The Practical Application of Explosive Rivets

THE most common joining medium in aircraft construction, ship construction, coachwork, steelwork and the construction of reservoirs generally is the rivet. As, by this means, the shear stresses are transmitted in the simplest and safest way rivets are used in very large quantities. If we reflect that, in an aeroplane of medium size, there are some 300,000 rivets, the application of which occupies a considerable space of time, it will be obvious that the cost of building an aircraft is very considerably affected thereby. Their use is expensive, in so far as two men are necessary for the hammering of the rivets and good accessibility must be provided at both sides. Where the closing head side was inaccessible hollow rivets have been used, up to the present, since they could be hammered from the other side, but this method had many disadvantages. The strength of these rivets was small, in view of the hollow shank, and they were unsuitable for water‐tight and countersunk riveting.