Thread

A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread. A screw thread is the essential feature of the screw as a simple machine and also as a fastener. More screw threads are produced each year than any other machine element

The mechanical advantage of a screw thread depends on its lead, which is the linear distance the screw travels in one revolution. In most applications, the lead of a screw thread is chosen so that friction is sufficient to prevent linear motion being converted to rotary, that is so the screw does not slip even when linear force is applied so long as no external rotational force is present. This characteristic is essential to the vast majority of its uses. The tightening of a fastener’s screw thread is comparable to driving a wedge into a gap until it sticks fast through friction and slight plastic deformation.

Screw threads have several applications:

• Fastening
  • Fasteners such as wood screws, machine screws, nuts and bolts.
  • Connecting threaded pipes and hoses to each other and to caps and fixtures.
• Gear reduction via worm drives.
• Moving objects linearly by converting rotary motion to linear motion, as in the leadscrew of a jack.
• Measuring by correlating linear motion to rotary motion (and simultaneously amplifying it), as in a micrometer.
• Both moving objects linearly and simultaneously measuring the movement, combining the two aforementioned functions, as in a lead screw of a lathe.

In all of these applications, the screw thread has two main functions:

• It converts rotary motion into linear motion.
• It prevents linear motion without the corresponding rotation.

Every matched pair of threads, external and internal, can be described as male and female. For example, a screw has male threads, while its matching hole (whether in nut or substrate) has female threads. This property is called gender.

The helix of a thread can twist in two possible directions, which is known as handedness. Most threads are oriented so that the threaded item, when seen from a point of view on the axis through the center of the helix, moves away from the viewer when it is turned in a clockwise direction, and moves towards the viewer when it is turned counterclockwise. This is known as a right-handed (RH) thread, because it follows the right hand grip rule. Threads oriented in the opposite direction are known as left-handed (LH).

The cross-sectional shape of a thread is often called its form or threadform (also spelled thread form). It may be square, triangular, trapezoidal, or other shapes. The terms form and thread form sometimes refer to all design aspects taken together (cross-sectional shape, pitch, and diameters).

Most triangular thread forms are based on an isosceles triangle. These are usually called V-threads or vee-threads because of the shape of the letter V. For 60° V-threads, the isosceles triangle is, more specifically, equilateral. For buttress threads, the triangle is scalene.

The theoretical triangle is usually truncated to varying degrees (that is, the tip of the triangle is cut short). A V-thread in which there is no truncation (or a minuscule amount considered negligible) is called a sharp V-thread. Truncation occurs (and is codified in standards) for practical reasons:

• The thread-cutting or thread-forming tool cannot practically have a perfectly sharp point; at some level of magnification, the point is truncated, even if the truncation is very small.
• Too-small truncation is undesirable anyway, because:
  • The cutting or forming tool’s edge will break too easily;
  • The part or fastener’s thread crests will have burrs upon cutting, and will be too susceptible to additional future burring resulting from dents (nicks);
  • The roots and crests of mating male and female threads need clearance to ensure that the sloped sides of the V meet properly despite (a) error in pitch diameter and (b) dirt and nick-induced burrs.
  • The point of the thread form adds little strength to the thread.

Ball screws, whose male-female pairs involve bearing balls in between, show that other variations of form are possible. Roller screws use conventional thread forms but introduce an interesting twist on the theme.

The angle characteristic of the cross-sectional shape is often called the thread angle. For most V-threads, this is standardized as 60 degrees, but any angle can be used.

Lead  and pitch are closely related concepts. They can be confused because they are the same for most screws. Lead is the distance along the screw’s axis that is covered by one complete rotation of the screw (360°). Pitch is the distance from the crest of one thread to the next. Because the vast majority of screw thread forms are single-start thread forms, their lead and pitch are the same. Single-start means that there is only one “ridge” wrapped around the cylinder of the screw’s body. Each time that the screw’s body rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of one ridge. “Double-start” means that there are two “ridges” wrapped around the cylinder of the screw’s body. Each time that the screw’s body rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of two ridges. Another way to express this is that lead and pitch are parametrically related, and the parameter that relates them, the number of starts, very often has a value of 1, in which case their relationship becomes equality. In general, lead is equal to S times pitch, in which S is the number of starts.

There are three characteristic diameters of threads: major diameter, minor diameter, and pitch diameter: industry standards specify minimum (min) and maximum (max) limits for each of these, for all recognized thread sizes. The min limits for external (or bolt, in ISO terminology), and the max limits for internal (nut), thread sizes are there to ensure that threads do not strip at the tensile strength limits for the parent material. The min limits for internal, and max limits for external, threads are there to ensure that the threads fit together.

The way in which male and female fit together, including play and friction, is classified (categorized) in thread standards. Achieving a certain class of fit requires the ability to work within tolerance ranges for dimension (size) and surface finish. Defining and achieving classes of fit are important for interchangeability. Classes include 1, 2, 3 (loose to tight); A (external) and B (internal); and various systems such as H and D limits.

To achieve a predictably successful mating of male and female threads and assured interchangeability between males and between females, standards for form, size, and finish must exist and be followed.

Standardization of screw threads has evolved since the early nineteenth century to facilitate compatibility between different manufacturers and users. The standardization process is still ongoing; in particular there are still (otherwise identical) competing metric and inch-sized thread standards widely used.Standard threads are commonly identified by short letter codes (M, UNC, etc.) which also form the prefix of the standardized designations of individual threads.

Additional product standards identify preferred thread sizes for screws and nuts, as well as corresponding bolt head and nut sizes, to facilitate compatibility between spanners (wrenches) and other tools.

The most common threads in use are the ISO metric screw threads for most purposes and BSP threads  for pipes. These were standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1947. Although metric threads were mostly unified in 1898 by the International Congress for the standardization of screw threads, separate metric thread standards were used in France, Germany, and Japan, and the Swiss had a set of threads for watches.

Source: Wikipedia