MECHANICAL JOINING OF ALUMINIUM ALLOY SHEETS

Modern lightweight car bodies are becoming more and more complex in comparison with previous constructions.Various materials are used in particular areas of car bodies, serving different purposes.Constructions made of aluminium alloy sheets are widely used in car body production to reduce the total car weight.However, resistance spot welding is not applicable for joining aluminium alloy sheets.Therefore, alternative joining methods are being developed.One of the alternatives is mechanical joining -clinching.The paper focuses on the evaluation of the properties of joints made by clinching.Aluminium alloy sheets EN AW 5754 of hardness H11, H22 and H24 and EN AW 6082 were used for experiments.The tensile test and a metallographic observation were used to evaluate the properties of the clinched joints.Clinching proved to be a suitable technique for joining the observed aluminium alloy sheets.