You are here: Automatic Riveting Equipment Case Study: EV Battery Trays - Sheet Metal
New energy vehicle plants in China already run highly automated lines, yet many component makers and second-tier suppliers still set rivets by hand. This de-identified case shows how automatic riveting equipment changes the math on battery trays and structural parts.
Sheet metal plants care about cycle time and uptime, and the pneumatic line is built around both. Everything below applies to pneumatic rivet gun work in that shop-floor setting.
What sheet metal and enclosure plants should remember: the riveting pain points at component plants; the retrofit: what automatic riveting equipment changed; sealing and pull-force validation; advice for suppliers.
1. The Riveting Pain Points at Component Plants
Battery trays, battery pack auxiliaries, seat frames, and body stampings carry many fastening points and demand high consistency. Hand riveting leaves missed rivets to chance on the night shift and produces no record for the OEM's system audit; on aluminum parts it also makes distortion and sealing hard to control.
2. The Retrofit: What Automatic Riveting Equipment Changed
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Missed rivets at critical points | Visual inspection, occasional misses at night | Counted at each point, incomplete cycle flagged, zero misses |
| Line manpower | 4 riveters | 2 operators tending the machines plus inspection rounds |
| Data traceability | No records | IO feed to PLC/MES, every point checkable |
| Aluminum part quality | Distortion and scratch variation | Fixtures plus scratch-resistant nosepieces, more consistent |
Most sheet metal plants change rivet sizes more often than they change machines.
3. Sealing and Pull-Force Validation
Battery trays rely on structural adhesive, seals, and a combination of blind rivets and rivet nuts. At the trial stage the joint is validated as a whole, by cross-section and material thickness, with pull tests and seal checks. For volume tray production we recommend a robotic or gantry workstation; for parts such as seat frames, an in-line counting dual-gun machine. For the application area see new energy vehicles; for the industry see new energy vehicle and component riveting.
After installing robotic riveting cells and in-line counting dual-gun rivet machines, the plant took missed rivets at critical battery tray and seat frame points to zero, made the data traceable, and cut line labor by about half. It passed the OEM's system audit and took on additional orders.
4. Advice for Suppliers
Start with the station that matters most and is audited hardest. Bring the machine on site, run samples, and collect cycle time, pull force, and missed-rivet data. Then copy the setup station by station, which spreads the investment instead of betting the plant on one large purchase.
Practical Q&A
Yes. In-line and robotic models provide IO signals and count data, and can be tied into the customer's PLC/MES for error proofing and traceability.
Water tightness comes from sealed rivets, rivet nuts, structural adhesive, and seals used together, plus a sealing validation run on the battery tray process during the trial.
Pneumatic Rivet Gun at a glance: 12,800 N pull force, 50-60 rivets per minute, in stock with fast dispatch, on-site commissioning and parts supply.
Bring a sample panel to the trial - the engineer will set the feed and the nosepiece on the spot.
Standard factory work, mainstream pneumatic equipment
Tell us the rivet range and the output target. We will confirm the model, the 50-60 rivets per minute rating, the parts supply and the on-site commissioning.
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