Dimples add a fair amount of rigidity to a panel while lightening it at the same time. Great for pass-through holes for wiring or lines. If running these through sheet metal holes suggest something like these
This type is great for tight curves. Search term: “Grommet Edging”
Note: joint properly should be at top of hole so if for any reason it opens up wire won’t rub against metal. Yeah it’s a nit, but details count.
On the launch vehicles parts I’ve worked on (mainly Saturn second stage, some ISS), up was opposite the launch force, at least that was how the drawings would have indicated by placement. But then again, they only had survive a few minutes. Vibration dampening was a major consideration - don’t recall any large holes where something passed through that wasn’t clipped or restrained so it could vibrate. Insulating blankets (thermal and sonic) had woven stainless steel cloth panels - about 200 threads per inch, in them to allow the heated air caused by sonic vibration to escape so they wouldn’t explode. Rocket motors cause intense vibration.
On orbiting or zero G vehicles, I’d bet they used sized one piece grommets plus restraints. Expense wasn’t an issue, so they could have them made - and special designs that were light weight. Space craft are in a league of their own with redundant systems, special materials, etc.
Amazing timing this came up. There was a guy going through the tour last Thursday very specifically asking if we had dimple dies. Another member continued discussing various items on the subject but we indicated we don’t currently have them. Maybe it’s a sign we should.
I didn’t see a lot dimpling on commercial aerospace sheet metal since you had to prep the underlying sheet to accommodate the displaced metal. Usually there were countersinks so flush-head fasteners (almost also rivets) could be used.
If a dimple was used, the underlying material usually had something similar to a countersink put in, don’t ever recall seeing a dimple into a dimple, not sure how well the upset would work since it would be wider in diameter than dimple at the exit and would cut into the upset as it was trying to form downward and would probably want to push to manufactured head out so it wouldn’t seat properly.
Hole prep and fastener attachments were unbelievably spec’d out.