Investigation of a renovating process for failure clinched joint to join thin-walled structures

The clinched joint may be deformed or damaged under a high shear load on the thin-walled structure, which may cause an accident. In order to avoid the accident, a renovating process for the deformed and damaged joint was proposed and investigated in this paper. The clinched joints were gotten by clinching equipment in clinching process. Shear process was employed to produce deformed and damaged joints with different shear forces. Then the deformed and damaged joints were renovated under a force of 35 kN with two flat dies and a customized rivet. Through static shear test on the renovated joints, the failure mode, shear strength and energy absorption were obtained. Renovating force, failure mode, main geometrical parameters, cross-sectional profile, shear strength, and energy absorption were discussed on renovated joints. The energy absorption and shear strength of all the joints are increased after the renovating process. It has been verified to be available for this process to renovate the deformed and damaged joint. •A renovating process for the deformed and damaged joints was proposed.•Material flow and plastic deformation were generated to renovate the joints.•The shear strength and energy absorption were increased by the renovating process.•The renovating method was proved to be effective and reliable.