Riveting

Riveting is the process of joining materials with a rivet, a permanent mechanical fastener that starts as a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end and an end called the tail on the other. To install a rivet, the tail is inserted through a hole in the parts being joined and then flattened with tools into a shape resembling the original head, called the shop head or buck-tail, so the finished fastener effectively carries a head on each end. This lets a riveted joint support tension loads, but it is markedly better suited to carrying shear loads, those applied perpendicular to the shaft, which is why riveting has long been favored for structural assembly such as aircraft skins, where sheets must resist forces acting across the joint rather than along it.