Process feasibility analysis of self-pierce riveting high strength low alloy steel

Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR) has been widely used in automotive Body in White (BIW) assembly as an alternative to Resistance Spot Welding (RSW), in particular for joining of dissimilar materials, for example Steels to Aluminium. A study examining the process feasibility of SPR of Aluminium alloy AA5754 and High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel in various thicknesses has been conducted. It has been shown that the process is capable of joining the two materials together. However, it was also observed that the selection of rivet and die is limited when joining HSLA. The setting force required to drive the rivet into the sheet material to be joined tends to be high. This leads to potential tooling life concerns. It was also shown that the arrangement of the high strength steel joined to aluminium can have a significant effect on the process feasibility.