Is there an easy way to repair glasses if I lost the screw?


Remove the current screw that connects the ear piece to the frame of the eyeglass. Use the screwdriver to insert a new screw. Tighten the screw but stop when you have to force it.

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Torx (pronounced "torks"), developed in 1967 by Camcar Textron, is the trademark for a type of screw head characterized by a 6-point star-shaped pattern. A popular generic name for the drive is star, as in star screwdriver or star bits. The official generic name, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 10664, is hexalobular internal. This is sometimes abbreviated in databases and catalogs as 6lobe (starting with numeral "6", not a capital "G"). Torx Plus is an improved head profile. Torx screws are commonly found on automobiles, motorcycles, bicycle brake systems (disc brakes), hard disk drives, computer systems and consumer electronics. Initially, they were sometimes used in applications requiring tamper resistance, since the drive systems and screwdrivers were not widely available; as drivers became more common, tamper-resistant variants, as described below, were developed. Torx screws are also becoming increasingly popular in construction industries. By design, Torx head screws resist cam-out better than Phillips head or slot head screws. Where Phillips heads were designed to cause the driver to cam out, to prevent overtightening, Torx heads were designed to prevent cam-out. The reason for this was the development of better torque-limiting automatic screwdrivers for use in factories. Rather than rely on the tool slipping out of the screw head when a torque level is reached, thereby risking damage to the driver tip, screw head and/or workpiece, the newer driver design achieves a desired torque consistently. The manufacturer claims this can increase tool bit life by ten times or more.][ The Torx design allows for a higher torque to be exerted than a similarly-sized conventional hex socket head without damaging the head and/or the tool. The diagram on the right depicts the interaction between the male and female components of a conventional hex drive and a Torx drive. The clearance between the components is exaggerated for clarity. The diagram does not show a true Torx profile, but illustrates the general shape and geometry. The green circle, passing through the six points of contact between the two components, represents the direction of the rotational force being exerted at each of those points. Because the plane of contact is not perpendicular to this circle, a radial force is also generated which tends to "burst" the female component and "crush" the male one. If this radial force component is too great for the material to withstand, it will cause the corners to be rounded off one or both components or split the sides of the female part. The magnitude of this force is proportional to the cotangent of the angle (depicted in orange) between the green circle and the contact plane. It can be seen that for the Torx type of design, the angle is much closer to 90 degrees than in the case of the hex head, and so for a given torque the potentially-damaging radial force is much lower. This property allows the head of the fastener to be smaller for the same required torque and this can be of advantage in applications where space to accommodate the head is limited. Torx head sizes are described using the capital letter "T" followed by a number. A smaller number corresponds to a smaller point-to-point dimension of the screw head. Common sizes include T10, T15 and T25, although they reach as high as T100. Only the proper driver can drive a specific head size without risk of damaging the driver or screw. The same series of Torx drivers is used to drive SAE, metric and other thread system fasteners, reducing the number of bit sizes required. The "external" variants of Torx head sizes (see below) are described using the capital letter "E" followed by a number. The "E" numbers are different from the "T" numbers of the same size: for example, an E4 Torx socket fits a T20 head. TTAP, which is also hexalobular, is designed to minimize wobbling without the need for magnetic bits, a feature that can be important to certain industrial users. Standard Torx drivers can be used to drive TTAP screws, but TTAP drivers will not fit standard Torx screws. AW, similar type of screw head developed by the Würth group in Germany. Torx bits T15, T20, T25 and T30 A Torx wrench Closeup of Torx screwdriver tip An assortment of Torx driver bits
A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the internal thread formed into it. Other screw threads are designed to cut a helical groove in a softer material as the screw is inserted. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and to position objects. A screw will always have a head, which is a specially formed section on one end of the screw that allows it to be turned, or driven. Common tools for driving screws include screwdrivers and wrenches. The head is usually larger than the body of the screw, which keeps the screw from being driven deeper than the length of the screw and to provide a bearing surface. There are exceptions; for instance, carriage bolts have a domed head that is not designed to be driven; set screws often have a head smaller than the outer diameter of the screw; J-bolts have a J-shaped head which is not designed to be driven, but rather is usually sunk into concrete allowing it to be used as an anchor bolt. The cylindrical portion of the screw from the underside of the head to the tip is known as the shank; it may be fully threaded or partially threaded. The distance between each thread is called the "pitch". The majority of screws are tightened by clockwise rotation, which is termed a right-hand thread; a common mnemonic device for remembering this when working with screws or bolts is "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey." Screws with left-hand threads are used in exceptional cases. For example, when the screw will be subject to counterclockwise torque (which would work to undo a right-hand thread), a left-hand-threaded screw would be an appropriate choice. The left side pedal of a bicycle has a left-hand thread. More generally, screw may mean any helical device, such as a clamp, a micrometer, a ship's propeller or an Archimedes' screw water pump. There is no universally accepted distinction between a screw and a bolt. Machinery's Handbook describes the distinction as follows: This distinction is consistent with ASME B18.2.1 and some dictionary definitions for screw and bolt. The issue of what is a screw and what is a bolt is not completely resolved with Machinery's Handbook distinction, however, because of confounding terms, the ambiguous nature of some parts of the distinction, and usage variations. Some of these issues are discussed below: ASME standards specify a variety of "Machine Screws" in diameters ranging up to 0.75 in (19.05 mm). These fasteners are often used with nuts as well as driven into tapped holes. They might be considered a screw or a bolt based on the Machinery's Handbook distinction. In practice, they tend to be mostly available in smaller sizes and the smaller sizes are referred to as screws or less ambiguously as machine screws, although some kinds of machine screw can be referred to as stove bolts. ASME standard B18.2.1-1996 specifies Hex Cap Screws that range in size from 0.25–3 in (6.35–76.20 mm) in diameter. These fasteners are very similar to hex bolts. They differ mostly in that they are manufactured to tighter tolerances than the corresponding bolts. Machinery's Handbook refers parenthetically to these fasteners as "Finished Hex Bolts". Reasonably, these fasteners might be referred to as bolts, but based on the US government document Distinguishing Bolts from Screws, the US government might classify them as screws because of the tighter tolerance. In 1991 responding to an influx of counterfeit fasteners Congress passed PL 101-592 "Fastener Quality Act" This resulted in the rewriting of specifications by the ASME B18 committee. B18.2.1 was re-written and as a result they eliminated the "Finished Hex Bolts" and renamed them the "Hex Cap Screw"—a term that had existed in common usage long before, but was now also being codified as an official name for the ASME B18 standard. These terms refer to fasteners that are designed to be threaded into a tapped hole that is in part of the assembly and so based on the Machinery's Handbook distinction they would be screws. Here common terms are at variance with Machinery's Handbook distinction. Lag screws, also sometimes called lag bolts, are basically "large wood screws". Square lag screws and hex lag screws are covered by ASME B18.2.1. A typical lag bolt can range in diameters from 1/4" to 1 1/4", and lengths from 1/4" to 6" or longer, with coarse threads of a wood-screw or sheet-metal-screw threadform (but larger). The head is typically an external hex. The materials are usually carbon steel substrate with a coating of zinc galvanization (for corrosion resistance). The zinc coating may be bright (electroplated), yellow (electroplated), or dull gray hot-dip galvanized. Lag bolts are used to lag together lumber framing, to lag machinery feet to wood floors, and other heavy carpentry applications. These fasteners are clearly "screws" when defined by the Machinery's Handbook distinction. The term "lag bolt" has been replaced by "lag screw" in the Machinery's Handbook. However, in the minds of most tradesmen, they are "bolts", simply because they are large, with hex or square heads. In the United Kingdom, lag bolts/screws are known as coach screws though this can also refer to carriage bolts (round head). The US government made an effort to formalize the difference between a bolt and a screw because different tariffs apply to each. The document seems to have no significant effect on common usage and does not eliminate the ambiguous nature of the distinction between screws and bolts for some threaded fasteners. The document also reflects (although it probably did not originate) significant confusion of terminology usage that differs between the legal/statutory/regulatory community and the fastener industry. The legal/statutory/regulatory wording uses the terms "coarse" and "fine" to refer to the tightness of the tolerance range, referring basically to "high-quality" or "low-quality", but this is a poor choice of terms, because those terms in the fastener industry have a different meaning (referring to the steepness of the helix's lead). Old USS and SAE standards defined cap screws as fasteners with shanks that were threaded to the head and bolts as fasteners with shanks that were partially unthreaded. This is now an obsolete distinction (but standard in UK). The distinctions above are enforced in the controlled vocabulary of standards organizations. Nevertheless, there are sometimes differences between the controlled vocabulary and the natural language use of the words by machinists, auto mechanics and others. These differences reflect linguistic evolution shaped by the changing of technology over centuries. The words bolt and screw have both existed since before today's modern mix of fastener types existed, and the natural usage of those words has evolved retronymously in response to the technological change. (That is, the use of words as names for objects changes as the objects themselves change.) Non-threaded fasteners predominated until the advent of practical, inexpensive screw-cutting in the early 19th century. The basic meaning of the word screw has long involved the idea of a helical screw thread, but the Archimedes screw and the screw gimlet (like a corkscrew) preceded the fastener. The word bolt is also a very old word, and it was used for centuries to refer to metal rods that passed through the substrate to be fastened on the other side, often via nonthreaded means (clinching, forge welding, pinning, wedging, etc.). The connection of this sense to the sense of a door bolt or the crossbow bolt is apparent. In the 19th century, bolts fastened via screw threads were often called screw bolts in contradistinction to clench bolts. In common usage, the distinction (not rigorous) is often that screws are smaller than bolts, and that screws are generally tapered while bolts are not. For example, cylinder head bolts are called "bolts" (at least in North American usage) despite the fact that by some definitions they ought to be called "screws". Their size and their similarity to a bolt that would take a nut seem linguistically to overrule any other factors in this natural word choice proclivity. Bolts have been defined as headed fasteners having external threads that meet an exacting, uniform bolt thread specification (such as ISO metric screw thread M, MJ, Unified Thread Standard UN, UNR, and UNJ) such that they can accept a non-tapered nut. Screws are then defined as headed, externally threaded fasteners that do not meet the above definition of bolts.][ These definitions of screw and bolt eliminate the ambiguity of the Machinery's handbook distinction. And it is for that reason, perhaps, that some people favor them. However, they are neither compliant with common usage of the two words nor are they compliant with formal specifications. Threaded fasteners either have a tapered shank or a non-tapered shank. Fasteners with tapered shanks are designed to either be driven into a substrate directly or into a pilot hole in a substrate. Mating threads are formed in the substrate as these fasteners are driven in. Fasteners with a non-tapered shank are designed to mate with a nut or to be driven into a tapped hole. Lag bolts are usually used with an expanding insert called a lag in masonry or concrete walls, the lag manufactured with a hard metal jacket that bites into the sides of the drilled hole, and the inner metal in the lag being a softer alloy of lead, or zinc alloyed with soft iron. The coarse thread of a lag bolt and lag mesh and deform slightly making a secure near water tight anti-corroding mechanically strong fastening. A socket cap screw, also known as a socket head capscrew, socket screw, "set screw" or Allen bolt, is a type of cap screw with a cylindrical head and hexagonal drive hole. The term socket head capscrew typically refers to a type of threaded fastener whose head diameter is nominally 1.5 times that of the screw shank (major) diameter, with a head height equal to the shank diameter (1960 series design). Forged heat-treated alloy examples are high strength fasteners intended for the most demanding mechanical applications, with special alloy formulations available that are capable of maintaining strength at temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees F (587 degrees C). In addition to the 1960 series design, other head designs include low head, button head and flat head, the latter designed to be seated into countersunk holes. A hex key (sometimes referred to as an Allen wrench or Allen key) or hex driver is required to tighten or loosen a socket screw. Socket head capscrews are commonly used in assemblies that do not provide sufficient clearance for a conventional wrench or socket. A superbolt, or multi-jackbolt tensioner is an alternative type of fastener that retrofits or replaces existing nuts, bolts, or studs. Tension in the bolt is developed by torquing individual jackbolts, which are threaded through the body of the nut and push against a hardened washer. Because of this, the amount of torque required to achieve a given preload is reduced. Installation and removal of any size tensioner is achieved with hand tools, which can be advantageous when dealing with large diameter bolting applications. A hanger screw is a headless fastener that has machine screw threads on one end and self-tapping threads on the other designed to be driven into wood or another soft substrate. Often used for mounting legs to tables. Also known as a dowel screw. Screws and bolts are usually made of steel. Where great resistance to weather or corrosion is required, like in very small screws or medical implants, materials such as stainless steel, brass, titanium, bronze, silicon bronze or monel may be used. Galvanic corrosion of dissimilar metals can be prevented (using aluminum screws for double-glazing tracks for example) by a careful choice of material. Some types of plastic, such as nylon or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), can be threaded and used for fastenings requiring moderate strength and great resistance to corrosion or for the purpose of electrical insulation. Often a surface coating is used to protect the fastener from corrosion (e.g. bright zinc plating for steel screws), to impart a decorative finish (e.g. japanning) or otherwise alter the properties of the base material. Selection criteria of the screw materials include: size, required strength, resistance to corrosion, joint material, cost and temperature. The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) 13th Edition Steel Design Manual section 16.1 chapter J-3 specifies the requirements for bolted structural connections. Structural bolts replaced rivets due to decreasing cost and increasing strength of structural bolts in the 20th century. Connections are formed with two types of joints: slip-critical connections and bearing connections. In slip-critical connections, movement of the connected parts is a serviceability condition and bolts are tightened to a minimum required pretension. Slip is prevented through friction of the "faying" surface, that is the plane of shear for the bolt and where two members make contact. Because friction is proportional to the normal force, connections must be sized with bolts numerous and large enough to provide the required load capacity. However, this greatly decreases the shear capacity of each bolt in the connection. The second type and more common connection is a bearing connection. In this type of connection the bolts carry the load through shear and are only tightened to a "snug-fit". These connections require fewer bolts than slip-critical connections and therefore are a less expensive alternative. Slip-critical connections are more common on flange plates for beam and column splices and moment critical connections. Bearing type connections are used in light weight structures and in member connections where slip is not important and prevention of structural failure is the design constraint. Common bearing type connections include: shear tabs, beam supports, gusset plates in trusses. The numbers stamped on the head of the bolt are referred to the grade of the bolt used in certain application with the strength of a bolt. High-strength steel bolts usually have a hexagonal head with an ISO strength rating (called property class) stamped on the head. And the absence of marking/number indicates a lower grade bolt with low strength. The property classes most often used are 5.8, 8.8, and 10.9. The number before the point is the ultimate tensile strength in MPa divided by 100. The number after the point is 10 times the ratio of tensile yield strength to ultimate tensile strength. For example, a property class 5.8 bolt has a nominal (minimum) ultimate tensile strength of 500 MPa, and a tensile yield strength of 0.8 times ultimate tensile strength or 0.8(500) = 400 MPa. Ultimate tensile strength is the stress at which the bolt fails. Tensile yield strength is the stress at which the bolt will receive a permanent set (an elongation from which it will not recover when the force is removed) of 0.2% offset strain. When elongating a fastener prior to reaching the yield point, the fastener is said to be operating in the elastic region; whereas elongation beyond the yield point is referred to as operating in the plastic region, since the fastener has suffered permanent plastic deformation. Mild steel bolts have property class 4.6. High-strength steel bolts have property class 8.8 or above. The same type of screw or bolt can be made in many different grades of material. For critical high-tensile-strength applications, low-grade bolts may fail, resulting in damage or injury. On SAE-standard bolts, a distinctive pattern of marking is impressed on the heads to allow inspection and validation of the strength of the bolt. However, low-cost counterfeit fasteners may be found with actual strength far less than indicated by the markings. Such inferior fasteners are a danger to life and property when used in aircraft, automobiles, heavy trucks, and similar critical applications. SAE J429 defines the bolt grades for inch-system sized bolts and screws. It defines them by grade, which ranges from 0 to 8, with 8 being the strongest. Higher grades do not exist within the specification. SAE grades 5 and 8 are the most common. The international standard for metric screws is defined by ISO 898, specifically ISO 898-1. SAE J1199 and ASTM F568M are two North American metric standards that closely mimic the ISO standard. In case of inch sizes the grade is dictated by the number of radial shapes plus a value of two. Inch-system bolts use integer values to indicate grades but metric bolts use numbers with one decimal. The two North American standards use the same property class markings as defined by ISO 898. The ASTM standard only includes the following property classes from the ISO standard: 4.6, 4.8, 5.8, 8.8, 9.8, 10.9, and 12.9; it also includes two extra property classes: 8.8.3 and 10.9.3. ASTM property classes are to be stamped on the top of screws and it is preferred that the marking is raised. Some varieties of screw are manufactured with a break-away head, which snaps off when adequate torque is applied. This prevents tampering and also provides an easily inspectable joint to guarantee proper assembly. An example of this is the shear bolts used on vehicle steering columns, to secure the ignition switch. Modern screws employ a wide variety of drive designs, each requiring a different kind of tool to drive in or extract them. The most common screw drives are the slotted and Phillips in the US; hex, Robertson, and Torx are also common in some applications, and Pozidriv has almost completely replaced Phillips in Europe. Some types of drive are intended for automatic assembly in mass-production of such items as automobiles. More exotic screw drive types may be used in situations where tampering is undesirable, such as in electronic appliances that should not be serviced by the home repair person. The hand tool used to drive in most screws is called a screwdriver. A power tool that does the same job is a power screwdriver; power drills may also be used with screw-driving attachments. Where the holding power of the screwed joint is critical, torque-measuring and torque-limiting screwdrivers are used to ensure sufficient but not excessive force is developed by the screw. The hand tool for driving hex head threaded fasteners is a spanner (UK usage) or wrench (US usage). There are many systems for specifying the dimensions of screws, but in much of the world the ISO metric screw thread preferred series has displaced the many older systems. Other relatively common systems include the British Standard Whitworth, BA system (British Association), and the Unified Thread Standard. The basic principles of the ISO metric screw thread are defined in international standard ISO 68-1 and preferred combinations of diameter and pitch are listed in ISO 261. The smaller subset of diameter and pitch combinations commonly used in screws, nuts and bolts is given in ISO 262. The most commonly used pitch value for each diameter is the coarse pitch. For some diameters, one or two additional fine pitch variants are also specified, for special applications such as threads in thin-walled pipes. ISO metric screw threads are designated by the letter M followed by the major diameter of the thread in millimeters (e.g., M8). If the thread does not use the normal coarse pitch (e.g., 1.25 mm in the case of M8), then the pitch in millimeters is also appended with a multiplication sign (e.g. "M8×1" if the screw thread has an outer diameter of 8 mm and advances by 1 mm per 360° rotation). The nominal diameter of a metric screw is the outer diameter of the thread. The tapped hole (or nut) into which the screw fits, has an internal diameter which is the size of the screw minus the pitch of the thread. Thus, an M6 screw, which has a pitch of 1 mm, is made by threading a 6 mm shank, and the nut or threaded hole is made by tapping threads into a hole of 5 mm diameter (6 mm - 1 mm). Metric hexagon bolts, screws and nuts are specified, for example, in British Standard BS 4190 (general purpose screws) and BS 3692 (precision screws). The following table lists the relationship given in these standards between the thread size and the maximal width across the hexagonal flats (wrench size): In addition, the following non-preferred intermediate sizes are specified: The first person to create a standard (in about 1841) was the English engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth. Whitworth screw sizes are still used, both for repairing old machinery and where a coarser thread than the metric fastener thread is required. Whitworth became British Standard Whitworth, abbreviated to BSW (BS 84:1956) and the British Standard Fine (BSF) thread was introduced in 1908 because the Whitworth thread was too coarse for some applications. The thread angle was 55°, and the depth and pitch varied with the diameter of the thread (i.e., the bigger the bolt, the coarser the thread). Spanners for Whitworth bolts are marked with the size of the bolt, not the distance across the flats of the screw head. The most common use of a Whitworth pitch nowadays is in all UK scaffolding. Additionally, the standard photographic tripod thread, which for small cameras is 1/4" Whitworth (20 tpi) and for medium/large format cameras is 3/8" Whitworth (16 tpi). It is also used for microphone stands and their appropriate clips, again in both sizes, along with "thread adapters" to allow the smaller size to attach to items requiring the larger thread. Note that while 1/4" UNC bolts fit 1/4" BSW camera tripod bushes, yield strength is reduced by the different thread angles of 60° and 55° respectively. A later standard established in the United Kingdom was the British Association (BA) screw threads, named after the British Association for Advancement of Science. Screws were described as "2BA", "4BA" etc., the odd numbers being rarely used, except in equipment made prior to the 1970s for telephone exchanges in the UK. This equipment made extensive use of odd-numbered BA screws, in order—it may be suspected—to reduce theft. BA threads are specified by British Standard BS 93:1951 "Specification for British Association (B.A.) screw threads with tolerances for sizes 0 B.A. to 16 B.A." While not related to ISO metric screws, the sizes were actually defined in metric terms, a 0BA thread having a 6 mm diameter and 1 mm pitch. Other threads in the BA series are related to 0BA in a geometric series with the common factors 0.9 and 1.2. For example, a 4BA thread has pitch \scriptstyle p=0.9^4 mm (0.65mm) and diameter \scriptstyle 6p^{1.2} mm (3.62mm). Although 0BA has the same diameter and pitch as ISO M6, the threads have different forms and are not compatible. BA threads are still common in some niche applications. Certain types of fine machinery, such as moving-coil meters and clocks, tend to have BA threads wherever they are manufactured. BA sizes were also used extensively in aircraft, especially those manufactured in the United Kingdom. BA sizing is still used in railway signalling, mainly for the termination of electrical equipment and cabling. BA threads are extensively used in Model Engineering where the smaller hex head sizes make scale fastenings easier to represent. As a result many UK Model Engineering suppliers still carry stocks of BA fasteners up to typically 8BA and 10BA. 5BA is also commonly used as it can be threaded onto 1/8 rod. The Unified Thread Standard (UTS) is most commonly used in the United States of America, but is also extensively used in Canada and occasionally in other countries. The size of a UTS screw is described using the following format: X-Y, where X is the nominal size (the hole or slot size in standard manufacturing practice through which the shaft of the screw can easily be pushed) and Y is the threads per inch (TPI). For sizes inch and larger the size is given as a fraction; for sizes less than this an integer is used, ranging from 0 to 16. The integer sizes can be converted to the actual diameter by using the formula 0.060 + 0.013 * number. For example, a #4 screw is 0.060 + 0.013 * 4 = 0.112 inches in diameter. For most size screws there are multiple TPI available, with the most common being designated a Unified Coarse Thread (UNC or UN) and Unified Fine Thread (UNF or UF). There are three steps in manufacturing a screw: heading, thread rolling, and coating. Screws are normally made from wire, which is supplied in large coils, or round bar stock for larger screws. The wire or rod is then cut to the proper length for the type of screw being made; this workpiece is known as a blank. It is then cold headed, which is a cold working process. Heading produces the head of the screw. The shape of the die in the machine dictates what features are pressed into the screw head; for example a flat head screw uses a flat die. For more complicated shapes two heading processes are required to get all of the features into the screw head. This production method is used because heading has a very high production rate, and produces virtually no waste material. Slotted head screws require an extra step to cut the slot in the head; this is done on a slotting machine. These machines are essentially stripped down milling machines designed to process as many blanks as possible. The blanks are then polished][ again prior to threading. The threads are usually produced via thread rolling, however some are cut. The workpiece is then tumble finished with wood and leather media to do final cleaning and polishing.][ For most screws, a coating, such as electroplating with zinc (galvanizing) or applying black oxide, is applied to prevent corrosion. While a recent hypothesis attributes the Archimedes' screw to Sennacherib, King of Assyria, archaeological finds and pictorial evidence only appear in the Hellenistic period and the standard view holds the device to be a Greek invention, most probably by the 3rd century BC polymath Archimedes himself.] [ Though resembling a screw, this is not a screw in the usual sense of the word. The screw was later described by the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum (428–350 BC). By the 1st century BC, wooden screws were commonly used throughout the Mediterranean world in devices such as oil and wine presses. Metal screws used as fasteners were rare in Europe before the 15th century, if known at all. Rybczynski has shown that handheld screwdrivers (formerly called "turnscrews" in English, in more direct parallel to their original French name, tournevis) have existed since medieval times (the 1580s at the latest), although they probably did not become truly widespread until after 1800, once threaded fasteners themselves had become commodified, as detailed below. There were many forms of fastening in use before threaded fasteners became widespread. They tended to involve carpentry and smithing rather than machining, and they involved concepts such as dowels and pins, wedging, mortises and tenons, dovetails, nailing (with or without clenching the nail ends), forge welding, and many kinds of binding with cord made of leather or fiber, using many kinds of knots. Prior to the mid-19th century, cotter pins or pin bolts, and "clinch bolts" (now called rivets), were used in shipbuilding. The metal screw did not become a common fastener until machine tools for their mass production were developed toward the end of the 18th century. This development blossomed in the 1760s and 1770s along two separate paths that soon converged: the mass production of wood screws [meaning screws made of metal to be used in wood] in a specialized, single-purpose, high-volume-production machine tool; and the low-count, toolroom-style production of machine screws (V-thread) with easy selection among various pitches (whatever the machinist happened to need on any given day). The first path was pioneered by brothers Job and William Wyatt of Staffordshire, UK, who patented in 1760 a machine that we might today best call a screw machine of an early and prescient sort. It made use of a leadscrew to guide the cutter to produce the desired pitch, and the slot was cut with a rotary file while the main spindle held still (presaging live tools on lathes 250 years later). Not until 1776 did the Wyatt brothers have a wood-screw factory up and running. Their enterprise failed, but new owners soon made it prosper, and in the 1780s they were producing 16,000 screws a day with only 30 employees—the kind of industrial productivity and output volume that would later be characteristic of modern industry but was revolutionary at the time. Meanwhile, English instrument maker Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800) was working on the toolmaking and instrument-making end of the screw-cutting problem, and in 1777 he invented the first satisfactory screw-cutting lathe. The British engineer Henry Maudslay (1771–1831) gained fame by popularizing such lathes with his screw-cutting lathes of 1797 and 1800, containing the trifecta of leadscrew, slide rest, and change-gear gear train, all in the right proportions for industrial machining. In a sense he unified the paths of the Wyatts and Ramsden and did for machine screws what had already been done for wood screws, i.e., significant easing of production spurring commodification. His firm would remain a leader in machine tools for decades afterward. A misquoting of James Nasmyth popularized the notion that Maudslay had invented the slide rest, but this was incorrect; however, his lathes helped to popularize it. These developments of the 1760–1800 era, with the Wyatts and Maudslay being arguably the most important drivers, caused great increase in the use of threaded fasteners. Standardization of threadforms began almost immediately, but it was not quickly completed; it has been an evolving process ever since. Further improvements to the mass production of screws continued to push unit prices lower and lower for decades to come, throughout the 19th century. The development of the turret lathe (1840s) and of automatic screw machines derived from it (1870s) drastically reduced the unit cost of threaded fasteners by increasingly automating the machine tool control. This cost reduction spurred ever greater use of screws. Throughout the 19th century, the most commonly used forms of screw head (that is, drive types) were simple internal-wrenching straight slots and external-wrenching squares and hexagons. These were easy to machine and served most applications adequately. Rybczynski describes a flurry of patents for alternative drive types in the 1860s through 1890s, but explains that these were patented but not manufactured due to the difficulties and expense of doing so at the time. In 1908, Canadian P. L. Robertson was the first to make the internal-wrenching square socket drive a practical reality by developing just the right design (slight taper angles and overall proportions) to allow the head to be stamped easily but successfully, with the metal cold forming as desired rather than being sheared or displaced in unwanted ways. Practical manufacture of the internal-wrenching hexagon drive (hex socket) shortly followed in 1911. In the early 1930s, the Phillips-head screw was invented by Henry F. Phillips. Threadform standardization further improved in the late 1940s, when the ISO metric screw thread and the Unified Thread Standard were defined. Precision screws, for controlling motion rather than fastening, developed around the turn of the 19th century, were one of the central technical advances, along with flat surfaces, that enabled the industrial revolution. They are key components of micrometers and lathes. Alternative fastening methods are:
A set screw is a type of screw generally used to secure an object within or against another object. The most common examples are securing a pulley or gear to a shaft. Set screws are usually headless (also called blind), meaning that the screw is fully threaded and has no head projecting past the major diameter of the screw thread. A blind set screw (known in the UK as a grub screw, quite possibly from its figurative resemblance to a soil-dwelling grub) is almost always driven with an internal-wrenching drive, such as a hex socket (Allen), star (Torx), square socket (Robertson), or slot. The set screw passes through a threaded hole in the outer object and is tightened against the inner object to prevent it from moving relative to the outer object. It exerts compressional or clamping force through the bottom tip that projects through the hole. An example application is when a set screw is screwed into a pulley hub so that its end-point bears firmly against the shaft. The fastening action is by friction between the screw and the shaft, often (but not always) with some amount of elastic or plastic deformation of one or both.
Set screws are not always the best way to resist the torque of driven shafts. To reduce the chance of slipping and to increase load capacity, a detent (often called a "flat") may be milled or ground at the part of the shaft where the set screw's point contacts. The detent, however, must be closely aligned with the threaded hole prior to fastening. The operator can often feel the screw push the flat into final alignment as he or she makes the last half- or quarter-turn that tightens the screw. Set screws can successfully hold against heavy-torque applications if the details are right. For example, endmill holders of the solid type typically use large set screws holding against flats to fasten the endmill, and heavy loads are resisted. However, small set screws without flats are prone to spinning and galling if overloaded. The use of keys and keyways instead of, or in combination with, set screws is common for applications requiring high torque resistance or transmission. Splines offer yet more strength. For longer life, set screws are usually made of alloy steel and case hardened. Hardened set screws often leave a plastic deformation, in the form of a circular or semicircular mark, in the shaft that the screw sets against. This has both pros and cons. On the pro side, such deformation increases the holding power (torque resistance) of the joint, as the screw is essentially "making its own detent" on a small but effective scale. On the con side, if one is aiming to have a blemish-free cosmetic finish on the part being set against, one must take actions to prevent the circular marks. In most set screw applications, this consideration is irrelevant. Another con is that this plastic deformation can cause corresponding high points in the shaft surrounding the circular mark. This can result in difficulties during dis-assembly if a bearing or other tightly toleranced part needs to slide past this area. Use of a flat mitigates this problem. Set screws appear with a variety of tip (point) types. The different shaped tips have different properties that engineers can utilize. If an engineer were to use a detent to ensure proper nesting of the screw, they might choose to use a cone point type of screw. One might often need to use a flat point when the screw must press perfectly flat against a surface. The most common type is the cup point. This type works well because the surface is rounded so that a small surface area is in contact, but it does not have extremely high stress at one point like that of a cone point. Durability studies show that the cup point offers superior resistance to wear while maintaining a strong grip. Knurled cup points offer the added advantage of a locking action (similar to that of a serrated lock washer) that prevents the screws from working loose in high-vibration applications (such as machinery that vibrates a lot while running). Common points include the following: Set screws are made with a variety of drive styles, including the following: The concept of set screws is many centuries old. Headless set screws have been around for a long time, with the straight slot being the oldest drive type (due to its ease of machining), but the demand for headless set screws experienced a marked increase in the first decade of the 20th century, when a penchant for better industrial safety, a campaign with the slogan "safety first", swept the industrialized nations of North America and Europe as a part of the larger Progressive Movement. This surge in safety consciousness was a backlash against the often-atrocious industrial safety standards (or, mostly, lack thereof) during the era of robber baron captains of industry in the Gilded Age. H.T. Hallowell, Sr., a U.S. industrialist whose corporation pioneered the commercialization of the hex socket drive, noted in his memoir that line shafting, which was positively ubiquitous in the industrial practice of the time, often had headed set screws (with external-wrenching square drive) holding the many pulleys to the line shafts, and collars holding the shafts from axial movement. Gear trains of exposed gears were also common at the time, and those, too, often used headed set screws, holding the gears to the shafts. His company's chief products at the time were shaft hangers and shaft collars of pressed-steel construction. The "safety craze" created a burgeoning demand for headless set screws on pulleys, gears, and collars to replace the headed ones, so that workers' clothing and fingers were less likely to catch on the exposed rotating screw head. It was this heightened demand that prompted Hallowell's firm to get into the screw-making business and to explore socket-head drive designs. With P.L. Robertson holding fresh patent rights on a practical-to-make square-socket drive, the firm soon pursued the hex socket drive.
A screw extractor is a tool used expressly for removing broken or seized screws. There are two types; one has a spiral flute structure, which is commonly known by the trademarked name Easy Out; the other has a straight flute structure. The tools are made of very hard, brittle steel; they can break off inside the screw if too much torque is applied, making the removal much more difficult. A spiral screw extractor is itself a coarse-pitched tapered screw thread. They are left-handed, for use on right-handed threads. The screw is first drilled out to the proper diameter for that extractor. The extractor is then inserted into this hole and turned counter-clockwise using a tap wrench. As the extractor is turned the flutes on the tool dig into the screw, causing it to lock tightly and apply sufficient torque to remove the screw. A drawback to tapered screw extractors is that their wedge action tends to expand the drilled, and thus weakened, screw. This wedging action can lock the screw even more tightly in place, making it difficult or impossible to extract. Straight fluted extractors come in a kit that also has associated drills, drill bushings, and special nuts. The screw is drilled out with the appropriate drill and drill bushing. The extractor is then hammered into the hole with a brass hammer, because a steel hammer will cause the extractor to break. The appropriate special nut is then attached to the end of the extractor. The nuts can then be turned with a wrench to remove the screw. Straight fluted extractors have less wedging effect than tapered screw extractors, so have less tendency to lock the screws into place. A further form is a parallel fluted extractor, with no taper at all and thus no wedging. These work well, but have the drawback of requiring the pilot hole to be drilled to a precise size. This size is often non-standard for most drill sets, requiring a dedicated drill bit to be supplied with the kit.
A screwdriver is a hand-tool for turning (driving) screws (and sometimes bolts or other machine elements with a mating drive system). A typical screwdriver comprises: an approximately cylindrical handle of a size and shape to be held by a human hand; an axial shaft embedded in, and protruding from, the handle; and, a tip found at the end of the shaft, opposite the handle. The handle and shaft allow the screwdriver to be positioned and supported and, by rotating the handle, torque is applied to the tip via the screwdriver's shaft. A screwdriver is typically identified by its tip, which is shaped to fit, or mate with, a screw the head of which has a particular contour, or surface shape. A screwdriver is, thus, a mechanism to apply torque to a screw. Proper use of a screwdriver requires that the screwdriver's tip engages with the head of a screw having the same size and type designation as the screwdriver itself. Screwdriver tips are available in a large variety of shapes and sizes. Most screwdrivers, being hand-tools, are operated manually, but it is not uncommon to find screwdrivers that are operated by an electric motor or other motor. The earliest screwdrivers of which written evidence remains were used in Europe in the late Middle Ages. It seems that they were probably invented in the late 15th century either in Germany or France. The tool's original names in German and French were Schraubendreher (screwturner) and tournevis (turnscrew), respectively, reflecting the native linguistic patterns of Germanic and Romance languages ("noun-verber" and "verb-noun", respectively). The first documentation of the tool is in the medieval of Wolfegg CastleHousebook, a manuscript written sometime between 1475 and 1490. These earliest screwdrivers had pear-shaped handles and were made for slotted screws (diversification of the many types of screwdrivers did not emerge until the Gilded Age). The screwdriver remained inconspicuous, however, as evidence of its existence throughout the next 300 years was based primarily on the presence of screws. Screws were used in the 15th century for constructing screw-cutting lathes, for securing breastplates, backplates, and helmets on medieval jousting armor, and eventually for multiple parts of the emerging firearms, particularly the matchlock. Screws, hence screwdrivers, were not used in full combat armor, most likely to give the wearer freedom of movement.][ The jaws holding the pyrites inside medieval guns were secured with screws, and the need to constantly replace the pyrites resulted in considerable refinement of the screwdriver. The tool was much more documented in France, and took on many different shapes and sizes, though every version was still designed for slotted screws. There were large, heavy duty screwdrivers for building and repairing large machines, and smaller screwdrivers for refined cabinet work. The screwdriver was entirely dependent on the screw, and it was not until several advances that the screw became easy enough to produce to become popular and widespread. The most popular door hinge at the time was the butt-hinge, but it was considered a luxury. The butt-hinge was handmade, and its constant motion meant that it required the security of a screw. Screws were very hard to produce before the First Industrial Revolution, requiring manufacture of a conical helix. The brothers Job and William Wyatt found a way to produce a screw on an assembly line machine that first cut the slotted head, and then carved the helix. Though their business ultimately failed, their contribution to low-cost manufacturing of the screw ultimately led to a vast increase in the screw and the screwdriver’s popularity. The increase in popularity gradually led to refinement and eventually diversification of the screwdriver. Refinement of the precision of screws also significantly contributed to the boom in production, mostly by increasing its efficiency and standardizing sizes, important precursors to industrial manufacture. Canadian P.L. Robertson, although he was not the first person to patent the idea of socket-head screws, was the first person to successfully commercialize them, starting in 1908. Socket screws rapidly grew in popularity, and are still a favorite of mechanics today for their resistance to wear and tear, compatibility with hex keys, and ability to stop a power tool when set. Though immensely popular, Robertson had trouble marketing his invention to the newly booming auto industry, for he was unwilling to relinquish his patents. Meanwhile, Henry F. Phillips patented his own invention, an improved version of a deep socket with a cruciform, today known as the Phillips Screw. The Phillips screw was offered by Phillips to the American Screw Company, and after a successful trial on the 1936 Cadillac, quickly swept through the American auto industry. With the Industrial Revival at the end of the Great Depression and the onslaught of World War II, the Phillips screw quickly became, and still remains, the most popular screw in the world. A main attraction for the screw was that conventional slotted screwdrivers could also be used on them, which ostracized the Robertson Screw, still a favorite among experts. The screwdriver remains one of the most common tools both in household use and in professional manufacture. Gunsmiths still refer to a screwdriver as a "turnscrew", under which name it is an important part of a set of pistols. The name was common in earlier centuries, used by cabinet makers and shipwrights and perhaps other trades. The cabinet-maker's screwdriver is one of the longest-established handle forms, somewhat oval or ellipsoid in cross section. This is variously attributed to improving grip or preventing the tool rolling off the bench. The shape has been popular for a couple of hundred years. It is usually associated with a plain head for slotted screws, but has been used with many head forms. Modern plastic screwdrivers use a handle with a roughly hexagonal cross section to achieve these same two goals, a far cry from the pear-shaped handle of the original 15th century screwdriver. Screwdrivers come in a large variety of sizes to match those of screws, from tiny jeweler's screwdrivers up. If a screwdriver that is not the right size and type for the screw is used, it is likely that the screw will be damaged in the process of tightening it. This is less important for PoziDriv and SupaDriv, which are designed specifically to be more tolerant of size mismatch. When tightening a screw with force, it is important to press the head hard into the screw, again to avoid damaging the screw. Some screwdriver tips are magnetic, so that the screw remains attached to the screwdriver without requiring external force. This is particularly useful in small screws, which are otherwise difficult to handle. Many screwdriver designs have a handle with detachable tip (the part of the screwdriver which engages with the screw), called bits as with drill bits, allowing a set of one handle and several heads to be used for a variety of screw sizes and types. Many modern electrical appliances, if they contain screws at all, often use screws with heads other than the typical slotted or Phillips styles. Torx is one such pattern that has become very widespread. The main cause of this trend is manufacturing efficiency: Torx and other types are designed so the driver will not slip out of the fastener as will a Phillips driver. (Slotted screws are rarely used in mass-produced devices, since the driver is not inherently centered on the fastener.) A benefit/disadvantage of non-typical fasteners (depending on your point of view) is that it can be more difficult for users of a device to disassemble it than if more-common head types were used, but Torx and other drivers are widely available. Specialized patterns of security screws are also used, such as the Line Head (LH) style by OSG System Products, Japan, as used in many Nintendo consoles, though drivers for the more common security heads are, again, readily available. The handle and shaft of screwdrivers have changed considerably over time. The design is influenced by both purpose and manufacturing requirements. The "Perfect Pattern Handle"][ screwdriver was first manufactured by HD Smith & Company that operated from 1850 to 1900. Many manufacturers adopted this handle design worldwide. The "Flat Bladed" screwdriver was another design composed of drop-forged steel with riveted wood handles. The shape and material of many modern screwdriver handles are designed to fit comfortably in the user's hand, for user comfort and to allow maximum control and torque to be applied. Designs include indentations for the user's fingers, and have a surface made of a soft material such as thermoplastic rubber to increase comfort and provide better grip, allowing more torque to be applied. Composite handles of rigid plastic and rubber are also common. Many screwdriver handles are not smooth and often not round, but have flats or other irregularities to improve grip and to prevent the tool from rolling when on a flat surface. Some screwdrivers have an in-line nut at the top of the blade, adjacent to the handle, so that a ring spanner or open wrench can be used to increase the applied torque. The offset screwdriver has a handle set at right angles to the small blade, providing access to narrow spaces and giving extra torque. A screwdriver can be used indifferently in the left or right hand. There is no such thing as a "left-handed screwdriver"; to be sent to find one is a fool's errand, often used as a test of stupidity, or is used as a metaphor for something useless. The term "Birmingham screwdriver" (like "Glasgow socket set") is used jokingly in the UK to denote a hammer or sledgehammer. The tool used to drive a slotted screw head is called a "flat-blade", "slot-head", "straight", "flat", "flat-tip", or "flat-head" screwdriver. This last usage can sometimes be confusing, because the term "flat-head" is also used to describe a screw with a flat top, designed to be installed in a countersunk hole. Such a flat-headed screw may have a slotted, cross, square recessed, or combination head. Among slotted screw drivers, there are a couple of major variations at the blade or bit end involving the profile of the blade as viewed face-on (from the side of the tool). The more common type is sometimes referred to as keystone, where the blade profile is slightly flared before tapering off at the end.][ To maximize access in space-restricted applications, the cabinet variant screwdriver blade sides are straight and parallel, reaching the end of the blade at a right angle; this design is also frequently used in jeweler's screwdrivers, among other applications. Many textbooks and vocational schools instruct mechanics to grind down the tip of the blade, which, due to the taper, will increase its thickness and consequently allow more precise engagement with the slot in the screw. This approach is intended to create a set of graduated slotted screwdrivers that can be select fitted to a particular screw for a tighter engagement and to reduce the deformation of the screw head. However, many better-quality screwdriver blades have already been induction-hardened (surface heat-treated), and tip grinding after manufacture will compromise their durability. Thus, it is best to select a tip that was precisely made to fit properly to begin with, and to avoid weakening the factory heat-treatment. Phillips screwdrivers come in several standard sizes, ranging from tiny "jeweler's" to those used for automobile frame assembly, or #00 to #3 respectively. This number is usually stamped onto the shank (shaft) or handle for identification. Each bit size can fit a range of screw sizes, more or less well. Each Phillips screwdriver size also has a related shank diameter. The driver has a 57° point and tapered, unsharp (rounded) flutes. By far the most commonly found size around the household, automobile, and office is the #2, —which fits computers, printers and photocopiers, light switches, carburetors, furniture, household appliances, door hinges, and so forth. The second most commonly seen household Phillips screw is the #1, which fits calculators, cameras, smaller toys, and cell phone sized devices. The #1 and smaller bits come to a blunt point, but the #2 and above have no point, but rather a nearly squared-off tip, making each size incompatible with the other. A "#2 x 6 Phillips screwdriver" designation as commonly seen in the tool catalogs describes a Number Two bit with a six-inch-long shank. The rounded, tapered slots of the Phillips head were deliberately designed for the screwdriver to "cam out" (pop out) of the screw head recess under high torque on high-speed factory assembly lines. This prevents stripping damage to the screw threads, at the expense of possible damage to the recess in the screw head. Modern torque-limiting power driver tools for professional use eliminate overtorquing damage much more reliably. Market inertia and ignorance of the design's historical intent have led to widespread misapplication of Phillips head fasteners in applications where cam-out is not desirable. Some Phillips head screwdrivers have been manufactured with hardened "anti-cam-out" (ACO) grooves in an attempt to defeat this designed-in behavior. Robertson, also known as a square, or Scrulox screw drive has a square-shaped socket in the screw head and a square protrusion on the tool. Both the tool and the socket have a taper, which makes inserting the tool easier, and also tends to help keep the screw on the tool tip without the user needing to hold it there. (The taper's earliest reason for being was to make the manufacture of the screws practical using cold forming of the heads, but its other advantages helped popularize the drive.) Robertson screws are commonplace in Canada, though they have been used elsewhere and have become much more common in other countries in recent decades. Robertson screwdrivers are easy to use one-handed, because the tapered socket tends to retain the screw, even if it is shaken. They also allow for the use of angled screw drivers and trim head screws. The socket-headed Robertson screws are self-centering, reduce cam out, stop a power tool when set, and can be removed if painted-over or old and rusty. In industry, they speed up production and reduce product damage. One of their first major industrial uses was the Ford Motor Company's Model A & Model T production. Henry Ford found them highly reliable and saved considerable production time, but when he couldn't secure licensing for them in the United States, limited their production use to his Canadian division. Robertson-head screwdrivers are available in a standard range of tip-sizes, from 1.77mm to 4.85mm. Reed and Prince, also called Frearson, is another historic cross-head screw configuration. The cross in the screw head is sharper and less rounded than a Phillips, and the bit has 45° flukes and a sharper, pointed end. Also, the Phillips screw slot is not as deep as the Reed and Prince slot. In theory the different size R&P screws will fit any R&P bit size. Pozidriv and the related Supadriv are widely used in Europe and most of the Far East][. While Pozidriv screws have cross heads like Phillips and are sometimes thought to be effectively the same, the Pozidriv design allows higher torque to be applied than Phillips. It is often claimed that they can apply more torque than any of the other commonly-used cross-head screwdriver systems due to a complex fluting (mating) configuration. Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) cross-head screwdrivers are still another standard, often improperly referred to as "Japanese Phillips". Compatible screw heads are usually identifiable by a single raised dot or an "X" to one side of the cross slot. This is a screw standard throughout the Asia market and Japanese imports. The driver has a 57° point with a flat tip. Screwdrivers are available, manual, electric, and pneumatic, which have a clutch which slips at a preset torque, allowing screws to be tightened to a specified torque without damaging or overtightening. Cordless drills designed to be used as screwdrivers often have such a clutch. Interchangeable bits allow the use of powered screwdrivers, commonly using an electric or air motor to rotate the bit. Cordless drills with speed and torque control are commonly used as power screwdrivers.
Some manual screwdrivers have a ratchet action whereby the screwdriver blade is locked to the handle for clockwise rotation, but uncoupled for counterclockwise rotation when set for tightening screws; and vice versa for loosening. Manual screw drivers, often colloquially called "Yankee Screwdrivers", with a "spiral ratchet" mechanism to transform linear motion into rotational motion also exist, and predate electric screwdrivers. The user pushes the handle toward the workpiece, causing a pawl in a spiral groove to rotate the shank and the removable bit. The ratchet can be set to rotate left or right with each push, or can be locked so that the tool can be used like a conventional screwdriver. Once very popular, these spiral ratchet drivers, using proprietary bits, have been largely discontinued by manufacturers such as Stanley, although one can still find them at vintage tool auctions. Some companies now offer a modernized version that uses standard 1/4-inch hex shank power tool bits. Since a variety of drill bits are available in this format, it allows the tool to do double duty as a "push drill" or Persian drill. One disadvantage is that if dislocated by slipping out of the screw, the resultant sudden extension of the spring may cause the bit to scratch or otherwise damage the workpiece. Manual straight screwdrivers are commonly abused as improvised substitutes for other tools. Screwdrivers are not designed for these purposes, and such use can damage the tip or bend the shaft, or injure the user when the screwdriver slips or fails. Screwdrivers have been used as stabbing weapons, and are usually tightly restricted in prisons.][
A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread. A screw thread is the essential feature of the screw as a simple machine and also as a fastener. More screw threads are produced each year than any other machine element. The mechanical advantage of a screw thread depends on its lead, which is the linear distance the screw travels in one revolution. In most applications, the lead of a screw thread is chosen so that friction is sufficient to prevent linear motion being converted to rotary, that is so the screw does not slip even when linear force is applied so long as no external rotational force is present. This characteristic is essential to the vast majority of its uses. The tightening of a fastener's screw thread is comparable to driving a wedge into a gap until it sticks fast through friction and slight plastic deformation. Screw threads have several applications: In all of these applications, the screw thread has two main functions: Every matched pair of threads, external and internal, can be described as male and female. For example, a screw has male threads, while its matching hole (whether in nut or substrate) has female threads. This property is called gender. The helix of a thread can twist in two possible directions, which is known as handedness. Most threads are oriented so that the threaded item, when seen from a point of view on the axis through the center of the helix, moves away from the viewer when it is turned in a clockwise direction, and moves towards the viewer when it is turned counterclockwise. This is known as a right-handed (RH) thread, because it follows the right hand grip rule. Threads oriented in the opposite direction are known as left-handed (LH). By common convention, right-handedness is the default handedness for screw threads. Therefore, most threaded parts and fasteners have right-handed threads. Left-handed thread applications include: The term chirality comes from the Greek word for "hand" and concerns handedness in many other contexts. The cross-sectional shape of a thread is often called its form or threadform (also spelled thread form). It may be square, triangular, trapezoidal, or other shapes. The terms form and threadform sometimes refer to all design aspects taken together (cross-sectional shape, pitch, and diameters). Most triangular threadforms are based on an isosceles triangle. These are usually called V-threads or vee-threads because of the shape of the letter V. For 60° V-threads, the isosceles triangle is, more specifically, equilateral. For buttress threads, the triangle is scalene. The theoretical triangle is usually truncated to varying degrees (that is, the tip of the triangle is cut short). A V-thread in which there is no truncation (or a minuscule amount considered negligible) is called a sharp V-thread. Truncation occurs (and is codified in standards) for practical reasons: Ball screws, whose male-female pairs involve bearing balls in between, show that other variations of form are possible. Roller screws use conventional thread forms but introduce an interesting twist on the theme. The angle characteristic of the cross-sectional shape is often called the thread angle. For most V-threads, this is standardized as 60 degrees, but any angle can be used. Lead and pitch are closely related concepts.They can be confused because they are the same for most screws. Lead is the distance along the screw's axis that is covered by one complete rotation of the screw (360°). Pitch is the distance from the crest of one thread to the next. Because the vast majority of screw threadforms are single-start threadforms, their lead and pitch are the same. Single-start means that there is only one "ridge" wrapped around the cylinder of the screw's body. Each time that the screw's body rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of one ridge. "Double-start" means that there are two "ridges" wrapped around the cylinder of the screw's body. Each time that the screw's body rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of two ridges. Another way to express this is that lead and pitch are parametrically related, and the parameter that relates them, the number of starts, very often has a value of 1, in which case their relationship becomes equality. In general, lead is equal to S times pitch, in which S is the number of starts. Whereas metric threads are usually defined by their pitch, that is, how much distance per thread, inch-based standards usually use the reverse logic, that is, how many threads occur per a given distance. Thus inch-based threads are defined in terms of threads per inch (TPI). Pitch and TPI describe the same underlying physical property—merely in different terms. When the inch is used as the unit of measurement for pitch, TPI is the reciprocal of pitch and vice versa. For example, a -20 thread has 20 TPI, which means that its pitch is inch (0.050 in or 1.27 mm). As the distance from the crest of one thread to the next, pitch can be compared to the wavelength of a wave. Another wave analogy is that pitch and TPI are inverses of each other in a similar way that period and frequency are inverses of each other. Coarse threads are those with larger pitch (fewer threads per axial distance), and fine threads are those with smaller pitch (more threads per axial distance). Coarse threads have a larger threadform relative to screw diameter, whereas fine threads have a smaller threadform relative to screw diameter. This distinction is analogous to that between coarse teeth and fine teeth on a saw or file, or between coarse grit and fine grit on sandpaper. The common V-thread standards (ISO 261 and Unified Thread Standard) include a coarse pitch and a fine pitch for each major diameter. For example, -13 belongs to the UNC series (Unified National Coarse) and -20 belongs to the UNF series (Unified National Fine). A common misconception among people not familiar with engineering or machining is that the term coarse implies here lower quality and the term fine implies higher quality. The terms when used in reference to screw thread pitch have nothing to do with the tolerances used (degree of precision) or the amount of craftsmanship, quality, or cost. They simply refer to the size of the threads relative to the screw diameter. Coarse threads can be made accurately, or fine threads inaccurately. There are three characteristic diameters of threads: major diameter, minor diameter, and pitch diameter: industry standards specify minimum (min) and maximum (max) limits for each of these, for all recognized thread sizes. The min limits for external (or bolt, in ISO terminology), and the max limits for internal (nut), thread sizes are there to ensure that threads do not strip at the torque limits for the parent material. The min limits for internal, and max limits for external, threads are there to ensure that the threads fit together. The major diameter of threads is the larger of two extreme diameters delimiting the height of the thread profile, as a cross-sectional view is taken in a plane containing the axis of the threads. For a screw, this is its outside diameter. The major diameter of a nut may not be directly measured, but it may be tested with go/no-go gauges. The major diameter of external threads is normally smaller than the major diameter of the internal threads, if the threads are designed to fit together. But this requirement alone does not guarantee that a bolt and a nut of the same pitch would fit together: the same requirement must separately be made for the minor and pitch diameters of the threads. Besides providing for a clearance between the crest of the bolt threads and the root of the nut threads, we must also ensure that the clearances are not so excessive as to cause the fasteners to fail. The minor diameter is the lower extreme diameter of the thread. Major diameter minus minor diameter, divided by two, equals the height of the thread. The minor diameter of a nut is its inside diameter. The minor diameter of a bolt can be measured with go/no-go gauges or, directly, with an optical comparator. As shown in the figure at right, threads of equal pitch and angle that have matching minor diameters, with differing major and pitch diameters, may appear to fit snugly, but only do so radially; threads that have only major diameters matching (not shown) could also be visualized as not allowing radial movement. The reduced material condition, due to the unused spaces between the threads, must be minimized so as not to overly weaken the fasteners. The pitch diameter (PD, or D2) of a particular thread, internal or external, is the diameter of a cylindrical surface, axially concentric to the thread, which intersects the thread flanks at equidistant points, when viewed in a cross-sectional plane containing the axis of the thread, the distance between these points being exactly one half the pitch distance. Equivalently, a line running parallel to the axis and a distance D2 away from it, the "PD line," slices the sharp-V form of the thread, having flanks coincident with the flanks of the thread under test, at exactly 50% of its height. We have assumed that the flanks have the proper shape, angle, and pitch for the specified thread standard. It is generally unrelated to the major (D) and minor (D1) diameters, especially if the crest and root truncations of the sharp-V form at these diameters are unknown. Everything else being ideal, D2, D, & D1, together, would fully describe the thread form. Knowledge of PD determines the position of the sharp-V thread form, the sides of which coincide with the straight sides of the thread flanks: e.g., the crest of the external thread would truncate these sides a radial displacement D - D2 away from the position of the PD line. Provided that there are moderate non-negative clearances between the root and crest of the opposing threads, and everything else is ideal, if the pitch diameters of a screw and nut are exactly matched, there should be no play at all between the two as assembled, even in the presence of positive root-crest clearances. This is the case when the flanks of the threads come into intimate contact with one another, before the roots and crests do, if at all. However, this ideal condition would in practice only be approximated and would generally require wrench-assisted assembly, possibly causing the galling of the threads. For this reason, some allowance, or minimum difference, between the PDs of the internal and external threads has to generally be provided for, to eliminate the possibility of deviations from the ideal thread form causing interference and to expedite hand assembly up to the length of engagement. Such allowances, or fundamental deviations, as ISO standards call them, are provided for in various degrees in corresponding classes of fit for ranges of thread sizes. At one extreme, no allowance is provided by a class, but the maximum PD of the external thread is specified to be the same as the minimum PD of the internal thread, within specified tolerances, ensuring that the two can be assembled, with some looseness of fit still possible due to the margin of tolerance. A class called interference fit may even provide for negative allowances, where the PD of the screw is greater than the PD of the nut by at least the amount of the allowance. The pitch diameter of external threads is measured by various methods: The way in which male and female fit together, including play and friction, is classified (categorized) in thread standards. Achieving a certain class of fit requires the ability to work within tolerance ranges for dimension (size) and surface finish. Defining and achieving classes of fit are important for interchangeability. Classes include 1, 2, 3 (loose to tight); A (external) and B (internal); and various systems such as H and D limits. To achieve a predictably successful mating of male and female threads and assured interchangeability between males and between females, standards for form, size, and finish must exist and be followed. Standardization of threads is discussed below. Screw threads are almost never made perfectly sharp (no truncation at the crest or root), but instead are truncated, yielding a final thread depth that can be expressed as a fraction of the pitch value. The UTS and ISO standards codify the amount of truncation, including tolerance ranges. A perfectly sharp 60° V-thread will have a depth of thread ("height" from root to crest) equal to .866 of the pitch. This fact is intrinsic to the geometry of an equilateral triangle—a direct result of the basic trigonometric functions. It is independent of measurement units (inch vs mm). However, UTS and ISO threads are not sharp threads. The major and minor diameters delimit truncations on either side of the sharp V, typically about one eighth of the pitch (expressed with the notation 1/8p or .125p), although the actual geometry definition has more variables than that. This means that a full (100%) UTS or ISO thread has a height of around .65p. Threads can be (and often are) truncated a bit more, yielding thread depths of 60% to 75% of the .65p value. This makes the thread-cutting easier (yielding shorter cycle times and longer tap and die life) without a large sacrifice in thread strength. The increased truncation is quantified by the percentage of thread that it leaves in place, where the nominal full thread (where depth is about .65p) is considered 100%. For most applications, 60% to 75% threads are used. To truncate the threads below 100% of nominal, different techniques are used for male and female threads. For male threads, the bar stock is "turned down" somewhat before thread cutting, so that the major diameter is reduced. Likewise, for female threads the stock material is drilled with a slightly larger tap drill, increasing the minor diameter. (The pitch diameter is not affected by these operations, which are only varying the major or minor diameters.) This balancing of truncation versus thread strength is similar to many engineering decisions involving material strength, material cost and weight, and manufacturing cost. Engineers use a number called the safety factor to quantify the increased material thicknesses or other dimension beyond the minimum required for the estimated loads on a mechanical part. Increasing the safety factor generally increases the cost of manufacture and decreases the likelihood of a failure. So the safety factor is often the focus of a business management decision when a mechanical product's cost impacts business performance and failure of the product could jeopardize human life or company reputation. For example, aerospace contractors are particularly rigorous in the analysis and implementation of safety factors, given the incredible damage that failure could do (crashed aircraft or rockets). Material thickness affects not only the cost of manufacture, but also the device's weight and therefore the cost (in fuel) to lift that weight into the sky (or orbit). The cost of failure and the cost of manufacture are both extremely high. Thus the safety factor dramatically impacts company fortunes and is often worth the additional engineering expense required for detailed analysis and implementation. Tapered threads are used on fasteners and pipe. A common example of a fastener with a tapered thread is a wood screw. The threaded pipes used in some plumbing installations for the delivery of fluids under pressure have a threaded section that is slightly conical. Examples are the NPT and BSP series. The seal provided by a threaded pipe joint is created when a tapered externally threaded end is tightened into an end with internal threads. Normally a good seal requires the application of a separate sealant in the joint, such as thread seal tape, or a liquid or paste pipe sealant such as pipe dope, however some threaded pipe joints do not require a separate sealant. Standardization of screw threads has evolved since the early nineteenth century to facilitate compatibility between different manufacturers and users. The standardization process is still ongoing; in particular there are still (otherwise identical) competing metric and inch-sized thread standards widely used. Standard threads are commonly identified by short letter codes (M, UNC, etc.) which also form the prefix of the standardized designations of individual threads. Additional product standards identify preferred thread sizes for screws and nuts, as well as corresponding bolt head and nut sizes, to facilitate compatibility between spanners (wrenches) and other tools. The most common threads in use are the ISO metric screw threads (M) for most purposes and BSP threads (R, G) for pipes. These were standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1947. Although metric threads were mostly unified in 1898 by the International Congress for the standardization of screw threads, separate metric thread standards were used in France, Germany, and Japan, and the Swiss had a set of threads for watches. In particular applications and certain regions, threads other than the ISO metric screw threads remain commonly used, sometimes because of special application requirements, but mostly for reasons of backwards compatibility: (many older cameras use ¼" BSW or ⅜" BSW threads, which in low stress applications, and if machined to wide tolerances, are for practical purposes compatible with the UNC threads) Standardization of screw threads began many centuries ago, the first time a craftsman who carved and filed screw threads ever tried to make two screws, or two mated pairs of screw and nut, come out alike. However, in craft production of individual threads or mated pairs of threads, interchangeability was not a requirement; custom fitting was the norm. Therefore, the first historically important intra-company standardization of screw threads began with Henry Maudslay around 1800, when the modern screw-cutting lathe made interchangeable V-thread machine screws a practical commodity. During the next 40 years, standardization continued to occur on the intra-company and inter-company level. No doubt many mechanics of the era participated in this zeitgeist; Joseph Clement was one of those whom history has noted. In 1841, Joseph Whitworth created a design that, through its adoption by many British railroad companies, became a national standard for the United Kingdom called British Standard Whitworth. During the 1840s through 1860s, this standard was often used in the United States and Canada as well, in addition to myriad intra- and inter-company standards. In April 1864, William Sellers presented a paper to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, proposing a new standard to replace the U.S.'s poorly standardized screw thread practice. Sellers simplified the Whitworth design by adopting a thread profile of 60° and a flattened tip (in contrast to Whitworth's 55° angle and rounded tip). The 60° angle was already in common use in America, but Sellers's system promised to make it and all other details of threadform consistent. The Sellers thread, easier for ordinary machinists to produce, became an important standard in the U.S. during the late 1860s and early 1870s, when it was chosen as a standard for work done under U.S. government contracts, and it was also adopted as a standard by highly influential railroad industry corporations such as the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Other firms adopted it, and it soon became a national standard for the U.S., later becoming generally known as the United States Standard thread (USS thread). Over the next 30 years the standard was further defined and extended and evolved into a set of standards including National Coarse (NC), National Fine (NF), and National Pipe Taper (NPT). Meanwhile, in Britain, the British Association screw threads were also developed and refined. During this era, in continental Europe, the British and American threadforms were well known, but also various metric thread standards were evolving, which usually employed 60° profiles. Some of these evolved into national or quasi-national standards. They were mostly unified in 1898 by the International Congress for the standardization of screw threads at Zurich, which defined the new international metric thread standards as having the same profile as the Sellers thread, but with metric sizes. Efforts were made in the early 20th century to convince the governments of the U.S., UK, and Canada to adopt these international thread standards and the metric system in general, but they were defeated with arguments that the capital cost of the necessary retooling would drive some firms from profit to loss and hamper the economy. (The mixed use of dueling inch and metric standards has since cost much, much more, but the bearing of these costs has been more distributed across national and global economies rather than being borne up front by particular governments or corporations, which helps explain the lobbying efforts.)][ Sometime between 1912 and 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) created an "SAE series" of screw thread sizes to augment the USS standard. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, engineers found that ensuring the reliable interchangeability of screw threads was a multi-faceted and challenging task that was not as simple as just standardizing the major diameter and pitch for a certain thread. It was during this era that more complicated analyses made clear the importance of variables such as pitch diameter and surface finish. A tremendous amount of engineering work was done throughout World War I and the following interwar period in pursuit of reliable interchangeability. Classes of fit were standardized, and new ways of generating and inspecting screw threads were developed (such as production thread-grinding machines and optical comparators). Therefore, in theory, one might expect that by the start of World War II, the problem of screw thread interchangeability would have already been completely solved. Unfortunately, this proved to be false. Intranational interchangeability was widespread, but international interchangeability was less so. Problems with lack of interchangeability among American, Canadian, and British parts during World War II led to an effort to unify the inch-based standards among these closely allied nations, and the Unified Thread Standard was adopted by the Screw Thread Standardization Committees of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States on November 18, 1949 in Washington, D.C., with the hope that they would be adopted universally. (The original UTS standard may be found in ASA (now ANSI) publication, Vol. 1, 1949.) UTS consists of Unified Coarse (UNC), Unified Fine (UNF), Unified Extra Fine (UNEF) and Unified Special (UNS). The standard was not widely taken up in the UK, where many companies continued to use the UK's own British Association (BA) standard. However, internationally, the metric system was eclipsing inch-based measurement units. In 1947, the ISO was founded; and in 1960, the metric-based International System of Units (abbreviated SI from the French Système International) was created. With continental Europe and much of the rest of the world turning to SI and the ISO metric screw thread, the UK gradually leaned in the same direction. The ISO metric screw thread is now the standard that has been adopted worldwide and has mostly displaced all former standards, including UTS. In the U.S., where UTS is still prevalent, over 40% of products contain at least some ISO metric screw threads. The UK has completely abandoned its commitment to UTS in favour of the ISO metric threads, and Canada is in between. Globalization of industries produces market pressure in favor of phasing out minority standards. A good example is the automotive industry; U.S. auto parts factories long ago developed the ability to conform to the ISO standards, and today very few parts for new cars retain inch-based sizes, regardless of being made in the U.S.][ Even today, over a half century since the UTS superseded the USS and SAE series, companies still sell hardware with designations such as "USS" and "SAE" to convey that it is of inch sizes as opposed to metric. Most of this hardware is in fact made to the UTS, but the labeling and cataloging terminology is not always precise. In American engineering drawings, ANSI Y14.6 defines standards for indicating threaded parts. Parts are indicated by their nominal diameter (the nominal major diameter of the screw threads), pitch (number of threads per inch), and the class of fit for the thread. For example, “.750-10UNC-2A” is male (A) with a nominal major diameter of 0.750 in, 10 threads per inch, and a class-2 fit; “.500-20UNF-1B” would be female (B) with a 0.500 in nominal major diameter, 20 threads per inch, and a class-1 fit. An arrow points from this designation to the surface in question. There are many ways to generate a screw thread, including the traditional subtractive types (e.g., various kinds of cutting [single-pointing, taps and dies, die heads, milling]; molding; casting [die casting, sand casting]; forming and rolling; grinding; and occasionally lapping to follow the other processes); newer additive techniques; and combinations thereof.
A nut is a type of fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used opposite a mating bolt to fasten a stack of parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretch of the bolt, and compression of the parts. In applications where vibration or rotation may work a nut loose, various locking mechanisms may be employed: Adhesives, safety pins or lockwire, nylon inserts, or slightly oval-shaped threads. The most common shape is hexagonal, for similar reasons as the bolt head - 6 sides give a good granularity of angles for a tool to approach from (good in tight spots), but more (and smaller) corners would be vulnerable to being rounded off. Other specialized shapes exist for certain needs, such as wing nuts for finger adjustment and captive nuts for inaccessible areas. Nuts are graded with strength ratings compatible with their respective bolts; for example, an ISO property class 10 nut will be able to support the bolt proof strength load of an ISO property class 10.9 bolt without stripping. Likewise, an SAE class 5 nut can support the proof load of an SAE class 5 bolt, and so on. A wide variety of nuts exists, from household hardware versions to specialized industry-specific designs that are engineered to meet various technical standards. Note that flat (wrench) sizes differ from industry standards. For example, wrench sizes of fastener used in Japanese built cars comply with JIS automotive standard. Nut blanking Nut threading In normal use, a nut-and-bolt joint holds together because the bolt is under a constant tensile stress called the preload. The preload pulls the nut threads against the bolt threads, and the nut face against the bearing surface, with a constant force, so that the nut cannot rotate without overcoming the friction between these surfaces. If the joint is subjected to vibration, however, the preload increases and decreases with each cycle of movement. If the minimum preload during the vibration cycle is not enough to hold the nut firmly in contact with the bolt and the bearing surface, then the nut is likely to become loose. Specialist locking nuts exist to prevent this problem, but sometimes it is sufficient to add a second nut. For this technique to be reliable, each nut must be tightened to the correct torque. The inner nut is tightened to about a quarter to a half of the torque of the outer nut. It is then held in place by a wrench while the outer nut is tightened on top using the full torque. This arrangement causes the two nuts to push on each other, creating a tensile stress in the short section of the bolt that lies between them. Even when the main joint is vibrated, the stress between the two nuts remains constant, thus holding the nut threads in constant contact with the bolt threads and preventing self-loosening. When the joint is assembled correctly, the outer nut bears the full tension of the joint. The inner nut functions merely to add a small additional force to the outer nut and does not need to be as strong, so a thin nut (also called a jam nut) can be used.
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The engineering field requires an understanding of core concepts including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, and electricity. Mechanical engineers use these core principles along with tools like computer-aided engineering, and product lifecycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, heating and cooling systems, transport systems, aircraft, watercraft, robotics, medical devices, weapons, and others.


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