Valley Fastener Group LLC

Valley Fastener maufactures cold headed, solid pins in a variety of materials. We manufacture solid pins in a variety of widths and lengths, able to be customized to your application and needs. A cold-headed pin is a solid, headless cylinder (unlike solid rivets). Among the raw materials used to produce the industrial, solid pins are steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, and copper. Plating and coating options are available and selected by end user dependent on the application. The pins are often used in joints or hinged assemblies where the part is usually captured within the work piece without need for clinching the pin itself. The parts are often required to provide a high shear strength. Valley Fastener specializes in long production runs for solid pins. Contact us today for more information regarding cold-headed, solid pins!

A self-piercing (or metal piercing) rivet is similar to a tubular rivet except that they are produced from a stronger material and can be heat-treated to increase piercing capability. Self piercing rivets are manufactured from a variety of grades of carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel materials. Rivet plating or coating options are selected dependent on the application. Self-piercing rivets often replace spot welding and other “button” style clinch methods when a stronger fastened joint is required. Self-piercing riveted joints rely on the strength of the permanently fastened hardened rivet rather than the softer material being fastened or a difficult to inspect weld. Successfully clinched self pierce riveted joints are much easier to inspect (visually) compared to spot-welded or “button” style clinch methods. When properly installed, self pierced riveted joints will not come apart. Application: The rivet is driven through the top sheet of work-piece material and the bottom sheet is then stretched or extruded into a forming die (anvil). As the bottom sheet is extruded into the anvil form, the tubular end of the rivet is flared out on the forming die (fig 1), securing the sheets together. Depending on rivet length and anvil selected, the flared end of the rivet can be designed to pierce completely through the sheet layers or can be flared within the bottom sheet. When piercing leather or other soft materials, the work piece material “slug” created when the tubular hole at the end of the rivet is driven remains up inside the tubular end of the rivet.

A brake or clutch rivet typically has a 150 degree flat countersunk head. They are recommended for the attachment of friction materials. The countersunk rivet head is designed to mate with the counter bore in the friction material. Industry Standard Brake and Clutch rivets have straight, semi-tubular holes. When a properly designed rivet is matched with a well designed anvil, the rivet will clinch the friction material to the shoe tightly.Many years ago, brake rivets were produced from (expensive) brass material. The Industry then moved to brass plated steel rivets as they still looked like brass but were much less expensive. By the mid to late 1970’s, most brake shoe manufacturers had switched to zinc with yellow dichromate plating. The zinc-yellow plating still looked like brass yet provided better corrosion resistance than brass plated rivets. Brake and clutch rivets today are produced from low carbon steel and are plated with customer specified zinc with yellow or zinc with clear plating.

The rivet jaws control the rivet prior to and as the rivet is being delivered to the anvil during assembly. The jaws are attached by “jaw legs” and often have booster springs attached to the jaw legs to insure the jaws maintain the required amount of squeeze force on the rivet to insure proper feeding. When the rivet machine is cycled, the jaws move downward toward the anvil and stop just above the anvil pin (spring loaded anvil pin) or just above the work piece (on some countersunk hole applications). As the driver (or ram) pushes the rivet head down through the jaws, the rivet is then delivered through the work piece to the anvil form where the actual clinching takes place.

• materialsSteel Stainless steel Aluminum Brass Copper

Valley Fastener Group manufactures a variety of solid rivets, including stainless steel, copper, aluminum, brass and steel flat head rivets. VFG also manufactures solid rivets with a variety of head styles in addition to flat heads. A solid rivet has a manufactured head on one end and a solid shank on the other end. The shank of the rivet can be produced with a straight cut-off or a chamfered cut-off end. A die point can be manufactured into the shank end to aid alignment during assembly. Common head styles are oval, truss, round, button, universal, pan, countersunk and flat. Solid rivets are the strongest rivets used in fastened joints. Secondary heat treatment (anneal) to the rivet can make the rivet more ductile prior to clinching in certain applications. Rivets can be hardened for some applications to improve strength and durability. Rivet plating and coating options are selected dependent on the application. Many solid rivets are ordered with a plain finish as they are painted after assembly.

Valley Fastener Group supplies a large variety of quality anvil tools to clinch your rivets. Roll, star, solid, flare and metal piercing are all available. We insure that our anvil design will precisely match your rivet to provide you with the highest quality clinched rivet joints. Our anvils can fit into any brand of rivet machine. Please fill out our anvil RFQ Form and we can promptly quote your anvil requirements.