Joining of aluminium alloy and mild steel sheets using mechanical clinching

The aluminium alloy and mild steel sheets were joined with mechanical clinching. Deforming behaviour of the two sheets during the clinching was observed from finite element simulation and an experiment to avoid defects. The fracture of the upper sheet, necking and separation are caused by the small upper sheet thickness in the thick total thickness, the small lower sheet thickness in the thick total thickness and the small lower sheet thickness, respectively. The joining range for the combination of the upper aluminium alloy sheet of and the lower steel sheet of is larger than that of the reverse combination. The effect of the difference between the flow stresses of the two sheets on the deformation behaviour was examined.