What blind rivet sizes are available?
What Blind Rivet Sizes are Available?
Blind riveters are made up of a mandrel, a cylindrical body and a head. They are used as a permanent fastener for materials combining two or more pieces together.
Blind rivets are implemented using a riveter and get their name as they can be installed without the need to see the other side of the materials, leading to the name: blind rivet.
Blind rivets are measured by their diameter and length.
The diameter is not the actual rivet diameter: it relates to the diameter of the drill bit required to produce a hole to accept the rivet. The real diameter of the rivet is slightly smaller.
Blind rivets are used in riveters (also called rivet guns) which install the blind rivets to attach two different materials together.
Available Blind Rivet Sizes
The diameter sizes available for blind rivets are:
Metric series – 2.4, 3, 3.2, 4, 4.8, 5, 6.4 and 7.4mm.
Inch series – 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16, 1/4 and 19/64″.
The available metric series lengths for blind rivets are:
4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 175, 180 and 190mm.
Inch series lengths include:
5/32, 3/16, 7/32, 1/4, 9/32, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1, 1 1/32, 1 1/16, 1 1/8, 1 1/4, 1 9/32, 1 3/8, 1 5/8, 1 3/4, 2, 2 3/16, 2 3/8, 2 5/8, 2 3/4, 3, 3 1/8, 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2, 4 3/4, 5 1/4, 5 1/2, 6, 6 11/32, 6 3/4, 7, 7 1/4 and 7 1/2″.
Grip Range of Blind Rivets
Grip range is the range of thicknesses that a rivet can hold together. This is always shorter than the length of the rivet’s body as it has to take into account the loss of length caused by the deformation of one end of the rivet when it is ‘popped’.
Measuring the thickness of the materials you want to join together will give you the overall correct grip range so you can determine the length of the rivet you need.
For example, if the material you need to join is 10mm thick, then you will require a rivet length of 14mm which provides a grip range of around 9-11mm.
The diameter of solid or blind rivets is the measurement needed to get the correct rivet for the size of the hole you have drilled.
For example, if the hole you have drilled is 5mm then the diameter of the rivet needs to be 4.8mm.
