Different Types of Rivets Support Evolving Industrial Fastening Requirements

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China - September 11, 2026

Different Types of Rivets: A Practical Guide to Blind and Pop Rivets。This guide is what I wish every new customer read before emailing us. It covers the different types of pop rivets, the head styles, the materials, and the honest answer to which one you should actually use.

What Is a Blind Rivet, and Why Is It Called a Pop Rivet?

A blind rivet is a two-part fastener. There's a hollow body (we call it the shell, or the sleeve) with a pre-formed head on one end, and a mandrel — a solid pin — running through the middle, sticking out the head side.The "pop" comes from the sound the mandrel makes when it breaks. It's also a brand name — POP was one of the original manufacturers — which is why "pop rivet" stuck as the everyday term. Same fastener, two names.

The Different Types of Pop Rivets You'll Actually Use

There are more blind rivet types than most buyers expect. The good news is the whole range splits into a few families. Once you know which family your job belongs to, the choice gets easy.

Open-End Blind Rivets (the Standard Dome Head) This is the default. The body is a straight tube, open at the tail end. When the mandrel pulls, the tail buckles outward into a small bulb. It's fast, cheap, and plenty strong for the majority of sheet-metal work. Use open-end rivets for signage, sheet metal panels, equipment guards, brackets, ductwork (non-sealed), and any general assembly where the fastener itself doesn't need to be watertight. If you're not sure what you need, start here. Most jobs end with an open-end rivet.

Closed-End Blind Rivets: When You Need a Seal Some buyers ask us for "closed end pop rivets" specifically — same thing, just the common name for a sealed-body blind rivet. The tail end of the body is closed off, so the mandrel head deforms a sealed dome on the blind side. The result is a fastener that's watertight and airtight through its own bore. Nothing can leak down the center.

Multi-Grip Rivets A multi-grip (or multi-range) rivet holds a wide span of material thicknesses with a single size. Where a standard rivet's grip range might be, say, 3–4mm, a multi-grip version covers 1.5–8mm or more. Why bother? Inventory. If your shop builds several products with different sheet thicknesses, multi-grip means you stock one rivet instead of four, and operators stop grabbing the wrong length off the rack. The trade-off is price per piece, so it pays off in high-mix, low-volume assembly rather than high-volume repetitive lines.

Structural Blind Rivets When the joint has to carry real load — not just hold panels together — reach for a structural blind rivet. The body is stronger, and the mandrel doesn't just snap off and rattle around loose. On most structural types, the mandrel locks into place at the head, which means no loose core to vibrate out later and a higher shear and tensile rating overall. These show up in truck and trailer bodies, machine frames, agricultural equipment, and anywhere vibration would work a standard rivet loose. If your application is load-bearing and you can't reach the back side, structural is the honest answer.

Tri-Fold and Peel Rivets (for Soft Materials) Some materials are too fragile for a standard rivet. Plastic, composite, thin laminate, and soft sheet can deform or pull through when the tail bulb concentrates clamping force in one spot. Tri-fold rivets solve that with a slotted body that splits into three or four "petals" as the mandrel pulls through. The petals spread the load over a much wider area on the blind side, so the material doesn't tear. Peel rivets work on the same principle with a different split geometry. If you're fastening a plastic panel, a rubber gasket, or a fiberglass part, a standard rivet will often fail. Tri-fold is the fix.

Types of Rivet Heads and When to Use Them

Head style is about the visible side of the joint — how the finished surface looks and whether it sits flush.

Dome head — the standard. Sits proud of the surface, gives a clean, rounded finish. The best all-round choice and the easiest to tool for.

Countersunk head — shaped to sit flush inside a 100° countersink (90° on some lines). You drill a chamfered hole and the head beds into it, leaving a flat surface. Used on trailers, truck bodies, and anywhere a proud head would snag.

Large flange head — the wide bearing surface for soft materials or gaskets, as above.

Custom heads — for genuinely specific jobs (special angles, reduced heights, brand-marked heads), manufacturers can tool a custom head form. It's not cheap, but it exists if the application demands it.

Types of Rivets and Their Uses: The Quick Reference

Blind Rivet Materials (and Why They Matter)

Rivet material is corrosion and strength, not just color. The common combinations:

Aluminum body / steel mandrel — the workhorse. Light, cheap, decent corrosion resistance, good strength for the price.

Aluminum body / stainless mandrel — same body, stronger stem, better shear values. The standard upgrade.

Stainless body / stainless mandrel — for marine, chemical, and food environments. Pricey, but it won't rust where salt and washdowns live.

Steel body / steel mandrel — strong and cheap, but it corrodes. Fine indoors, wrong choice for weather.

Copper and monel — Copper for conductivity and looks, monel for aggressive corrosion plus strength.

How to Choose the Right Pop Rivet: A Manufacturer's Checklist

If you're standing at a bench with a box of rivets and a project, here's the order we work through:

1.Measure the total grip. Stack your materials and measure the combined thickness. The rivet's grip range must cover it. Too short and the bulb can't form; too long and the joint is sloppy. Get this right first.

2.Match the hole. Drill the hole roughly 0.1mm over the rivet diameter. A 4.8mm rivet gets a 5.0mm drill. Too tight and the body won't seat; too loose and the joint weakens.

3.Ask what the joint has to survive. Water? Load? Vibration? Corrosion? That one question usually decides closed-end vs open-end, structural vs standard, and which material.

4.Consider the visible side. Flush or proud? That decides head type.

5.Watch the substrate. Soft or brittle material pulls through with a standard rivet. Switch to tri-fold or large flange before you test a bad part, not after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are pop rivets and blind rivets the same thing? Yes. "Blind" is the technical term (it installs from the blind side). "Pop" is the everyday name from the POP brand and the sound of the mandrel breaking. Same fastener.

Can you reuse a blind rivet? No. The mandrel breaks on install and the body deforms permanently. It's a one-shot fastener — that's by design.

How do you remove a blind rivet? Drill out the head with a drill slightly larger than the rivet body, then knock the rest through. A rivet removal bit makes it cleaner.

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