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Joinability and Mechanical Properties of Clinched Joints of Different Aluminum Alloys

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Abstract

The joints of four aluminum alloy (7075, 5754, 6061, 1060) sheets were prepared using the clinching process with different die assemblies, and the forming and mechanical properties of the produced joints were evaluated using different testing procedures. The neck thickness, undercut values, bottom thickness, and joint dimensions of the joints were measured to investigate the joinability. The forming quality parameters, strength, failure displacement, failure mode, and energy absorption of the joints were investigated using the tensile shear test and peeling test. It was revealed that all four aluminum alloy sheets could form clinched joints with a suitable undercut, neck thickness and different die fits. A combination of SR5202 and SR703.12 dies resulted in an optimum joint quality for different sheets. Both neck thickness and the undercut amount played a major role in the determination of the strength of the joints. The best mechanical properties of the single-lap and cross joints were found for the sheets made from aluminum alloys 7075 and 6061. The aluminum alloy 5754 clinched joints exhibited slightly deteriorated mechanical properties but had the highest energy absorption capacity of the joints. However, the lower yield strength of aluminum alloy 1060 led to poor mechanical properties of these joints. All the single lap joints showed a tensile-shear failure mode of the upper sheet material, whereas the peel failure modes of the cross joints showed neck pull-off failure, neck fracture failure, and neck mixed failure.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the School of mechanical engineering, Xiangtan university. We declare that none of the work contained in this manuscript has been published in any language, nor is it currently under consideration by any other journal.

Funding

Financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51901199) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2020JJ5548) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, 411105, China

    Yue Zhang, Honghe Xu, Ruitao Peng, Yan Lu & Linwei Zhu

Authors
  1. Yue Zhang
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  2. Honghe Xu
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  3. Ruitao Peng
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  4. Yan Lu
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Contributions

Yue Zhang contributed to the conception of the study and commentary or revision—including pre-or post writing stages. Honghe Xu performed the experiment and the data analyses and wrote the manuscript. Ruitao Peng contributed to oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team. Yan Lu and Linwei Zhu assisted in the preparation and conduct of the experiment.

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Correspondence to Ruitao Peng.

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Zhang, Y., Xu, H., Peng, R. et al. Joinability and Mechanical Properties of Clinched Joints of Different Aluminum Alloys. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 22, 1883–1896 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-021-00582-2

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