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US 6,802,682 B2Granted
Spiraled self-piercing rivet
AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorsRobin Stevenson, Pei-Chung Wang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is a self-piercing rivet wherein the hollow shell has an external spiraling, wherein the spiraling is with respect to the axis of rotation of the hollow shell. Once installed in a stack of sheets, the spiraling prevents the riveted sheets from mutually separating and the rivet loosening with respect to the sheets.
Claims7
A spiraled self-piercing rivet, comprising:
- a hollow shell having an axis of rotation, said hollow shell having a first end and an opposite second end, a sharp edge being located at said first end, said hollow shell having an exterior surface, said external surface having a spiral feature formed thereon;
- and
- a head connected with said second end of said hollow shell at a transverse relation with respect to said axis.
A method for riveting a plurality of sheets together, said method comprising the steps of:
- forcing a spiraled rivet deformationally into a stack of sheets in a direction parallel to a shell axis of the rivet;
- wherein the spiraling survives the deformation sufficiently that each sheet of the stack of sheets is prevented from loosening parallel to the shell axis by an interference between the sheets and the survived spirals of the rivet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.