Rivets are another type of mechanical fastener, which instead of being temporary, rivets are a permanent fastener. Rivets are designed to hold two or more material faces or sheets together, by a constant tension. Rivets consist of a shaft of varying material types, a head end, and a tail end. The tail end is inserted into a hole while the head end acts as a physical or mechanical stop and provides tension on one of the rivet. Once a rivet is inserted into drilled hole or a punched hole, the tail end can then be crimped. A rivet crimping tool is used to cause the tail end to be deformed or misshapen to form another head on what was once the tail end. This provides a strong and constant tension, which is being applied to both ends of the rivet.

This new head formed by the rivet-crimping tool is known as the shop end or buck tail. This indicates it was done secondarily and formed after being inserted through the hole of the material as opposed to being originally fabricated this way.

Rivets vary depending on the application and strength required from the rivet. Some rivets can be as simple as push-in rivets and are made out of plastic. They contain barbs on the shaft to prevent the river from falling, out. However, these are not considered to be very strong.  Other rivets commonly found in the industry are solid, split, tubular, blind, and push-in rivets.