Fully automatic joining

Universal material combinations are becoming increasingly important, especially in the development of modern vehicle and car body designs. RIVTAC® is particularly suitable for joining aluminium, steel, plastics and non-ferrous metals as well as for mixed joints, multilayer joints and hybrid joints of these materials.

This innovative mechanical joining process utilises a tack – a nail-like auxiliary joining part, that is accelerated to a high speed and driven into the non-pre-punched parts. The ogival point of the tack displaces material. The speed, which can be controlled by means of the adjustable joining pressure, is dependent on the materials and component thicknesses. Due to the short-term increase in temperature in the joining zone, the parent material flows into the annular grooves on the shank of the tack. This achieves a high degree of form fit for the joined parts. The pressing and compression of the material – especially in the case of high-strength steel materials – results in a non-positive joint. An important condition for this method is sufficient stiffness of the joining parts so that they can resist the penetration impulse of the tack without major deformation.