Recent development in finite element analysis of clinched joints

Clinching is a high-speed mechanical fastening technique for point joining of sheet materials. Published work relating to finite element analysis of clinched joints is reviewed in this paper, in terms of process, strength, and vibration characteristics of the clinched joints. It is concluded that the finite element analysis of clinched joints will help future applications of clinching by allowing system parameters to be selected to give as large a process window as possible for successful joint manufacture. This will allow many tests to be simulated that would currently take too long to perform or be prohibitively expensive in practice.