Sparweb
Aerospace
- May 21, 2003
- 5,109
I’m repairing a free-standing antenna tower (Wade DMX). Replacing the mast support brackets. Removing the rivets was surprisingly easy… so it seems the original manufacturer used aluminum rivets. That was a bit of a surprise, since I would expect bare aluminum rivets in steel to cause a corrosion problem.
I can go on and on about aluminum rivets in aluminum structure (aerospace stuff) but for a structure like this, I'd like to check my assumptions. Should I have expected steel rivets here?
In the pictures below, no sign of corrosion at the rivet holes. There was plenty of corrosion elsewhere on the tower (hence the repairs). The original structure is galvanized, but somehow the galvanized finish was worn off in many places. But all the rivet joints are fine. Is that due to a particular aluminum rivet type that was used? This tower is about 20 years old.
I have lots of “aircraft” style rivets here of many aluminum alloys and have nice coatings, but they're all intended for aluminum structure. Is there a particular aluminum alloy type to be used in steel? By reworking some of these holes, I expect the zinc to be gone.
I can go on and on about aluminum rivets in aluminum structure (aerospace stuff) but for a structure like this, I'd like to check my assumptions. Should I have expected steel rivets here?
In the pictures below, no sign of corrosion at the rivet holes. There was plenty of corrosion elsewhere on the tower (hence the repairs). The original structure is galvanized, but somehow the galvanized finish was worn off in many places. But all the rivet joints are fine. Is that due to a particular aluminum rivet type that was used? This tower is about 20 years old.
I have lots of “aircraft” style rivets here of many aluminum alloys and have nice coatings, but they're all intended for aluminum structure. Is there a particular aluminum alloy type to be used in steel? By reworking some of these holes, I expect the zinc to be gone.
