Threaded Fasteners

Creating a shape is the fundamental to machine design for functioning and manufacturing.
Most machine assemblies have number of components fastened or joined together either
permanently by welding or temporarily (detachably) by screws, nuts and bolts etc. Because
there are such a large variety of part geometries to be assembled, that there are quite a
variety of removable fasteners exists than in any other machine element. Fasteners based
upon screw threads are the most common, so it is important that their performance and
the limitations of the fastened assemblies are well understood.

There are two distinct uses for screw threads and they usually demand different behaviour
from the threads:

a. threaded fastener similar to a nut and bolt which joins a number of components
together again by transforming rotary motion into linear motion, though in this case
the translation is small, and.

b. power screw such as a lathe leadscrew or the

screw in a car lifting jack which transforms rotary
motion into substantial linear motion (or vice versa
in certain applications)

A typical hexagonal headed bolt and nut are shown in (i). The major diameter of the thread
is mentioned as size of the thread. The diameter of the bolt shank is mostly same as the
thread size. The diameter of a 'reduced' shank bolt in (ii) is less than the root diameter of
thread with filleted transition. This reduces stress
concentration, making it a bolt of uniform strength;
beneficial in dynamic loading (fatigue) applications. The
assembly includes a washer between nut and the face of the
gripped material under the nut. It mainly distributes the
load on the surface and protect against damage. <?>

A screw (iii) is similar to a bolt - the names are often loosely

interchanged - though strictly a bolt is equipped with a nut
which is rotated to tighten the assembly, whereas a screw is itself
rotated and engages with a threaded (or ‘tapped’) hole in a
stationary component such as an engine block casting. The screw
illustrated has no shank, being threaded right up to the head. Many
variety of screw head and end forms are available.

The ‘socket headed’ screws shown here are tightened by a hexagonal

(‘allen’) key or driver rather than by a spanner.

Threaded Fasteners– MD-1, S. R. Patel

A stud (iv) has no head and is threaded at both ends. (The ends
may not be of same size and/or length). One end is screwed
into one of the components usually before the second
component is assembled. The sketch also illustrates:

o a clearance hole through a component, typically 15-20%

larger than the bolt/stud size for easier assembly and to
clear any fillet like geometrical
interference;

o a tapped hole which is drilled

smaller than the root or minor
diameter of the thread - see the
enlargement (v) below;

o the tapped hole shown in (iv) is

blind, extends deeper than the stud and ends in a conical point of 120° approximately
(the drill tip angle) while it is through tapping in (v);

o a stud's depth of engagement is typically 1.25 to 1.5 times its size;

o a threaded length sufficient for the nut to be tightened whilst

leaving a couple of threads 'exposed' ( i.e. not engaged ) to
allow for variations in thicknesses of the assembled
components (though too much exposed thread should be
avoided);

o a thinner 'locknut' may be jammed against the ordinary nut to

prevent against loosening due to vibration. Thread locking may
also be attained by thread glue, spring washer, lock washers, or
lock nuts shown to the right.

Screws may be supplied complete with captive lock

washer to ease assembly - they are then known as
'sems' and they come in many forms, including self-
tapping screws for joining sheet metal.

Salient geometric features of the thread are illustrated

in (v). The distance between similar points on adjacent
threads is the thread's pitch.

The load on the bolt Fb passes from the nut gradually through the engaged threads into the
bolt, however the whole load must pass through transverse cross-sections X-X at the exposed
threads outside the nut. Neglecting stress concentration, the tensile stress in way of the
exposed threads is therefore:

Threaded Fasteners– MD-1, S. R. Patel

(1) σ = Fb / As where As is the stress area - a function of thread size and geometry.

Since the stress area is less than the cross- sectional area of a normal (non-reduced) shank
along with shear and crushing, the threads above the grip would be the most critically
loaded part of the assembly - this is why failure of threaded joints occurs most commonly
close to the nut face.

A thread is basically a wedge

that magnifies applied force,
wound around a cylinder. It
can be imagined as a piece of
string helically wound around
a cylinder (or around a conical
frustum in the case of pipe
threads.). When a point (say an insect) travels on that string, it will cover axial distance
depending upon the helix angle. Similarly, a nut on a screw thread is rotated by one turn,
it travels along the screw a distance known as the lead L. Developing one turn of the
thread at the mean diameter dm (the average of major and minor diameters ) gives the
lead angle (or helix angle) λ as tan λ = L /π dm .

For a thread type, the distance between two successive peak or valley is the pitch p. Power
screws may employ multiple threads, or starts, so L = p∗number of starts as illustrated.
Fasteners on the other hand are almost invariably single start (L = p). They are also right
handed to avoid confusion in tightening, though LH screws appear in turnbuckles and in
certain bicycle parts where the prevailing torque would tend to loosen RH fasteners.

Thread geometry
A thread 'system' is a set of basic thread
proportions which is scaled to different
screw sizes to define the thread geometry.
Whitworth, Sellers, British Standard Pipe
(BSP) are just three of the many systems
which proliferated before the adoption of the ISO Metric thread system. Since this last is
now universal, it alone is examined here.

The basic profile of ISO Metric threads is built up from contiguous equiangular triangles of
height h disposed symmetrically about a pitch line which becomes the pitch cylinder of
diameter d2 when the profile is rotated about the axis to form the thread. The distance
between adjacent triangles - the pitch - is p = 2/√3h. The tips of the triangles are truncated
by h/8 to form the major diameter (size) d of the thread, and the bases are truncated by
h/4 to form the minor diameter d1. It follows that d1 = d-5/4h= d-1.08p. This leads to the
rule of thumb for suitable tapping size drills in normal materials: dtapping=d - p.

Threaded Fasteners– MD-1, S. R. Patel

The basic profile becomes a maximum material profile for external threads ( on screws ) and
internal threads ( in nuts ) through the use of suitable radii and tolerances, so that there is
adequate clearance when
internal and external
threads engage. The
relatively large radius at the
minor diameter of external threads tends to equalise the strengths of external and internal
threads. IS 4218 sets out comprehensive geometric data including fits and tolerances,
however knowledge of these many details is not required here.

At its most basic, a thread definition comprises a combination of size and corresponding
pitch. Thus M14 x 1.25 refers to a Metric thread whose major diameter d is 14 mm and
whose pitch p is 1.25 mm. The stress area of an external thread corresponds to a
diameter ds = d - 13
/12 ·h, that is As = π/4 · (d - 0.9382 p)2. Other salient features follow
from the underlying geometry.

Most threaded fasteners in general engineering are manufactured to the ISO Metric Coarse
Pitch (First Preference) Series outlined in Table 1.* Fine pitch and constant pitch series are
used for special purposes such as IC engine spark plugs and externally threaded thin-walled
pipes.

The 60° thread form is not suitable for power screws

which transform motion and which therefore must
have high efficiency. The 'square' thread offers the
best efficiency but is generally impractical. The
'Acme' thread form offers the best compromise between efficiency, ease of manufacture,
assembly and wear take-up using split nuts. The stress area of Acme threads is based upon
the average of the minor and mean diameters: ds = d – 3/4·p·=

*Table 1 ISO Metric Coarse

Pitch (First Preference Series)
nom pitch stress hexagon
size d p area As a/c flats s
mm mm mm2 mm
2 0.4 2.07 4
2.5 0.45 3.39 5
3 0.5 5.03 5.5
4 0.7 8.78 7
5 0.8 14.2 8
6 1 20.1 10
8 1.25 36.6 13
10 1.5 58.0 16
12 1.75 84.3 18
16 2 157 24
20 2.5 245 30
24 3 353 36
‘Evolution of threaded fastener’
30 3.5 561 46
36 4 817 55

Threaded Fasteners– MD-1, S. R. Patel