US Patent Issued to Ford Global Technologies on June 10 for "Self-piercing rivet die, assembly, and method of joining materials with a self-piercing rivet" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,325,061, issued on June 10, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).

"Self-piercing rivet die, assembly, and method of joining materials with a self-piercing rivet" was invented by Garret Sankey Huff (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Andrey M. Ilinich (Novi, Mich.) and Amanda Kay Freis (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of joining substrates includes positioning the substrates on a die and pressing a self-piercing rivet until it penetrates into the bottom substrate and deforms the bottom substrate into a relief of the die defined by at least: a raised central portion, an outer portion disposed about a cent...