Comparison of Selected Rivet and Riveting Instructions

Sheet metal parts are widely used in airframes. Most sheet metal parts used in aircraft assembly are joined using rivets. A number of riveting parameters directly influence fatigue properties of a structure. These include a rivet length, driven head diameter, tolerance of a rivet hole and a rivet shank diameter, and a protective layer among others. Unfavourable selection or change of these parameters can lead to stress concentrations and early crack nucleation. Crack growth can cause failure of a whole structure.

The selection of the riveting process parameters is usually described in a company’s internal instruction (process specifications). Some parameters can be defined in an aircraft's technical specifications. Riveting instructions among other production documentation are part of a company's closely guarded know-how. The author obtained access to two riveting instructions used in Poland and three such documents used in western Europe. The author was permitted to publish the comparison of the parameters from these documents but he is not supposed to reveal any other information. For the reasons stated above, the following cryptonyms were used in the article: Poland-1, Poland-2, West-1, West-2 and West-3.

The quality of a joint also depends on rivets parameters that are defined in rivets standards. For this reason, selected rivets defined in the Polish and Russian industry standards as well as western standards are compared in this paper. Tolerances of a rivet and a hole diameter, clearances between a rivet and a hole, rivet lengths anticipated for driven head formation as well as driven head dimensions are taken into account.