Clinching in steel and railway construction, shipbuilding and commercial vehicles

Clinching as an alternative joining technology to welding or bolting today is restricted up to circa 4mm single sheet thickness. There is no industrial experience in clinching higher sheet thickness up to 10mm. However, the branches of industry working with thick sheet metal (utility and rail vehicle engineering, shipbuilding and general structural steel engineering) represent a major potential for using this highly efficient and economic joining technology. Thus the need arises to predict the process conditions and joint quality as well by experimental and numerical analysis. This paper demonstrates investigations in both fields to understand the impact of relevant parameters and restrictions of thick sheet clinching.