MOST COMMON USES AND FUNCTIONS OF SOCKET HEAD CAP SCREWS
Socket head cap screws look like any other threaded fastener when they’re facing away from you. It’s only when they’re flipped that you realise you’re holding something quite different. That screw cap isn’t marked by a standard slot or a self-centering cross. No, this fastener type employs a socket in place of a familiar drive interfacing ridge. Just why these hex-shaped socket are heads so popular?
Socket Head Cap Screws: Functions Explained
If someone disassembles a complex piece of machinery, they’ll instantly gain an insight into how many parts are required to assemble that machine. There are numerous surfaces to attach, yet little space to make them join because product-compactness means everything. Socket head cap screws are the solution here, for side-applied forces work well in this scenario. A wrench slips in at an angle, the six-sided fastening tool engages solidly with the indented opening, and the necessary fastening force is easily applied.
Manufacturing Applications
The assembly lines of today use tools that have no equivalent outside of that production facility. Basically, accuracy and speed are the biggest possible processing advantages in here. Special tools, either pneumatically operated or electrically operated, rapidly anchor each of a hundred different bolts and screws in place, at which point the assembling part moves on to the next workstation. The socket head cap screw has been widely adopted on the assembly line because of that ability to accept side-applied drive force, plus a capacity to resist wrench slippage. These are essential functions in an industrial complex where every extraneous motion equals a precious lost productivity second.
Addressing Functionality Offenders
The hex-shaped indents in these fastener heads mean torque wrench energy can be turned all the way up without causing tooling slippage. Again, this feature benefits the assembly sector, but it can also quickly become a drawback if the fasteners aren’t sourced from a top-notch parts distributor. Each screw must be boxed and stored properly, then tool mating is assured. If they’re not carefully packaged, debris quickly finds its way into the shaped openings. Once this problem takes hold, the fasteners no longer engage correctly with their accompanying wrenches. That’s an unacceptable issue, especially when the fasteners are bound for a manufacturing application.
Unlike notched screw heads and self-centering cross-heads, socket head cap screws readily adapt to some dramatic fastening angles. Even ninety-degrees of tightening force, as applied by an expert assembly worker, won’t hamper this screw type, not when an equally matched tool locks perfectly against all six sides of the hex opening.
Get in touch
Address:
TCI Fasteners – Topcope
13 Slater Parade, Keilor East VIC 3033 Australia
Telephone: (03) 9336 0155