Mechanical joining techniques

Our offering

Clinching

Flexible table top hemming

Flow Drill Screwing (FDS)

Robotic hemming

Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR)

Clinching is an important joining technique in the body-in-white industry, particularly for doors and hatches. Also, different pairings of sheet metal, including, for instance, steel and aluminum, can be joined with this method without any problems.

Advantages
Clinching is a cold forming process and does not require electricity or cooling of the electrodes commonly associated with spot welding. Also, clinching is relatively environmental friendly as it does not generate sparks and fumes. This joining technique can also be used on metals & non-metals mix as long as the materials are ductile.

Clinching process is well known by ABB and has been used for years in bodyshops.

ABB’s Table Top Hemming provides a flexible and modular solution to improve hemming quality and increase body-in-white production speed. This can reduce traditional table top hemming cycle time by up to 50 percent.

Advantages

Table Top Hemming process is fast and accurate
Space needed is less than Press Hemming
Multiple material can be hemmed (eg. sheet steel and aluminum)
Flexible and precise process control
Excellent hemming quality
Low effort trial and commission
Short cycle time
Integration of additional operations possible
Minimal maintenance
Low noise operations

Specifications

Maximum weight of hemming blade: 25 kg per hemming unit
Pre hemming force: up to 38KN / stroke 27mm
Final hemming force: up to 100KN / stroke 100mm
Down holding force: 11 KN (four devices)
Hemming flange angle: up to 105° (tested on 110 °)
Hemming time: 4 seconds
Cycle time (Docking + Hemming + Undocking): 14 seconds

Flow Drill Screwing is a method of fastening a plurality of parts together with the aid of heat from friction.

The Flow Drill Screw (FDS) driving system is a modular, self-contained unit, which interfaces directly with the robot controller to ensure accurate and repeatable positioning. It uses a sensor system to ensure that each screw is inserted with consistent torque and depth.

Advantages

Easy to repair joint for material-mix solutions (steel vs Al; metal vs plastic)
Marginally lower force is required as compared to riveting; hence simpler tools

ABB has installed many FDS systems for lightweight car manufacturing companies.

Robotic Roller hemming combines standard industrial robots equipped with a standard roller hemming head that follows the contour of the outer flanges of a sheet metal component, optimally hemming it over an inner panel which is precisely nested in a die.

Advantages
Robotic Roller Hemming is increasingly popular against established hemming methods because of its flexibility, low cost investment and simply to use. It is now widely used for front and rear doors, hoods, tailgates, liftgates, wheelhouse and sunroof panels.

ABB was one of the pioneers of Robotic Hemming. ABB’s roller hemming heads and tools combined with ABB robots superior motion control is a guarantee that you invest in a high performance robotic hemming solution.

Video

ABB Roller Hemming

Self-piercing riveting (or punch riveting) is a high-speed mechanical joining technique for point joining of sheet material components.

A semi-tubular rivet is driven into the materials to be joined between a punch and die in a press tool. The rivet pierces the top sheet and the die shape causes the rivet to flare within the lower sheet to form a mechanical interlock.

Advantages

Simple, one-step process with no pre-drilled holes required,
Fast automated operation
Suitable for many different materials and materials combinations
No fume or heat and low noise emission
Joining of more than two sheets possible

ABB has delivered many body shop using SPR joining technique.

Discover our portfolio

Loading documents

abb.com privacy settings

Our website uses cookies which are necessary for running the website and for providing the services you request. We would also like to set the following optional cookies on your device. You can change these settings any time later by clicking "Change cookie settings" at the bottom of any page. For more information, please read our privacy notice.

Analytics

We collect statistics to understand how many visitors we have, how our visitors interact with the site and how we can improve it. The collected data does not directly identify anyone.

Preferences

We store choices you have made so that they are remembered across visits in order to provide you a more personalized experience.

Advertising and tracking

Your browsing behavior is tracked across websites by advertising and social network service providers. You may see tailored advertising and content on other websites based on your browsing profile.

Show details

Hide details