Blind rivet

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Three aluminium blind rivets: 1/8", 3/32" and 1/16"

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

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

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.

A riveting tool made by Mastercraft

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.

A drive rivet is a form of blind rivet that has a short mandrel protruding from the head that is driven in with a hammer to flair out the end inserted in the hole. This is commonly used to rivet wood panels into place since the hole does not need to be drilled all the way through the panel, producing an aesthetically pleasing appearance. They can also be used with plastic, metal, and other materials and require no special setting tool other than a hammer and possibly a backing block (steel or some other dense material) placed behind the location of the rivet while hammering it into place.

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