A process monitoring method for self-piercing riveting

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is nowadays widely used in many industrial sectors including aerospace and automotive. The quality control of SPR joints is always a big challenge to volume production. A suitable on-line monitoring method will be very important for the application of SPR technique in volume production. In present study, the window technique is used in the study of evaluating the quality of SPR joints. The results showed that by using the window monitoring method, changes of work conditions can be monitored and the reproducible quality of SPR joints can be ensured. The window monitoring method is very effective on-line monitoring method as it analyses only parts of curve data which are related to windows. The window monitoring method is also validated by mechanical tests. It can be seen from the tests that SPR joints jointed by repetitions of the standard work conditions have same failure model and similar tensile strength.