How to install Rivets the correct way

Video transcript

Hello and welcome. Today I’m going to be going over our next Tek Talk which is particularly in relation to bulb type rivets and how to check that they’ve been correctly sealed off and set correctly.

So, you’ll notice there’s two situations that we have here.

Obviously the most common situation is where the rivet has sealed off correctly but it’s imperative that we check whenever we do an installation or recertification. So you can see here how the stem has snapped off correctly. So, a couple of things to check is to make sure that is just above or just below the surface of the top of the rivet and in that case you know that the rivet has then bulbed out correctly.

In a situation like this where you’ll notice the rivet has a large hole or the stem has snapped off right down at the bottom of the rivet. This is now potentially a catastrophic failure as the rivet itself has not bulbed out correctly and it’s absolutely imperative that we check it. So, an easy way to tell is to have a look at where a stem comes out of the rivet, you can see straight away if it has been sealed correctly.

So, I’m just going to show you the next one ‘cos this shows in detail what is a correct type of rivet seal. You can still see the stem and in this situation you cannot see the stem so straight away we know that that rivet has not bulbed out correctly.

In a situation like that it is imperative that you replace that rivet so you need to get an 8mm drill bit and drill that rivet out and then replace it.

Now if it continues to happen what’s actually happening is that the rivet it is hitting the side of the roof deck and not allowing the bulb to bulb out correctly or expand correctly and therefore it could be an issue.

So there’s two ways of doing this you may need to re-drill a hole through the plate to make sure it gets into the centre of the crest. Obviously making sure that you reseal the old hole.

But another way of doing it is actually potentially just swinging the rivet by about a third of a turn and normally that allows the two bulbs to miss the side of the the roof sheet and bulb out correctly.

So, just to recap absolutely imperative to check the rivets. If you can see the stem it’s normally ok. It’s a maximum 4 to 5mm below the top and if you see any dark hole as you can see in this rivet here that is absolutely imperative that it gets replaced and you need to drill it out and replace it.

So, I’m just showing you another example here. You can see this anchor plate. So at a distance you may not be able to pick it up straight away but when you look closely at the rivets you can see these dark holes here so it’s absolutely imperative that we check the rivets whenever you’ve done an installation and if you get this situation they’ve got to be replaced.

We’ll also have a download of this document which is a quick document to have a look at the causes and what is correct or incorrect for these rivets.

Please note that another reason that this may be caused is that the nose tip on the riveter may not be the correct type. Make sure that it has got the correct type nose tip for the 8mm bulb type rivet and that it does seal off correctly.

Thank you for watching and if you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. Thank you.