How Do Rivets Work? An Engineer's Guide

Specify the wrong fastener on a high-vibration panel and it will work loose long before the assembly itself fails. That’s why so many engineers turn to rivets before reaching for a threaded fastener. A bolt or screw relies on thread friction to stay put, so a lifetime of shake, shock and thermal cycling can gradually rattle it loose. On a boxed-in enclosure or a sheet-metal skin, you often cannot reach the back of the joint to secure a nut or washer assembly in the first place.

A rivet answers both problems at once. It forms a permanent mechanical joint with no thread to back out of the joint over time. Many rivet types also fasten entirely from one side of the workpiece. That is why riveting still holds its place across aerospace, automotive, marine, construction, HVAC ductwork, electronics and a growing share of EV assembly work, wherever permanence and vibration resistance are a mandatory design requirement.

This guide walks through the mechanics of riveting, how the main rivet types differ, how a rivet gun sets a blind rivet, how to remove a rivet, when a rivet beats a bolt or a weld and how to specify the right type of rivet on the design and workbench.

In this guide:

• What Is a Rivet?

• How Do Rivets Work?

• Types of Rivets and How They Work

• How Does a Rivet Gun Work?

• How to Remove a Rivet

• When Should You Use Rivets?

What Is a Rivet?

A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener made from a smooth cylindrical shaft with a pre-formed head at one end. Unlike a screw or a bolt, a rivet carries no thread along its primary shaft. Rivets differ in installation compared to traditional nuts and bolts; they are fitted through a pre-drilled, unthreaded hole in the parts being assembled. Its plain end (the tail) is deformed into a second head during installation with the appropriate rivet tool, which locks the joint shut.

In both Pop and Solid Rivets, the rivet body will deform to not only grip the two faces of the joint, but the body will also swell to fill the hole on setting. This joint, when properly created, will generate immense amounts of preload and create a fixing that can withstand both great Axial and tensile loads.

Due to the lack of reliance on thread friction, a correctly installed rivet cannot vibrate loose under normal design loads.  Further expanding on their functionality, a blind rivet adds one more physical element to the standard design, a central pin called a mandrel, which is what allows rivet installation from a single panel side where access is restricted or entirely unavailable.

 

How Do Rivets Work?

Every rivet, whatever its type, works on one principle: controlled plastic deformation. Setting a plain rivet follows four stages.

 

 

1) Prepare the hole. A hole is made through the parts to be joined, sized to let the shaft pass with minimal clearance; the hole can be drilled, bored or even utilise existing features on a pre-manufactured part such as a bracket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Insert the rivet. The rivet is pushed through so its pre-formed head (known as the factory head) sits flush against the outer face of the assembly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Deform the tail. Force is applied to the tail using the correct tool; in the case of a Pop-Rivet, you would normally use a Rivet-Gun. The material of the tail yields and spreads into a second head, called the shop head or buck-tail, while the shaft expands radially to fill the hole. As a rule of thumb, the tail expands to roughly one and a half times the shaft's pre-installation diameter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Check the joint. With a head now on each side, the parts are pinched tightly together. The expanded shaft removes all clearance in the hole, so the joint cannot shift or work its way loose due to vibration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This hole-filling behaviour is what sets rivets apart from threaded fasteners in structural terms. Because the shaft bears against the full circumference of the hole through both workpieces, a rivet is at its best carrying shear loads, the forces acting parallel to the joined faces. Load spreads across the whole bearing surface rather than concentrating on a few thread contact points, which helps fatigue performance under repeated loading.

Selecting The Right Rivet Size.

There are several rules of thumb to help you pick the right diameter and length of rivet for your application.

In terms of diameter, most common sizes for general use are in the range of 3-5 mm and for general-purpose use, 3.2 and 4.8mm rivets are extremely popular.
Diameter is closely related to strength and so consider going for a thicker rivet than this if you need the extra strength, or increasing the number of rivets used in a joint.

Picking the right length for your rivet is essential, as too short and it will not grip the material and too long and it may deform without actually compressing the joint. The measurement we need is called “grip length", the maximum and minimum thickness of joint the rivet is designed for. 

A rough estimate of grip length can be worked out by taking 1.5x the rivet's diameter away from its length; however, we list this on our website so there is no need to guess! If in doubt, it’s always worth measuring the total joint thickness before installing a rivet and doing a visual check with a rivet dropped into the hole if you have access to the rear side of the joint.

Types of Rivets and How They Work.

The clamping principle is universal regardless of the type of rivet you select, but the way each sub-type is deformed differs. That difference decides where it can be used and how. Common families include solid, blind (pop), split, tubular, semi-tubular, self-piercing, threaded (rivet nut) and friction-lock rivets.

How Do Pop Rivets (Blind Rivets) Work?

Pop rivets, also called blind rivets, are the most widely used rivet in modern assembly. The value is in the name: they are set "blind", entirely from one side, with no access to the rear face, making assembly possible in a huge number of applications that traditional threaded fasteners would not support. 

A blind rivet is a two-part component, a hollow body with a solid pin (the mandrel) running through it. The mandrel has an enlarged head at the far end and a deliberately weakened break point along its stem.
When the rivet is set, the tool grips the stem and draws it back through the body while holding the body still. The mandrel head is pulled into the hollow tail, flaring it against the rear face. Once the joint is fully clamped, tension in the mandrel reaches its designed break load and the stem snaps off with the distinctive ‘pop’ that names the fastener.

The result is a permanent joint made from one side, with no heat and little operator skill. That is why blind rivets dominate enclosures, panelling, sheet-metal fabrication and vehicle bodywork, where the back of the joint is often boxed in.

 

Shop Pop-Rivets

How Do Solid Rivets Work?

Solid rivets are the original rivet design: a one-piece shaft and head deformed by direct force. While historically set with a hand hammer, modern assemblies rely on an air hammer or hydraulic rivet tool. The air hammer drives the head with rapid, high-powered impacts from one side, while a heavy metal block (a bucking bar) is held against the tail to crush it into the second head.

Setting one requires access to both sides of the joint and far more force than a blind rivet, but the payoff is immense. With no hollow core or mandrel, a set solid rivet is effectively a single piece of wrought metal perfectly filling the hole. This provides the highest shear and fatigue strength of any rivet type, which is exactly why solid rivets remain the standard for aircraft structures and other safety-critical assemblies.

 

SHOP SOLID RIVETS

How Do Rivet Nuts Work?

Rivet nuts flip the script on standard riveting. Instead of permanently joining two panels, they solve a different engineering headache: adding heavy-duty, reusable threads to sheet metal too thin to tap.

The rivet nut itself is a hollow, internally threaded insert. During installation, the setting tool threads into the centre and pulls backwards, crushing the unthreaded section of the shaft into a tight bulge against the back of the panel. This securely locks the insert into the material, creating a machine thread that distributes loads far better than thin sheet metal ever could. Ultimately, a rivet nut is not typically used to permanently fuse two parts together; it provides a simple and easy way to add threads to a sheet metal part, giving you an assembly that can be bolted and unbolted as many times as necessary.

 

SHOP RIVET NUTS

Other Rivet Types.

Beyond the standard solid, blind and threaded varieties, you will also encounter specialised rivets tailored to specific engineering problems:

• Multigrip rivets: Cover a wide grip range with a single fastener size, reducing the need to stock multiple lengths. However, this versatility comes at the cost of slightly reduced ultimate shear and tensile strength compared to a perfectly sized standard rivet.

• Sealed (closed-end) rivets: Feature a solid body which, when installed, retains the head piece and has no through hole. These are better suited to applications where a seal is required, for example creating tanks, vessels or even weatherproofing a building. The trade-off is that they demand tighter hole tolerances and offer significantly narrower grip ranges compared to a standard pop rivet.  

• Semi-tubular rivets: Require far less force to set, making them ideal for high-volume, automated assembly lines. Because only the hollow tail deforms, they do not swell to fill the hole, resulting in significantly lower shear strengths than a solid rivet. These are often used in softer materials, such as leather, fabric and plastics

• Self-piercing rivets: Punch their own hole as they set, eliminating the need for pre-drilling or modelling. The catch is that they require massive installation force; this is usually delivered by heavy, expensive C-frame tools, meaning they cannot be used on brittle materials and require access to both sides of the assembly for installation.

• Plastic rivets: Handle lightweight trim and push-fit jobs where heavy metal hardware would be overkill. Naturally, they offer virtually no structural strength and are more suitable for use in attaching plastic trim on cars and other automotive assemblies.
  
  SHOP PLASTIC RIVETS

What Materials Are Rivets Made From?

A rivet's performance is only as good as the material it is formed from. Because setting a rivet relies on controlled plastic deformation, the material has to be ductile enough to upset cleanly into a shop head, yet strong enough to carry the joint load for its designed service life. It also has to survive the working environment, whether that means salt spray on a boat, cabin pressure cycles on an aircraft or nothing worse than a dry indoor enclosure. Matching the rivet material to both the load and the environment is as important as choosing the right rivet type.

• Aluminium: Light, easy to set and naturally corrosion-resistant thanks to its self-forming oxide layer. This makes it the default choice for most blind rivets and aircraft skins (which use specialised, high-strength aerospace alloys).
  The trade-off: It offers much lower shear and tensile strength than steel.

• Steel: Delivers high strength at a low cost. Because bare steel rusts, it is almost always supplied with a protective finish, such as zinc plating. It is ideal for structural housings and high-load joints.
  The trade-off: Even with plating, standard steel will eventually succumb to corrosion in wet or outdoor environments.

• Stainless Steel: Combines excellent strength with aggressive corrosion resistance, making it the workhorse for outdoor, marine and hygienic assemblies. Marine-grade A4 stainless resists saltwater that would pit standard grades.
  The trade-off: It is more expensive and requires significantly more tool force to set than aluminium or standard steel.

• Copper: Soft, highly ductile and boasting excellent electrical conductivity. It is often used for leatherworking rivets, though it is also widely selected purely for its aesthetic appeal. 
  The trade-off: It is very soft, meaning it cannot carry heavy structural loads.

• Brass: Offers reliable conductivity, moderate strength and a strong corrosion resistance profile. It is commonly found in marine fittings and decorative trim where both appearance and durability matter.
  The trade-off: Like copper, it cannot match the sheer holding power of steel in heavy-duty applications.        
  
  

Plastic rivets sit apart from the metals above and suit lightweight trim and push-fit work where structural strength is not the priority.

Finish matters as much as base material. Platings and coatings such as zinc extend the working life of steel rivets, while anodising can harden and colour aluminium. The right combination of material and finish is what lets a rivet match the design life of the assembly around it.

Another thing to keep in mind: keep the rivet and the workpiece galvanically compatible where possible. When two dissimilar metals sit in contact in a damp environment, the less noble metal corrodes at the joint interface, the exact spot the fastener depends on. Where you cannot match the materials exactly, choose a rivet high on the galvanic scale for the conditions (stainless steel or Monel in marine settings, for example), then isolate the metals where practical.

 

How Does a Rivet Gun Work?

Understanding how to use a rivet gun depends entirely on which type of rivet you are setting, as the term "rivet gun" actually describes two completely different tools.

Pneumatic Guns for Solid Rivets (Impact): For solid rivets, a pneumatic rivet gun acts like a precision jackhammer. Powered by compressed air, an internal piston rapidly strikes a shaped tip (the rivet set) against the factory head of the rivet. These high-frequency impacts force the fastener into the hole, while a heavy metal bucking bar held tightly against the rear tail crushes it into a solid shop head. It relies entirely on blunt, compressive force.

Setting Tools for Blind Rivets (Tension): Blind rivet guns (often just called riveters) solve a different problem. Because of how a blind rivet is designed to be installed, there is no need to access the rear of the fastener.
Instead, they act as highly engineered pulling mechanisms. To achieve the necessary force in to clamp the sheets together, they perform three distinct actions in a single stroke:

1) Clamp: A set of internal jaws grips the mandrel stem standing proud of the rivet body.

2) Pull: The tool draws those jaws rearward while bracing its nosepiece against the rivet body’s head. This translates the operator's squeeze (or the tool's power) into axial force, pulling the mandrel, forcing the mandrel head up to crush the rivet body’s tail.

3) Snap: Once the body has fully flared and clamped the joint shut, the mandrel reaches its engineered break load and snaps off. The spent stem is then ejected, leaving the completed rivet in place.

For blind riveting, the tool you choose simply scales this process. Hand riveters rely on mechanical leverage, making them perfect for low-volume work and site repairs. Pneumatic and battery-powered guns deliver the same result with far more speed and consistency, making them the default production-line choice. Yet, in every case, the core principle holds: the tool never actually touches the joint. It simply pulls the mandrel and lets the rivet do the work.

 

How to Remove a Rivet.

Unlike a bolt that can be easily backed out with a wrench, a set rivet is a cold-formed piece of metal that permanently fuses two panels together. Because there are no threads to undo, removal always means completely destroying the fastener.
While it might be tempting to reach for an angle grinder or a chisel, those brute-force methods run a high risk of gouging or warping the parent material.

The standard, safest and most precise method is drilling out the core, which can be done in three simple steps:

1) Centre-Punch: Strike the exact middle of the factory head with a centre-punch to create a small dimple. This gives the drill a place to bite and prevents the bit from wandering across the metal surface and scratching the panel.
On a pop-rivet. The hole left after the stem breaks off can be used.

2) Drill: Using a drill bit matched to the rivet's original shaft diameter, drill straight down into the head at a moderate speed. Keep drilling just until the head separates from the main shaft.

3) Punch: Once the head is off, use a pin punch and a hammer to gently tap the remaining rivet body out through the back of the hole.

The golden rule of rivet removal is precision. You must keep the drill perfectly square to the panel.

To guarantee this accuracy, the absolute best tool for the job is a portable drill guide (effectively a mobile drill press) or a dedicated rivet removal jig. 
These tools lock the drill into perfect alignment, eliminating the risk of human error. If you attempt it freehand and accidentally angle the bit, you will enlarge or distort the hole, permanently spoiling the grip for your replacement rivet or potentially scrapping the part entirely.

When Should You Use Rivets?

Rivets compete with threaded fasteners and welding, with each method having its place. The table below shows where riveting earns its position.

 

 
The real engineering takeaway sits just behind that table: you should never choose a fastener based purely on its headline strength figure. The right choice is always the one perfectly matched to how the joint will actually be stressed in the field.

 

Beyond load direction, rivets hold the edge anywhere movement is the enemy. Because they rely on permanent deformation rather than on thread friction, they shrug off the vibration that would eventually rattle a screw loose. They are also highly practical when dealing with awkward assemblies or varied materials.

For the full case on rivets against screws and bolts, including where each pulls ahead, see our dedicated comparison article.

 

Wrapping Up: How Rivets Work

Whether you are specifying blind rivets for a panelled enclosure or simply want to know why a pop rivet pops, understanding how rivets work helps you design stronger, more reliable permanent joints. Choose the type for the access you have, size the rivet to the stack you are joining and load it in shear wherever the design allows.

Accu carries a wide range of precision rivets, from pop rivets and rivet nuts to solid and specialist types, in a choice of materials and finishes. If you are unsure which rivet suits your application, our engineers are on hand to help you specify the right component first time.

Further Reading: 

•  What Causes Galvanic Corrosion and How Can I Prevent It?
• Aerospace Fasteners and Hardware
• Sheet Metal Fasteners: An Engineer's Guide

 

FAQs

Q: Are rivets stronger than bolts?

A: It depends on the load: rivets excel in shear and resist vibration loosening, while bolts carry more pure tensile load, so the stronger choice is the one matched to the joint. Accu's dedicated guide covers the full comparison. 

Q: Why is riveting no longer used in some structures?

A: Welding and high-strength friction-grip bolts replaced hot riveting in the majority of structural steelwork, but rivets remain dominant in aerospace, sheet metal, blind-access and dissimilar-metal joints.

Q: What are the disadvantages of rivets?

A: They form a permanent joint that is hard to reverse. They are best loaded for shear strength rather than tension. The holes they need also create stress concentrations, which can cause assembly housing fractures.

Q: Can rivets be as strong as welds?

A: A well-designed riveted joint can match a weld for shear and fatigue while tolerating dissimilar materials, though welds still lead for continuous, fully sealed load paths.

Q: Do you have to pre-drill for rivets?

A: Yes, for solid and blind rivets, which need a pre-formed hole, but self-piercing rivets form their own hole as they set.

Q: Can you rivet without a rivet gun?

A: Solid rivets can be set with a hammer and bucking bar, but blind (pop) rivets need a rivet gun to pull the mandrel.