Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Self Tapping Screws And Other Linear Actuators

By Bonnie Contreras


Self tapping screws are also called self drilling screws. They get their name because they drill a hole in the metal as you are driving it to hold two or more pieces of metal together without jiggling them around to make sure the holes line up. This is particularly desirable if you are mounting, say, a television screen on a metal frame, or placing a sheet of corrugated metal on the back side of a set of shelving.

These gadgets are really clever. You get the job done without needing extra pairs of hands or starting any arguments. They are also used to mount security cameras and in dental and other types of surgery. Dental implants are a type of linear actuator.

Self drilling screws may have either crosshead (Phillips) heads or plain ones. Crossheads give the screw more more leverage when being driven through metal. You can see how important it is to make sure you have the correct tool for the job at hand. Such a tiny modification in form can translate to a significant change in function.

The great majority of screws are right-handed, or clockwise in threading. To loosen it, turn the screwdriver counterclockwise; to loosen it, go the other way. Everybody remembers lefty-loosey, righty-tighty. The same rule applies when opening and closing jars or for controlling the radiator.

There are a wide variety of screw types. The distance between threads along the shaft, for example, is called the pitch. The metal from which they are made is also a factor; this can be steel, zinc, copper, nickel, brass or chromium. They can have flat or round heads and one or two grooves in the head. The ones with two grooves that are at right angles to each other are called Phillips head or cross head screws.

The guy who invented the ingenious screw was named Henry Phillips. He purchased the rights to the design from his pal, John P. Thompson. He tweaked the design a bit and then had it patented. He first sold the device to General Motors, who used it in the Cadillac. Phillips sold the patent in 1945 to Ford Motor Company for a sum of five million dollars. This is a huge amount of money today and a huge amount of moolah way back then.

A left-hand screw is used for something that is going to encounter severe counterclockwise forces, such as the left pedal of a bicycle. In this case, ordinary screws would come undone. Any linear actuator with helically arranged threads may legitimately be termed a screw. Archimedes' screw water pump and ship's propellers are examples.

It is really fun to watch self tapping screws in action. You can get quite a lot of work done in very little time, a satisfying prospect. Juggling two or more pieces of material together and trying to get the screw to hold can be tricky and exasperating. In many ways, simple devices are better than more complicated ones. There are a number of varieties of screw. They have different diameters and different distances between individual threads. They are manufactured from several different types of metal, including copper, nickel, chromium, brass, zinc and steel. Another important difference is in the construction of the screw's head, whether it is flat, round, plain or Phillips headed.




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