One of the oldest methods of fastening things together is the simple screw. Its sheer simplicity is the reason for its success, with it being used in its millions every day Worldwide.

Its uses vary tremendously from stainless steel precision machine screws that have hexagonal fixings in the top of them, enabling them to be used as hi-torque fastenings in the aircraft industry, whereby a screw thread fastening maybe needed for speed of access, yet it needs to be able to be fastened very tightly to put up with the rigors and vibration of a flight.

These types of fixings are at the wholesale 2H hex heavy nut end of the market and may even be required to be shipped with stress test paperwork to ensure that they are certified for use in aircraft.

Other common uses of screws are dry lining screws that are widely used in the building industry in North America and Europe, with different dry lining screws being available for use in different applications such as wood or brick. These dry lining screws can either come as a normal box of screws, or more often they come as collated screws on a plastic belt for use with a collated electric screwdriver that allows the dry lining screws to be put in very quickly with just one hand.

Probably the widest use of screws though is the humble wood screw, which comes in a massive range of types and sizes, and in varying materials from brass, to stainless steel, depending on the application they are needed for.

Wood Screws come in two varieties, self tapping screws and non-self tapping screws. A self tapping screw does exactly what it says and needs no pilot hole drilling in the wood prior to inserting the screw. Where as a normal screw will need a pilot hole of a smaller diameter drilling in the wood first before the screw can be inserted.

Megosztás a facebookon

The process used when fastening to concrete has basically remained unchanged over the years. Although there are epoxy/chemical type anchors in use today, the majority of anchors rely on the same principles that were developed many years ago.

Fastening to concrete is unique compared to other fastening applications, such as fastening two pieces of metal together by using a screw or a bolt and nut. Concrete anchors of any type are much more difficult to use and install correctly.

The concept of fastening something to a solid base material is completely different than for almost any other type of fastening application. Concrete is the most widely used base hex nut with hole suppliers in the world for the last 2,000 years and probably will remain so for the next 2,000 years due to its simplicity, strength, versatility and the abundance of the ingredients used to make it.

The process with which we fasten to concrete is simple:

1. Make a hole in the concrete
2. Put something in the hole to take up the space created
3. Expand the material in the hole via a nail, screw or setting tool

We are making a hole with a certain amount of volume and then inserting more material into the hole. This increased volume of material that pushes against the interior wall of the hole will create friction. This friction is how most mechanical concrete anchors obtain their holding values.
All the mechanical type concrete anchors work on the same basic principle. Drill a specific size hole, insert the anchor, and expand the anchor larger than the hole in order to make it difficult for the anchor to be pulled out of the hole. Concrete anchors are designed to go into a hole in concrete and not come out.

Megosztás a facebookon