Bay Supply Blog - Rivets, Fasteners, and Tools

We write a lot about blind rivets, lockbolts, threaded inserts, and other types of fasteners, but we don’t want to overlook solid rivets. Solid rivets are probably the oldest and most reliable type of fastener and have been used for millennia. The ancient Egyptians used rivets to fix clay pots, and the Vikings used them to secure the planking in longboats. With every new application for solid rivets that emerged, new rivet materials were needed.

When installing blind rivets, you can encounter any number of problems. For example, the rivet diameter may be wrong for the hole size, the rivet may have the wrong grip length to make a firm joint, or you may have chosen the wrong rivet materials for the job. A common problem is the holes in the material being misaligned. If the holes don’t line up, it can be impossible to install the blind rivet correctly.

Not all fasteners are off-the-shelf products. In addition to standard rivets, threaded inserts, and lockbolts, you sometimes need custom fasteners made for specialized tasks or a fastener specifically designed for manufacturing. That’s when you call SPIROL.

The fastener industry is incredibly diverse, with products that fulfill various functions. Some of the most common fastener categories are rivets, lockbolts, threaded inserts, and pin fasteners.

Although humans have been using rivets for millennia, blind rivets are an innovation of the 20th century. Blind rivets are easy to install, solid, reliable, and have a clean and consistent finish. Blind rivets are so versatile that people continually find new uses for them in manufacturing, construction, and repair.

Blind rivets are incredibly useful and have become commonplace in construction, manufacturing, and industrial applications. There are instances when you need a blind rivet that delivers extra strength and won’t pull out of the hole—many of which are ideal applications for grooved blind rivets. Grooved blind rivets are secure in the hole and won’t fail or pull out under stress.

When you think about different types of fasteners, you probably seldom think of threaded inserts, but they are essential for specific types of applications. There are many instances when you need a secure way to screw a bolt or attachment into softer materials or need to repair a stripped screw hole. That’s when threaded inserts can be invaluable.

Rivets have been used to build boats, make tools, construct buildings, and for other applications nearly as far back as we have recorded history. However, the construction of the rivets and their applications continues to evolve.

Everyone in the fastener business has heard of Huck fasteners. Huck, now a division of Howmet Aerospace, has been producing lockbolts and blind rivets since the 1930s. Today, they are used in a wide range of transportation, construction, manufacturing, and other applications. And the engineers at Huck continue to innovate with new bolt designs and applications.

Rivets provide a permanent joint between two pieces of material—for example, airplane skins or solar panels—by pressing the material together. When you have thinner materials and want a firm joint, conventional rivets or blind rivets work well. However, sometimes you need rivets that have a longer grip length or can serve as a pivot point. In such cases, it makes sense to use mate rivets, sometimes called Cherrymate rivets or semi-tubular rivets.