Abstract
This paper is concerned with joining of thin metal sheets by single stroke clinching process. This method has been used in sheet metal work as it is a simple process and offers the possibility of joining similar-dissimilar thin sheet metals. Clinching generates a joint by overlapping metal sheets deforming plastically by punching and squeezing sequence. AA 5754 aluminum alloy of 0.5 mm thick sheets have been selected as a modal material and the process has been simulated under different process conditions and the results have been analyzed in terms of the quality of clinch joints which are influenced mainly by tool geometries. The rigid-plastic finite element method is applied to analyses in this paper. Analysis is focused mainly on investigation of deformation and material flow patterns influenced by major geometrical parameters such as die diameter, die depth, groove width, and groove corner radius, respectively. To evaluate the quality of clinch joints, four controlling or evaluation parameters have been chosen and they are bottom, neck thickness of bottom and top sheets, and undercut thickness, respectively. It has been concluded from the simulation results that the die geometries such as die depth and diameters are the most decisive process parameters influencing on the quality of clinch joints, and the bottom thickness is the most important evaluation parameter to determine if the quality of clinch joints satisfies the demand for industrial application.
