Experimental Investigation of Flow Drilling and Flow Tapping of Thin-Walled Square and Circular Hollow Sections

Abstract

One of the most important problems of automotive engineering is joining metal sheets, thin-walled tubes or profiles simply, efficiently, and economically. After conventional drilling and tapping in thin-walled materials, the strength remains low due to the small number of teeth and the connection can be easily unfastened. For increasing the strength there are several solutions such as using welded nuts, tapped rivets and welding extra nuts. Since nut welding cannot be done on the inner surfaces, these solutions are inadequate for square and circular tubes. In this study, holes of various diameters were drilled on 1.5 mm thick AISI 304 stainless steel and EN AW-6060 square and circular profiles by flow drilling at various rotational speeds, and then flow tapping was applied to the holes. The same processes were repeated with conventional drilling method to compare bushing heights and clamping strengths of the parts as well as the hardness values and capillary crack formations around the holes. According to the results obtained, the strength in flow drilling and tapping increases by 50-55% compared to the classical drilling method. The reason for this is that as the hole diameter increases, the amount of material plastered and the number of threads required for screwing increases approximately 2.5-3 times. Capillary cracks, which are observed in holes drilled with the traditional method as the hole diameter increases, are not observed with this method and thus increasing the strength of the connection.