Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891

by Various

If rivets are made of iron, the material should be strong, tough, and ductile, of a tensile strength not exceeding 54,000 pounds per square inch, and giving an elongation in eight inches of not less than twenty-five per cent. The rivet iron should be as ductile as the best boiler plate when cold. Iron rivets should be annealed and the iron in the bar should be sufficiently ductile to be bent cold to a right angle without fracture. When heated it should be capable of being flattened out to one-third its diameter without crack or flaw.

FIG. 15. Solid Die Rivet. and FIG. 16. Open Die Rivet.

If rivets are made of steel they must be low in carbon, otherwise they will harden by chilling when the hot rivets are placed in the cold plates. Therefore, the steel must be particularly a low grade or mild steel. The material should show a tensile strength not greater than 54,000 pounds per square inch and an elongation in eight inches of thirty per cent. The United States government requirements are that steel rivets shall flatten out cold under the hammer to the thickness of one-half their diameter without showing cracks or flaws; shall flatten out hot to one-third their diameter, and be capable of being bent cold in the form of a hook with parallel sides without cracks or flaws. These requirements were thought at first to be severe, but the makers of steel now find no practical difficulty in meeting these specifications.

The forming of the head of rivets, whether of steel or iron, and whether the heads are conical or semi-spherical, should not be changed by the process of riveting. The form of the head is intended to be permanent, and this permanent form can only be retained by the use of a "hold fast," which conforms to the shape of the head. In the use of the flat hold fast (in general use in a majority of boiler shops) the form of the head is changed, and if the rivet, by inadequate heating, requires severe hammering, there is danger that the head of the rivet may be "punched" off. By the use of a hold fast made to the shape of the rivet head, this danger is avoided and the original form of the head is retained. This feature of the use of proper rivet tools in boiler shops has not received the attention it deserves. Practical use of the above named hold fast would soon convince the consumers of rivets of its value and efficiency.

The practice of driving rivets into a punched rivet hole from which the fin or cold drag, caused by the movement of the punch, has not been removed by reaming with a countersunk reamer, or better still a countersunk set, should be condemned, as by driving the hot rivet head down against the fin around the hole in the cold plate caused by the action of punching the countersunk fillet is not only destroyed, but it is liable to be driven into the head of the rivet, partially cutting the head from the shank. If the rivet is driven into a hole that has been punched with a sharp punch and sharp die, the result is that the fillet is cut off under the head, and the riveted end is also cut, and does not give the clinch or hold desired. That is to say, rivet holes in plates to be riveted should have the burr or sharp edge taken off, either by countersinking, by reamer, or set.

Heating of Rivets.—Iron rivets are generally heated in an ordinary blacksmith's or rivet fire having a forced blast; they are inserted with the points down into the fire, so that the heads are kept practically cool.

Steel rivets should be heated in the hearth of a reverberatory furnace so arranged that the flame shall play over the top of the rivets, and should be heated uniformly throughout the entire length of the rivet to a cherry red. Particular attention must be given to the thickness of the fire in which they are heated.

Steel, of whatever kind, should never be heated in a thin fire, especially in one having a forced blast, such as an ordinary blacksmith's or iron rivet furnace fire. The reason for this is that more air passes through the fire than is needed for combustion, and in consequence there is a considerable quantity of free oxygen in the fire which will oxidize the steel, or in other words, burn it. If free oxygen is excluded steel cannot burn; if the temperature is high enough it can be melted and will run down through the fire, but burning is impossible in a thick fire with a moderate draught.

This is an important matter in using steel rivets and should not be overlooked; the same principle applies to the heating of steel plates for flanging.