Rivets are used to join plates together and they have been used for hundreds of years. Before the widespread use of welding, rivets were used in heavy industries such as ship building. The steel plates used to build ships such as the Titanic and the naval Dreadnaughts of World War One were held together by steel rivets.

Rivets have largely being replaced by techniques such as welding and brazing. However, joining plates together with rivets is still a useful technique especially if the plates to be joined are quite small.
Cold rivets are still used in school workshops although the modern pop-riveting technique is more popular.

Below are two steel plates that have been joined permanently using steel 'snap head' rivets. The plates cannot move a part because the rivets hold them firmly together. The rivets shown above are the main types and the heads of each vary in shape. Snap head rivets have been selected for the work shown below because it does not matter that the heads show above the surface of the metal.

QUESTION:

What type of rivet would be chosen if the head of each rivet must be level with the surfaces of the plates?

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2. The diagram below shows two steel plates with four holes drilled through each plate. Sketch each of the rivets above in position, through the holes. Your drawings should show how each rivet will look after the rivetting process has taken place. One of the rivets has already been drawn for you.

4. In the space below describe explain how rivets of this type have been used in the past and how they are used by modern manufacturing sector.

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