The world may want to take a closer look when a wood screw beats out high-tech gadgets to capture top honors for fastener innovation.
Judges at the International Hardware Fair in Cologne,
Germany, considered the patented design features of the HECO-UNIX full thread screw and ? in the build-a-better-mousetrap spirit we love! ? awarded
first prize to the HECO-Schrauben firm of Schramberg,
Germany. Second- and third-place prizes were awarded to Vinzenz Harrer for the Sherpa-Verbinder engineered timber connector and to Chervon Europe for
the rechargeable Hammerhead power hammer.
The creators of the HECO-UNIX screw implemented a subtle thread design that features a reduction in thread pitch from the screw’s tip to its head.
This ensures tighter contact between two wood components with the added, stabilizing benefit of continuous thread engagement in both pieces of wood.
What is illustrated beautifully in the company’s video is how the change in the thread pitch (space between the spirals) serves to draw
the distal wood component forward tightly to the proximal component. (Typically, a partial thread screw has been used to produce this clamping effect.)
The more obvious design innovations of the self-tapping HECO-UNIX screw are the optional saw tooth threads at the tip portion and the patented milled recesses at the throat. The unique milling at the countersunk head helps the screw to be driven and countersunk tightly and efficiently while still allowing it to be used with a hinge or other machined hardware fitting.
More notably, the milling at the throat prevents splitting when the screw is driven straight into wood, according to GlobalFastenerNews.com, the online outlet of Portland, Oregon-based Fastener Industry News.
The fan-like edges produced by this milling appear to slightly crush the wood fibers during the last few rotations of the screw as the head drives in. By contrast, other countersunk heads driven into plain wood press the fibers downward, then forever after contend with the natural tendency for wood to expand back to its original shape. Or, if driven into the wood with too much enthusiasm, a plain screw head can splinter and break the wood fibers of the surface as it descends far beneath the top surface, producing an unattractive and weaker attachment.
With the HECO-Unix screw driven to a level countersink, over time, it would be expected that the wood fibers crushed by the milled edges would naturally expand slightly into the machined voids in the countersunk head, further securing or stabilizing the screw.
The HECO-Unix product lines are produced with Pozi drive and T drive heads in bright zinc coated steel, with the option of saw tooth threads. The company also makes a stainless steel, oval head, T drive cladding screw.
