According to a new study by P&S Market Research, global sales of self-piercing rivet technology (SPR) will grow at a cumulative annual rate of 26 percent between 2016 and 2022. P&S predicts manufacturers worldwide will consume 45 billion of the fasteners in 2022.
That’s a lot of rivets. Anthony A. Salisbury, business manager for self-piercing rivets at Atlas Copco Group, takes such rosy forecasts with a grain of salt, but he nonetheless agrees that the outlook for SPR is good. The reason, he says, can be summed up in one phrase: automotive lightweighting. To reduce vehicle weight, automakers are increasingly using “exotic” materials, such as aluminum and high-strength steel, in body components.