Electrically conductive sheet metal joints

>Representatives of the automotive industry and its suppliers as well as several manufacturers of joining and fastening technology products participated in the preliminary sessions of the project advisory board performed by the Joining workgroup. Here, a requirements profile and an experimental design were developed, whereby the experimental design was then fully used during implementation in practice. A basic distinction was made between the mechanical joining, the component connection and the mechanical joining with component connection.

>The trial was defined for "long-term stable mechanical joining of components with partially available functional integration through fastening of attachment parts (functional elements)". With a view to the state of the art, the mechanical strength (shear, tensile and turning strength) was taken as much into account for this as the so far almost non-existing demand on the electrical properties of such joints.

>The analysis of the mechanical tests (part 1) provided the evidence that the state of the art is met and the joining systems comply with the mechanical requirements. The electrical tests (part 2) finally determined that clinched joints meet the electrical engineering requirements (quality factor ku < 1.5).