Recent development of improved clinching process

TLDR: In this article, the authors reviewed the latest advances of clinching technologies and proposed some suggestions for the future development of the clinching technology with high strength, high stability, and high efficiency.

Abstract: Clinching technology has been widely applied in automobile assembly industries to join sheet materials of different thicknesses and properties. It does not require any auxiliary parts and only depends on the plastic deformation of materials themselves to form a joint. Furthermore, clinching tools that include the punch and the die are simpler than other thermal joining methods. However, the usability of the clinched joint is restricted by a low joining strength. In order to expand the application range of clinching technologies, researchers have conducted extensive researches on how to improve clinching technologies. In this article, the latest advances of clinching technologies are reviewed on the development of clinching tools and processes. The improved clinching processes including flat clinching, hole clinching, reshaping the clinched joint without a rivet, reshaped joint with a rivet, rivet clinching, rectangular clinching, dieless clinching, roller clinching, laser shock clinching, hydro-clinching, injection clinching, adhesive clinching, resistance spot clinching, friction-assisted clinching, and laser-assisted clinching are introduced. The advantages and disadvantages of different clinching technologies are proposed. In addition, some suggestions for the future development of clinching technology are given in this paper. The clinching technology is developing towards a hybrid joining technology with high strength, high stability, and high efficiency.