THE EFFECT OF SETTING VELOCITY ON THE STATIC AND FATIGUE STRENGTHS OF SELF-PIERCING RIVETED JOINTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS Dezhi Li* 1 , Li Han 2 , Andreas Chrysanthou 3 , Mike Shergold 2 , Geraint Williams 1 1 WMG, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK 2 Jaguar Engineering Centre, Jaguar Land Rover, Coventry, CV3 4LF, UK 3 School of Engineering and Technology, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK Keywords: Self-piercing riveting, setting velocity, fatigue, lap shear, T peel Abstract In order to reduce vehicle weight to increase fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emission, more and more automotive manufacturers are now using lightweight materials, such as aluminium, to build part of or the whole body-in-white structure. Due to the advantages over other joining techniques, self-piercing riveting (SPR) is a main joining technique for aluminium structures. In this paper, the effect of setting velocity/force on the joint quality and performance was studied. It was found that in the range studied, the increase of setting velocity increased the static lap shear strength but reduced the static T peel strength of the SPR joints. The results also suggested that the setting velocity did not have significant influence on the lap shear fatigue strength, but the T peel fatigue strength of the joints was increasing with the increase of setting velocity until it reached certain value. An increase in the setting velocity led to a decrease in the rivet head height and an increase in the interlock. In this study, the results showed that the static lap shear strength of SPR joints increased after corrosion and the setting velocity in the range studied did not have obvious influence on the change of lap shear strength after corrosion. Introduction In order to increase the fuel efficiency and reduce the CO 2 emission of modern vehicles, vehicle weight reduction is one important solution. As a result, more and more lightweight materials, such as aluminium, magnesium and composites, are used in automotive body-in-white structures. The use of aluminium alloys can realize the weight-saving target without compromising performance, comfort and safety [1-3]. However, the use of aluminium requires not only a different approach in car design but also a different approach to manufacturing technology and in particular joining methods. As a result, self-piercing riveting (SPR) was introduced into the automotive industry to join aluminium body structures. SPR as a key joining process for aluminium body structures has many advantages, such as no pre-drilled holes requirement, capability to join a wide range of similar or dissimilar materials, capability to join with lubricants and adhesives, no fume emissions, and high static and fatigue strengths etc. Henrob servo SPR systems use stored rotational inertia to set the rivet. The initial rotational velocity of the mass decides the setting force and hence the tool is described as velocity-controlled. Considering the majority applications of SPR is velocity-controlled, it is important to know the effects of this key parameter on the process and joint behavior. Our previous research studied the influence of setting velocity on the tooling life, joint quality and static lap shear strength of an aluminium/steel stack [4]. In this paper, the influence of setting