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Rivet Nuts vs. Weld Nuts: An Obvious Choice
January 27, 2025 4:09 pm Leave a Comment
Two commonly used fasteners in metal fabrication are rivet nuts and weld nuts. While they might seem similar in function by creating a strong joint, each offers distinct advantages and disadvantages depending on the application. But as you continue to read on, the advantages rivet nuts have over weld nuts are quite substantial in terms of time, waste, and cost effectiveness.

Here are some detailed comparisons to help decide which fastener is best for your application.

What Are Rivet Nuts?

Rivet nuts, or threaded inserts, are tubular fasteners that can be installed into pre-drilled holes in a variety of materials, including thin metals and plastics. They are secured by deforming the body of the nut to collapse and attach to the base material using specialized tools.

Uninstalled and installed rivet nuts

Advantages:
- No Welding Required: Perfect for projects without access to welding equipment.
- Ease of Installation: Can be installed quickly using hand tools or power tools.
- Versatile Applications: Useful in thin or soft materials where traditional threading isn’t feasible.
- Installed Blind: Only need one side of the workpiece to install a rivet nut.
- Removable: Though not ideal, rivet nuts can allow for disassembly and reassembly without damaging the surrounding material. If there is an issue, the entire workpiece isn’t lost and rework can occur.
- Small Footprint: Rivet nuts installation, even in high volume, only need a small handheld tool and air hose hookup. Some tooling even belong on assembly lines. Welding cells take up much more space and are messier, and smellier.
- Can be Installed Post Paint: There is no worries about paint being chipped or discolored after installation. This makes for an easier process instead of painting after installation.
Disadvantages:
- Lower Load Capacity than Weld Nuts: Rivet nuts may not provide the same load-bearing strength as weld nuts, but often times don’t need to.
- Risk of Spinning: If improperly installed, the nut can spin in place, making it difficult to secure fasteners. But with today’s process monitoring tolling, automation, and even calibration units, there are control measures that help deter this and make sure rivet nuts are properly installed so they perform.
When to Choose Rivet Nuts

Rivet nuts are better suited for:
- Thin materials or situations where creating a thread isn’t possible in the base material.
- Applications that are only able to be installed on one side of the work piece.
- Quick installations in lightweight or portable projects.
- Easy to install: operators with limited assembly experience can quickly learn how to install rivet nuts with proper tooling.
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What Are Weld Nuts?

Weld nuts are specialized nuts designed to be permanently affixed to a metal surface using a welding process. They come in various shapes, such as hexagonal, round, or square, and often include flanges or projections to ensure a secure weld.

Weld nuts with a weld splatter on the threads of the installation

Advantages:
- High Strength: Weld nuts are ideal for applications requiring high strength and load-bearing capacity. In some cases they are stronger than rivet nuts, but oftentimes the strength they have isn’t completely necessary to the application.
- Permanent Joint: Once welded, the nut becomes an integral part of the assembly, reducing the risk of loosening over time.
- Vibration Resistance: Excellent for environments where vibration is a concern, as the welded connection resists movement.
Disadvantages:
- Requires Welding Equipment: Welding tools and employees who know how to weld are necessary.
- Non-Removable: Weld nuts are permanent, so disassembly will likely damage the workpiece.
- Heat-Affected Zone: Welding can weaken the surrounding material if not done properly.
- Total cost of installation is more: While the price per fastener might be less expensive in some cases, the time it takes to weld, the cost of welding itself (electricity, plus welder wages), the real cost is more expensive than rivet nuts installation.
- Bigger Floor Footprint: Manufacturing and assembly is about maximizing space so more products can be produced or assembled. Welding takes up considerable more footprint on the floor than what’s needed to install rivet nuts, and ultimately less efficient to the total operation.
- New Spot Welder or Resistance Welder Extremely Expensive: New automated welding equipment are well over $100,000 these days, much more expensive than rivet nut installation systems, including rivet nut automation.
- Need to be Installed Pre-Paint: Because of splatter and discoloration of the welding installation.
When to Choose Weld Nuts

Weld nuts are ideal for:
- Heavy-duty applications, such as automotive chassis.
- Environments where vibration and torque are significant factors.
- Projects where permanent fastening is preferred.
Conclusion

The choice between weld nuts and rivet nuts depends on the specific demands of your project. If you need a permanent, high-strength solution and have welding capabilities, weld nuts are the way to go. However, if you’re working with lightweight materials, need a removable fastener, or lack welding tools, rivet nuts are a versatile and user-friendly alternative.

By understanding the strengths and limitations of each fastener, you can ensure a secure and efficient assembly, no matter the task at hand.
Stainless Steel Rivet Nuts
October 29, 2024 12:42 pm Leave a Comment
Sherex offers has a variety of stainless steel rivet nuts available in different styles. One of the biggest reason to use stainless steel blind rivet nuts is to help battle corrosion. These fasteners are designed to provide strong, threaded connections in thin-walled materials, particularly for applications where only one-sided access is available—often referred to as “blind” installations.

Sherex’s stainless steel rivet nuts come in high-grade 302, 304, 316 and 430 stainless steel, offering excellent resistance to corrosion, chemicals, and harsh environments. They are available in multiple styles, including:

Round Body: These versatile rivet nuts fit standard drilled or punched round holes, providing a straightforward installation for many applications.

Sherex has many stainless steel rivet nuts available in these round body rivet nut styles: CAL, CAK, CFW/CAT (Swaging Series), CFW/CAW (Swaging Series), and NAS/MS style rivet nuts. Soon, Optisert round body rivet nuts will be available in stainless steel to provide the best performance round holes.

Half Hex Body: Known for their increased spin-out resistance, half hex body rivet nuts are ideal for high-torque applications, though they require a hex-shaped hole for installation.

Sherex is an exclusive North American distributer of Tubtara rivet nuts. Tubtara’s HUPO/HUKO half hex series features 304 stainless steel.

Installation Benefits

Stainless steel rivet nuts are a alternative to weld nuts, eliminating issues like thermal distortion, weld-related fumes, and a more expensive total installed cost. They provide high-strength threading for materials that are too thin for traditional tapping, and one-sided installation means they can be used on finished or hard-to-reach components without risking damage to the visible surface.

Applications

Stainless steel rivet nuts are used in various sectors, including automotive, marine, and industrial applications, where long-lasting, vibration-resistant fasteners are critical.
Optisert Receives 2023 Fastener Innovation Award!
February 1, 2024 4:43 pm Leave a Comment
Sherex Fastening Solutions’ Optisert, the best performing round body rivet nut on the market, was recently awarded as a winner of the 2023 Fastener Innovation Awards by WorldwideFastenerSources.com.

The innovative Optisert was chosen as a winner because of its incredible performance against spin-out. Its proprietary combination of an engineered knurled body and underhead wedge design helps it grip into the base material to prevent it from spinning. In softer materials, like aluminum, plastics, and composites, the spin-out performance matches that of a full hex body rivet nut.

This award “aims to recognize the people and companies to encourage Research & Development in the fastener industry,” as stated in the release by Mike McGuire, president of WorldwideFastenerSources.com.

“We are proud that the Fastener Innovation Awards are based on technical advancements compared to what exists in the marketplace today,” McGuire was quoted in the release.

The Certificate of Recognition and Crystal Marquise Globe given to the award winners

This is now the second recognition for Optisert, as it was also a finalist for the Route to Fastener Innovation 2023.

Optisert took over 7 years of research and development to become part of Sherex’s standard part offering. That meant lots of testing and tinkering to make sure Optisert would be ready to perform as a premier round body rivet nut in softer materials.

Optisert’s underhead wedges and engineered knurls give it superior grip

“A driving force in the evaluation process is that the fasteners be innovative in assemblies today and that they will become tomorrow’s standard,” the award release said. “Our philosophy is continuous improvement with innovative solutions for customers’ fastening applications.”

Sherex shares the same philosophy and with more innovations coming soon, more awards should be on the way!
Sherex Fastening Solutions Year in Review 2023!
December 22, 2023 10:01 am Leave a Comment
Hi all! This year seemed to be the year when the COVID pandemic was clearly in the rearview mirror. We launched the best-performing round body rivet nut, Optisert (which customers love), traveled to see our great customers more than ever, and came up with some great solutions for our customers to solve difficult fastening problems.

Optisert Buzz Is Growing

Optisert’s diamond wedges and engineered knurls creates incredible spin-out resistance

While saying Optisert is the best-performing round body rivet nut may sound like marketing talk, we have the data to back it up. Now, we have the customers too. Many assemblers made the switch to Optisert, and one chose the new round body standard over a potential, and costly, change to a hex body rivet nut too.

The benefit is simple: Optisert’s spin-out performance in composite, plastics, carbon fiber, aluminum, and other softer materials is as great as a hex body rivet nut. Spin-out resistance is critical in many applications, and round body rivet nuts have had significantly less spin-out resistance than hex body rivet nuts. Now, if OEMs can’t produce a hex hole, they can feel confident that Optisert can deliver the performance they expect from a threaded fastener.

We’ve seen Optisert in automotive, heavy truck, and general industrial applications with more projects on the way.

Solutions for Heavy Trucks and Construction and Agriculture Equipment

We’ve added two new industry pages and a solutions for composite page that highlight some of the most popular and best practice fasteners for the application.

The Fastener Solutions for Heavy Trucks, Fastener Solutions for Construction and Agriculture Equipment and Fastener Solutions for Composite Materials pages are designed for OEMs and distributors to think about the applications they have and how the joint can be secured better or assembled better. Use the products other assemblers are using in your own to save money and decrease waste.

While many of these our products are standard rivet nut products in our catalog, others are custom solution fasteners designed specifically for the application. Our engineering team will work directly with the OEM to find a solution that is the best performing, cost effective, and makes it easier on assemblies.

Sherex President Adam Pratt Presentation at IFE

Sherex President Adam Pratt had the opportunity to present at IFE and talked about a variety of topics, including how rivet nut fasteners are ideal replacements for weld nuts. The talking points in all of these snippets are great and useful when talking about Sherex products or rivet nut fastening in general.

Take a look at the videos below:

Weld Nuts vs. Rivet Nuts

Sherex Optisert with Installation Data!

Sherex RIV-FLOAT

Why Assemblers Need and Calibration Unit

Benefits to Using Process Monitoring

More Innovations to Come!

Like our Optisert round body rivet nut – Sherex has a few more “game-changers” in the hopper that assemblers will love to get their hands on. As Adam Pratt said in his presentation at IFE, Sherex will always try to innovate and push assemblers to use the best fastener for the application. And with more products to come, that means better fasteners and better applications.
Compression Limiting Rivet Nuts
June 7, 2023 4:32 pm Leave a Comment
In our last blog post, we discussed compression limiters, their usage, and their benefits. However, there is an even simpler solution available: combining a compression limiter with a rivet nut to create a compression limiting rivet nut.

A compression limiting rivet nut integrates both a rivet nut and a compression limiter into a single piece with a unique part number.

Example of a Compression Limiting Rivet Nut

This part offers several advantages:

1. It is a single component instead of two separate parts. This streamlines assembly time and simplifies the ordering process for purchasers, as they only need to consider one part.
2. It is cost-effective. A compression limiter and a rivet nut combined would likely cost more than a specially designed compression limiting rivet nut.

How does it work?:

With a compression limiting rivet nut, it pretty much acts as a rivet nut with a bigger shoulder or spacer combined on top of the rivet nut. When the compression limiting rivet nut installs, it installs into the base material, but the spacer or compression limiter then sits above it as to not distort the material sitting on top.

Top half is the compression limiter, bottom half rivet nut!

Like all compression limiters made and designed by Sherex, they are all unique to the application and the same applies with these compression limiting rivet nuts. They are very popular in automotive applications with pretty much limitless designs: round body, hex body, underhead seals, knurls, ect. Sherex engineering works with the application design engineers to come up with a design that will surpass performance expectations while also being the most cost-effective solution compared to other fastening options.

So, if considering a compression limiter, a compression limiting rivet nut might be the solution you need!
Optisert Rivet Nut vs Hex Body Rivet Nut in Automation
February 15, 2023 4:03 pm Leave a Comment
It’s recommended that if manufacturers and assemblers can create a hex hole, using a hex body rivet nut is the best way to attach a joint together.

But what if you’re using a fastener automation system? Is a hex body rivet nut the best rivet nut to use when installing them automatically through an automation installation system?

Probably not. Especially now with Optisert available.

With high volume installations of rivet nuts, automation is a best practice method. It’s faster than human installation, installations are perfect (and if they’re not the system will let you know), and it doesn’t need a human to install the rivet nuts. But when using a hexagonal hole to install hex body rivet nuts using automation, this is where things get tricky.

Optisert vs. Hex Body Rivet Nut

The automation feeder needs to be able to line up the points of the hex body rivet nut with the points of the hex body hole, perfectly. It’s not ideal, but possible through more expensive automation equipment. With a round body rivet nut into a round hole, there’s no need to worry about the points lining up… because, well, there’s no points on a round body rivet nut or a round hole!

Oh yeah, but what about performance?

So yes, hex body rivet nuts are recommended. It’s the best rivet nut at resisting spin-out. BUT, Optisert can hold its own. Its performance metrics are greater than a half hex body style rivet nut, and more similar to a full hex body style rivet nut in some base materials (softer materials like plastic, composite, aluminum). Plus, Optiserts are less expensive than full hex body style rivet nuts.

So when deciding between full hex rivet nuts and round body rivet nuts for automation, rivet nut performance might not be the first criteria. Ease of installation for the automation system to run efficiently will be a high priority. With Optisert’s performance similar to a hex body rivet nut, and it being a round body, Optisert might very well be the best rivet nut option for automation on the market today.
Sherex Fastening Solutions 2022 Year in Review
December 21, 2022 5:39 pm Leave a Comment
What a year!

It was great getting back to some normalcy. But with getting back to normal and ramping up came with challenges many manufacturers ran into this year: SUPPLY CHAIN. With that said, we feel we navigated supply chain issues better than our competitors and we even made moves that will hopefully mitigate those risks in the future.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from Sherex this year!

Operators LOVE our Calibration Unit and our Process Monitoring Units

Sherex’s Hand Tool Calibration Unit

When we released our Hand Tool Calibration Unit in 2020, we knew this would be a great tool for any installer. And after two years, we keep getting glowing praise. We hate to toot our own horn, but the tool is awesome. There are so many features the tool can provide, like exporting historical data, showing the recommended installation force on Sherex rivet nuts, and even graphing those recommended forces on to calibration unit to make sure the tool is inside of those parameters. By periodically checking the force of any spin-spin or spin-pull tool, you’ll feel confident the tool is operating how you want it, decreasing the guessing game on the pulling force, waste, and rework.

Some of our automotive tiers have had dozens of our FLEX-5 Process Monitoring Tools installed this year. Sherex Process Monitoring Tools let operators know if the rivet nut installation was perfect, instantly. Sherex sets the tool up to determine if the install was correct based on a variety of parameters: hole size, material, material thickness, rivet nut, rivet nut size, pulling force of the tool, etc. When all those parameters qualify, the system reads it as a good installation. This kind of tool combines quality and efficiency, and lets OEMs know, with data, that installations were perfect or not OK. These tools are perfect for high volume installations like on an assembly line and meets the process monitoring requirement many auto manufacturers require.

Our customers have nothing but great things to say on both these quality tools – you must try them if you haven’t already!

Sherex Poland and Sherex UK locations are off and running

We opened Sherex Poland last year and Sherex UK in 2019 and both locations have been building trust and supplying millions of our quality rivet nuts, threaded inserts, clinch nuts, wedge locking products and tools throughout Europe.

These locations serve as engineering, sales, customer support and warehousing for Europe, bringing us closer to our European customers and therefore, decreasing the total length of our supply chain. This year, new customers were pleasantly surprised we had stock AND could ship quickly! Great year by both Sherex Poland and Sherex UK.

Sherex Akron gets big upgrades, improving supply chain

New Part Former Machine at Sherex Akron

Sherex Akron, located in Akron, Ohio, makes all of our aerospace and Department of Defense parts, along with millions of other parts for a variety of other industries, put online two new part formers that as part of Sherex’s global capacity plan. These cold formers have allowed us to diversify the products we make in Akron while decreasing lead times. Akron still is capable of doing many short run jobs, but these part formers will really help with some of the major projects we’ve won throughout the year. Look for lot more product coming out of Akron in the future!

Have a Made in America requirement? Keep Sherex Akron in mind!

Optisert® is coming…

Sherex’s Optisert Rivet Nut

We’ve been talking about it for quite some time, but now it’s ready to be released. Sherex’s new round body rivet nut, Optisert, is set to be released in early 2023. Once released, Optisert will be the best performing round body rivet nut on the market. The combination of knurled body and underhead wedges give it superior strength when installed in softer material — its performance matches and in some cases is greater than a hex body rivet nuts!

This will be the “New Standard” when it comes to round body rivet nut and performance. Stay tuned!!

Look for more industry specific content in the future

You know Sherex has Solutions for EV Automakers, but we also have solutions for Construction and Agriculture, Aerospace, Heavy Truck, Renewable Energy, and more.

Keep a look out for some of that industry specific content to show how Sherex can help make applications in all industries get assembled easier and perform better.

These are some of highlights this year and our strategy going into 2023 and beyond.

Overall, Sherex had a strong year and we’re proud of our team to make that happen. One thing that will never change is our desire to find a solutions to your fastening problem. Customer service is key to our success, and we promise to provide the engineering and customer support you need from design, to manufacture, to assembly!

We wish everyone a happy holiday and best wishes in 2023.
The Perfect Workstation for Installing Rivet Nuts
August 10, 2022 5:20 pm Leave a Comment
What do you need to be successful at installing rivet nuts? Depends who you ask.

For some, it’s just parts and a rivet nut tool. But it really should be more than that.

Let’s take a look at what every rivet nut installer should have at his or her rivet nut workstation:

Hand Tool Calibration Unit
Unless you’re installing parts with a process monitoring tool, you need a Hand Tool Calibration Unit. The Hand Tool Calibration Unit shows the pulling force of the rivet nut installation tool, so users know the exact installation force being used to install the part. A dip in pulling force may set the part improperly, leading to rework and time spent fixing parts the user already installed.

Calipers
Every fastener installer needs calipers at their workstation. Calipers are used to measure the dimension and length of an object. This could be the measurement of the hole, or the installed length of the rivet nut. They help ensure the part was installed correctly too.

Rivet Nut Catalog
The rivet nut catalog has loads of information the user may need during their installations. Everything from grip range, installation length, hole size, part number nomenclature and more. It’s a valuable reference to make sure you’re installing the correct part.

Hex Tool
Hex tool is used to increase or decrease the pressure on your hydro-pneumatic rivet nut tool. By using the Hand Tool Calibration Unit to check the pressure, you’ll know whether to turn the pressure up or down on your rivet nut tool.

Vice Grips
Vice Grips are used to install the headset on the Hand Tool Calibration Unit and change the headset on your tooling.

Rivet Nut Tooling
It goes without saying, you need rivet nut tools to install rivet nuts. There are a variety of fastener installation systems you can use, but preferably it would be a hydro-pneumatic tool as it offers fast installation with the ability to spin the part onto the mandrel itself.

Rivet Nuts
Can’t install rivet nuts without… rivet nuts!

The last two items are pretty obvious, but the others are really necessary to ensure a perfect installations. The Cal Unit so you know the pulling force, the calipers to make sure measurements are to spec, Rivet Nut Catalog to see specs of the part you’re installing, hex tool to change the pressure of the tool, and vice grips to change the mandrel of the Cal Unit. Oh, and you know, rivet nuts and rivet nut tool.

All this will make for some successful installations!
Rivet Nuts for the Aerospace Industry
July 14, 2022 10:50 am Leave a Comment
Sherex makes a variety of NAS/MS round body rivet nuts for the US Aerospace and Department of Defense (DoD) industries out of its Sherex Akron manufacturing facility in Akron Ohio.

As one could imagine, the Aerospace Industry is highly regulated and guided by a variety of certifications and standards that must be adhered to for performance and safety. Sherex Akron is an ISO 9001:2015, QSLM Class 3 and Class 2 certified through the Defense Logistics Agency, and AS9100 compliant. Sherex’s CAGE Code is 7EK30. What does this mean? Our facility and parts have been qualified and meet a certain criteria required by US aerospace manufactures and the DoD. Manufacturers can be sure the parts they receive live up to the high standards required by these associations.

Remember, these parts not only have to hold the plane together, they have to do so while under harsh conditions, like gravity, pressure, turbulence, and vibration. They must be have high tensile strength and have high corrosion resistance while typically being lightweight.

Sherex NAS 1329 and NAS 1330 parts are used in a variety of airplanes and helicopter applications.

Sherex SX aerospace rivet nuts are made of a variety of materials like steel, stainless steel or aluminum, and they are usually round body style with either a flat head (NAS 1329) or countersunk head (NAS 1330). Most of these parts, especially those made of aluminum, are cold formed, so heat is not needed to produce these pieces. Aluminum is not only lightweight, but is resistant to fatigue and features high tensile strength.

Sherex NAS 1329 and 1330 rivet nuts are supplied to a variety of aerospace and DoD manufacturers, including helicopter manufactures. Almost all of applications of Sherex NAS/MS style rivet nuts belong in the cabin and are not considered critical components (like holding the wings onto planes, or landing gear), but nonetheless play an extremely important role in the fuselage and cockpit. One specific application went in the floor of a military helicopter keeping armor together on the floor, and another NAS rivet nut went in the overhead compartment of one of the most popular commercial jet liners ever built.

Aluminum NAS1329 Style Rivet Nuts

Sherex has a number of ongoing projects with the DoD and other Aerospace manufactures and has lots of experience in this industry. To learn more about our Akron capabilities, see our DoD Statement of Capabilities and how we can provide extremely quality, and durable fasteners for any aerospace project.
To use Rivet Nuts or Clinch Nuts?
March 9, 2022 5:52 pm Leave a Comment
By Tyler Jones
Sherex Application Engineer

When material is too thin to tap threads, clinch nuts and rivet nuts are used to help fasten the application. Both rivet nuts and clinch nuts allow for additional components to be attached using these threaded fasteners, and both attach mechanically to the base material. But what’s the difference? Which one is better?

Using a Clinch Nut over a Rivet Nut

Clinch nuts are great. They are smaller, self-clinching, internally threaded nuts that are pressed into the base material. Some of the advantages of using a clinch nut over a rivet nut are:
- Can be installed in very thick base material.
- There can be almost flush installation on the base material with clinch nut installation. Some small flange rivet nuts or countersunk rivet nuts can make near flush installation, but not as flush as clinch nuts.
- There isn’t a specific installation tool for clinch nuts. They can be installed with something like an arbor press, though automation systems are very popular for clinch nut installation.
- Can fit different material geometries than rivet nuts.
Using Rivet Nuts over Clinch Nuts

Rivet nuts are also great. Often referred to blind rivet nuts, they are threaded inserts that install on one side of the application to provide a strong attachment point. Unlike clinch nuts, these are installed by pulling the base of the rivet nut and crimping it to one side of the material, instead of being pressed on. Installation requires specific rivet nut tooling to crimp the rivet nut on to the material. Advantages of rivet nuts of clinch nuts are, generally:
- Rivet nuts have a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and can even feature floating threads.
- Very easy to install with proper tooling.
- Stronger thread. Rivet nuts, generally, and especially with hexagonal body, are more resistance to spin-out than clinch nuts.
- Cost of standard rivet nuts is similar to the cost of a standard clinch nut.
Comparing and Contrasting Installation of Clinch Nuts and Rivet Nuts

When installing Clinch Nuts, access to both sides of the base material is needed. For Rivet Nuts, installation is only needed with having access to one side of the base material or work piece.

As far as tooling is concerned, Rivet nuts and clinch nuts have the ability to be installed using a Spin-Pull Rivet Nut Tools, but for the most part, clinch nuts need to be pressed into the material.

For high volume installations, fastener automation systems are the preferred method to install both clinch nuts and rivet nuts, but some rivet nut hand tools can be used for high volume installation of rivet nuts, including for use on an assembly line. For a manual approach to installing clinch nuts, something as simple as an arbor press can provide installation.

With price between clinch nuts and some standard rivet nuts as fairly similar, factors into determining when to use a clinch nut can be:
- Is there access to install using the backside of the work piece?
- How much thread strength and spin out is required for the application?
- Will installations be performed by an operator or through automation?
The answer to these questions will help determine if a clinch nut or rivet nut will make the best fastener for your application. For suggestions on the best fastener to use for your project, please contact Sherex Fastening Solutions.