pulling force is resisted, and at a predetermined force, the mandrel will snap at the break point of the mandrel. A tight joint formed by the rivet body remains, the head of the mandrel remains encapsulated at the blind side, although variations of this are available, and the mandrel stem is ejected.

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The process is rapid and simple. The setting force is determined by the product design of the rivet mandrel, where the break point is predetermined, with a whole range of tooling available to suit budgets, applications and environments.

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