Mechanical joining of sheets to tubes by squeeze-grooving

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a mechanical joining process to produce sheet-tube connections in a single stroke, at room temperature. The proposed solution is an enhancement of a previous joining by squeeze-grooving process that makes use of two independent mandrels and a customized spacer to control the inner joint radius and to improve its overall aesthetics. The presentation is illustrated with selected examples retrieved from experimentation and finite element modeling. Results show that the new proposed sheet-tube connections are characterized by a better redistribution of material within the joints and a very significant improvement of the pull-out strength. The proposed process also allows connecting a sheet to a tube close to the tube ends, which is impossible to achieve by means of the original joining by squeeze-grooving process.