Easy disassembly of riveted joints by foaming rivets

• Aluminum rivets containing a foaming agent were fabricated for joining steel plates. • The rivets can be heat-foamed to disassemble the joints. • Easy disassembly of riveted joints can be achieved by foaming the rivets. An easy disassembly technology to release mechanical joints is expected to promote the reuse and recycling of materials for CO 2 reduction. In this study, aluminum rivets containing a foaming agent were fabricated. A rivet was used to join two steel plates and then the rivet was heat-foamed to disassemble the joints. It was found that foaming the rivet can reduce the tensile shear strength of joined steel plates by one-third compared with the joined steel plates without foaming the rivet. Consequently, it was shown that the riveted joints can be easily disassembled by foaming the rivet. Thus, it is considered that they can be easily disassembled and separated into their individual materials.