Process Engineering Transformation of Blind Rivet Production at KOOBESH Kavir Semnan (KKS) Company (Refinement and Improvement)

Abstract

One of the major technical challenges in the production of blind rivets at KKS Company has been the repeated failure of dies mounted on the press machine. This issue led to increased costs for die manufacturing and additional punches. Another significant challenge was the formation of undesirable cracks on the surface of the blind rivets, which resulted in higher defect rates and customer dissatisfaction. The objective of this paper is to improve and modify the production method and process by focusing on redesigning production elements and optimizing the machine mechanism. In this regard, as a first step, the company’s specialists replaced the conventional multi-die method commonly used worldwide for blind rivet production with a single-die approach. The results demonstrate that production efficiency has increased by up to three times, accompanied by a significant boost in production speed. As part of the effort to improve the blind rivet production process, the company’s engineers evaluated and reviewed the cold forging process used to form the rivet head, which contains three times more material volume compared to the shank. By transitioning from a multi-die method to a single-die approach, the skilled engineers of the company not only addressed this challenge but also significantly enhanced overall productivity by reducing the number of processing stages. This technological advancement was successfully implemented for the first time in the world. In terms of its objective, this study is classified as fundamental research, as it introduces a novel method being implemented for the first time. At the same time, given that its results have led to improvements in quality, process efficiency, quantity, and productivity, it also falls under the category of applied research. Furthermore, based on the data collection and analysis methods—including metallurgical testing and real-world production trials—this study is considered experimental research.