The speed and ease of installation of blind fasteners make them an excellent choice for manufacturers of all types of products. This is especially true when access to an application's backside is limited at best or completely inaccessible.

Once determined that a blind fastener is right for the application, the user then must decide which type of blind fastener is most appropriate. While many factors could play into this decision, strength requirements and vibration resistance are two criteria that sit at the forefront.

For lighter duty applications that are not load-bearing (under 100 lbs. of shear and tensile strength), a standard blind rivet is often adequate. For more information on standard blind rivets, check out our four-part series on blind rivets.

As you know, Austin Hardware® has worked diligently since 1960 to develop the best solutions to deliver quality parts and services to the wide variety of customers and industries we serve. As a result of our partnership, we are now an authorized distributor for Goebel Fasteners, Inc. and will distribute their product lines which consist of:

This is Part 4 of a 4-part series on Blind Rivets

In the first three parts of our series on blind rivets, we discussed the history of blind rivets; the most important factors to maximize joint integrity (grip range, hole size, material, and installation tooling); rivet selection (material, diameter, grip range, head style), and the most common types of blind rivets (drive-pin and break-stem; open-end, closed-end, self-plugging). To review any of those posts, please click on any of these links.

• Blind Rivets Part 1
• Blind Rivets Part 2
• Blind Rivets Part 3
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In this final installation, we’ll break down some other variations of blind rivets. There are many different styles of blind rivets for specific applications, including different types of structural blind rivets.

Structural blind rivets are required for applications requiring higher load and vibration tolerances. They have higher shear and pull-out strength than standard blind rivets. Many offer a wide grip range, while most have exceptional clamping force. While they’re not quite a replacement for a blind bolt, such as the Huck BOM, or heavy hex bolt, they are a great option when a standard blind rivet just won’t suffice.

At Austin, we seek to provide the best solutions for our customers by delivering value-added solutions for various aspects of your business. We are more than just a hardware company. We are a solutions provider.

If you are ready to find the best solutions for your business, read our top 10 ways to help your business run smoothly.

This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on Blind Rivets

In part one of our series on blind rivets, we briefly looked at their history and discussed the two most important considerations to maximize joint integrity: Grip Range and Hole Size. In part two, we broke down the importance of material and tooling as they pertain to joint integrity, as well as the specifics of blind rivet selection. If you have not yet read either of those posts, click HERE for part one and HERE for part two.

In this post, we'll talk about the most common rivet types and their functional differences.

There are two common blind rivet types: Drive-Pin and Break-Stem.

Drive-pin blind rivets have a partial hole in the body and a mating pin that protrudes, positioned in the hole. The installer hammers the pin into the rivet body so that it's flush with the top of the rivet head. One of the significant benefits of a drive-pin rivet is that no special tools are required for installation. You can literally use a hammer if you wish. Drive-pin rivets can also be used with almost any material and don't require a hole to be drilled all the way through to insert. A drive-pin rivet's disadvantage relative to other types of blind rivets is that a backing block may be needed for installation depending on the material and application, which mitigates the benefit of blind installation. They also offer less clamping force than most other rivet styles.

This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on Blind Rivets

In part one of our series on blind rivets, we briefly looked at the history of the blind (a.k.a. pop) rivet and discussed the two most important considerations to maximize joint integrity when using them: Grip Range and Hole Size. If you have not yet read that post, click HERE.

We'll now break down the third and fourth most important aspects to consider to maximize joint integrity using blind rivets: Material and Installation Tooling.

• Material - A good rule of thumb when selecting a blind rivet is to use the same material rivet as the substrate into which it's being installed. If you're riveting sheets of steel together, use a steel rivet. The same goes for aluminum and stainless steel. This is important because using dissimilar metals may result in galvanic corrosion, depending on the application's environment.
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Installation Tooling - What role exactly does installation tooling play in how a blind rivet works? It's simple. An installation tool has one job … to pull the stem of the blind rivet up through the rivet body until the pull force of the tool overcomes the tensile strength of the rivet stem, resulting in the stem breaking off at its predetermined breakpoint.

There's nothing more to it than that. All strength parameters and application criteria of a properly installed blind rivet reside within the rivet itself. If the installation tool breaks off the blind rivet stem, it's done its job. So, this means that the primary consideration for blind rivet installation tooling is accessibility. Can the tool fit into the area around where the rivet needs to go? Fortunately, there are many different configurations and types of tooling available. So, in most cases, you'll find an installation tool that quite literally "fits" your needs.

Current events have caused many manufacturers to shut down and then reopen. This can cause large backlogs of orders and have manufacturing teams scrambling to get product out the door. Plexus structural adhesives have been utilized to increase the production of parts per hour, decrease the number of manufacturing steps, and reduce the amount of floor space required to manufacture goods.

Plexus products provide a wide range of structural adhesives that offer primerless adhesion for multiple materials. These adhesives often deliver as much strength, or more, than traditional joining techniques, with the added benefit of improved manufacturing output.

Statistics from the National Truck Equipment Association indicate commercial (cargo) van sales increased by 56.7% between 2013 and 2019, and there's no sign of that trend slowing down. While cargo vans are becoming more and more common for delivery services (if you've had an Amazon delivery lately, you know this to be true), they're also widely used by businesses of all types as service vehicles. 

Larger vehicles, such as box trucks, will always have a substantial market position for their advantage in capacity. This is especially true for delivery services as their size advantage allows for the delivery of larger items and helps to minimize trips. However, cargo vans generally cost less to purchase, and their smaller size makes them more fuel-efficient and able to fit into tighter spaces. This economy and agility make cargo vans a better choice for delivering smaller parcels and for use as service vehicles.

Using Data to Build Your Business

Using data to measure your business's success helps you see a clear picture of where your business stands. Numbers don't lie -- you can tell how your business is doing and set goals based on past and present metrics. These Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help your business stay on track to goals, quotas and let you know where you stand. Austin Hardware® covers this more in-depth here.

Aren't you ready to stop focusing on the small things like purchase orders, supply chain headaches, too many vendors, etc.? It's time to start focusing on what really matters – what new product improvements are needed to drive sales, how vendors can align with you to exceed your corporate or department goals, what manufacturing processes need revisiting. It's time to start building business relationships, setting long-term goals, growing your business, and preparing for future growth.

Austin Hardware's team of experts can help take your business to the next level. If staying on track for your future goals is your concern, keep reading to see how Austin Hardware's use of data analytics and solutions can help your business stay on track this year.

This is Part 1 of a 4-part series on Blind Rivets.

What is a blind rivet? Simply put, it's a rivet that can be installed from just one side of the application, thus the term "blind."

The development of blind rivets can be traced back to the aircraft industry.

According to Assembly magazine,

"The blind rivet was originally developed as a replacement fastener for solid rivets where service repair was required. Blind rivets also trace their roots to the aircraft industry. Before blind rivets were widely accepted, installation of solid aluminum rivets in fuselages, wings and other airframe components typically required two assemblers: one person with a rivet hammer on one side of the structure and a second person with a bucking bar on the other side. Since rivets were often inaccessible from both sides of the work, this assembly process was extremely slow and very time consuming."

Continuing with the history lesson, blind rivets were initially dubbed "pop rivets" because of the popping sound made during installation when the stem (a.k.a. mandrel) breaks off. Later, the originating company branded its version of blind rivets as POP® rivets. To this day, blind rivets are generically known as "POP rivets," much the same way tissues are referred to by the prominent brand Kleenex. But in reality, while all POP® rivets are blind rivets, not all blind rivets are necessarily the POP® brand. Interestingly, while the roots of the original POP® fasteners live on, the company is now a part of STANLEY Engineered Fasteners, a division of Staley Black & Decker.