and it made me wonder.
Just how many different types of screw heads do we need? How many exist just for non-technical resons (tamper prevention licensing or trademark issues etc)
How many have physically practical rerasons to exist? (easier for automated manufacturing, less chance of stripping or fouling with corrosion etc)
Could we function well enough if we streamlined to only one or two types so we don’t all need buttloads of driver heads? If so, which would be best?
Speaking as a repair person who has had to fix things after some untrained knucklehead got inside and bitched things up, the answer to ‘how many do we need’ is, apparently: more.
I was told by a person at the factory that Volvo saved 4 million dollars a year in repairs to new cars when they switched from Phillips to Torx. Torx bits don’t skate out of the screw, Phillips do.
I enjoy finding Torx fasteners cause I have torx up to T40…damn, they go up to t100.
on further research…the spanner, and the Triple square screw(driver)…not to mention Tri-Wing and TorqSet… :smack: :smack: and i take things apart for fun…I’ve see all of them except the Tri-Wing-Thing… :dubious:
I don’t know what it’s called but there is an offset “phillips” the military used for titanium screws. It was designed so you could recognize the screw. Next time you look at an SR-71 up close look at the screws.
By design, I might add. Phillips screws were designed to assist mass production by being a) self-centering and b) popping the bit out before overtorquing occurs. Great for one-time rapid assembly; not so great for repeated assembly and disassembly.
The problem is when the bit skates out, and damages the paint or interior on a brand new car being built. Then the car has to go offline to be repaired before it can be shipped.
Torx screws with a torque limiting installation tool is a much better solution.
I was always told that since the Robertson square screw was Canadian it was a nasty American plot to have the inferior Phillips screw be the “default” as American screw makers resisted a Canadian product.
I guess I was told wrong.
Dang. Maybe Americans aren’t evil, even when they’re screwing you.
Speaking as an untrained knucklehead who can usually fix things if I can get in to do so, and who often has more trouble getting in to fix than in fixing, the answer to “how many do we need” is, apparently: undecided. Unless you have statistics that show whether there is a net gain or loss to society due to amateur repair, which I’m guessing you don’t. And your experience is of course limited to instances of people not being able to repair their own stuff, since otherwise they don’t bring it to you.
